A&T v Swinton Challenge - by Garry Baines

On the wettest night for months, our friends from Swinton RC made the short journey down the East Lancs Road to contest the 1st Leg of this year’s challenge at LSV.

Taking the format of a 30 minute Paarlauf, both clubs fielded 8 teams of 3 runners, with A&T supplemented by the inclusion of a “very” junior team. As you would expect the race was conducted in an extremely competitive but friendly spirit with all runners giving 100%.

There were some great performances with the winning team managing 26 laps and approx. 120mts. or just over 6.5 miles. To put things into perspective, this is around 17seconds per mile faster than Gabresalassie’s record-breaking marathon pace.

Even the 7th teams from both clubs managed 21 plus laps.

The final finishing order with points scored was as follows:-

A&T Team 1 26 laps plus approx. 120mts = 1 point



Swinton Team 1 25 laps plus approx. 350mts = 2 points


A&T Team 2 25 laps plus approx. 300mts = 3 points


Swinton Team 2 25 laps plus approx. 170mts = 4 points


A&T Team 3 25 laps = 5 points


A&T Team 4 23 laps plus approx. 250mts = 6 points


Swinton Team 3 22 laps plus approx. 320mts = 7 points


A&T Team 5 22 laps plus approx.230mts = 8 points


Swinton Team 4 22 laps plus approx. 50mts = 9 points


Swinton Team 6 21 laps plus approx. 300mts = 10 points


Swinton Team 5 21 laps plus approx. 270mts = 11 points


A&T Team 6 21 laps plus approx. 220mts = 12 points


Swinton Team 7 21 laps plus approx. 200mts = 13 points


A&T Team 7 21 laps plus approx. 190mts = 14 points


A&T Team 8 17 laps plus approx. 210mts = 15 points


Swinton Team 8 17 laps plus approx. 180mts = 16 points

The final scores were: A&T = 64 points – Swinton 72 points.

The A&T Junior Team, consisting of Joseph Wane, Harrison Williams and Cerys Baines did remarkably well and recorded 19 laps plus 330mts.

A big thank you to the lap recorders – Dave Crowe, Liz Ellicott, Andrew and Michelle Coates - who had the arduous task of counting every team as they completed each lap.

So A&T take back the trophy, at least for the time being. Swinton will have their chance for revenge at the 2nd Leg at Swinton on 25th August and we’re all looking forward to that encounter.