The Albert Rigby trophy race had to be moved at late notice from Sutton Macclesfield to Simister.

Dave Evans reports:

Overcast skies with a slight breeze greeted the fourteen strong field of walkers with all but Adrian Edwards setting off together. Adrian gave the main body of the field a 5 minute start. Tony Bell had a bit of a cold (too late to affect my handicapping!) so let Roy Gunnett tow the field along with Dan Maskell, Tony himself and Glyn Jones in close contention. Joe Hardy was in a bit of a void at 5k with nearly a minute between him and his pursuers and a gap of 47 seconds to the athlete ahead of him. Four others, Dave Hoben (Surrey Walking club), Pat Evans, Ian Hilditch and Phil McCullagh were all in close proximity to each other with Sailash Shah and John Crahan bringing up the rear of the 10k group.

Andrea Lennon had chosen to walk just the opening 5k stage with John Payn opting for the same distance. They walked times of 42 mins 59 and 44 mins 35 respectively.

The second 5k saw Adrian pull through to post a comfortable final time of 59 mins 32 with Tony Bell a decent 65 mins 56. Roy Gunnett clocked 66 mins 08 for one of his fastest 10k’s in recent times and Dan Maskell walked with some style to record a good 66 mins 30. Glyn Jones walked well but also found himself in a gap leading the next big group by nearly 2 minutes. He walked a time of 67 minutes 03.

The next five did some decent racing and were rewarded with times of 69 19(Joe Hardy), 69 35(Phil McCullagh), 69 36(Dave Hoben), 69 41(Pat Evans) and 69 52(Ian Hilditch). Sailash walked a steady 71 04 with John Crahan maintaining a decent pace with 72 mins  59.

The handicap results produced a win for Phil McCullagh ( a great second 5k), with Pat Evans 2nd and Ian Hilditch 3rd. The remaining positions were:- 4th Joe Hardy, 5th Dan Maskell, 6th Adrian Edwards, 7th Roy Gunnett, 8th Sailash Shah, 9th Tony Bell, 10th John Crahan.

Chris Pearce presented the Albert Rigby Shield to Phil MCullagh.

STOP PRESS : Back in Crete we’ve procured a spare key to our PO Box so I’ll be able to post Roy’s thoughts and his official results sheets.

FURTHER STOP PRESS: The Dick Maxwell Memorial race and pre-Xmas shindig has been moved from November 30 to December 7 – still on the Nightmare course, as best I know!

Once again thanks to Greg Smith for the excellent photos.