Sunday saw the historic running of the Liverpool and District Cross Country Championships having been going since 1892, held at Clarke Gardens in Speke.
The St Helens Sutton A.C. team knew that if everyone was fit on the day they had a chance of upsetting home favourites Liverpool Harriers and winning the team title for the first time since 1969.
Led of by Club Chairman, Matt Crehan (2nd) who had a blistering start, as he tried to take control of the race early on, Tom Griffiths (4th) was second home for the club with a fantastic run after struggling for the last 18 months with injuries, the pair made a good start towards the team title.
Next back was in form Craig Brighton (12th), followed by David Twigg (18th) having a great run over the muddy course. And rounding out the counting team of six were the marathon training duo of Andy Wilson (24th) and Ste Anders (26th).
Manic circumstances followed as the team knew they had beaten the favourites Liverpool but couldn’t be sure if any other club had also managed an upset.
But as the points tallied up it became clear that the Sutton men had taken the win with a score of 86 points over Liverpools 102.
Just outside the counting positions was Jake Healy who had suffered a bad fall the previous day racing in the Manchester Cross Country League. He was quickly followed by Amy Corfield, who had a fantastic run and was second lady home. And rounding out the team was Barry Graney.
Crehan said this about the win “We’ve been training all winter with our efforts focused on having a great run at the L&D Championships, our coach Ray Vose and I have been saying the last couple weeks we thought if everyone got out we’d have a chance at upsetting the favourites Liverpool and that’s just what we did. Ray had been running, but saw as he started his second lap that we had a shot and pulled out to come and cheer on the team and enjoy watching the magic unfold. It was a great team effort and I’m really proud of the team and the club, helping to put St Helens back on top in Merseyside”
