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The results from Shuttlingsloe are taking an age to emerge but I can announce three winners.
Rob Dunkley has over the last few years had tests for illnesses and injuries that most of us had never heard of. None has explained his dramatic decline in form and despite numerous suggestions from helpful colleagues and more come-backs than Frank Sinatra he’s remained in the doldrums. This year he’s put the medics aside and tried pure determination. He was the last Wilmslow runner home at Whitley and cemented his place at the back on the hills of Buxton – performances that mocked his thirteen (am I exaggerating?) glorious Tours of Tameside (six races in five days for those who weren’t around). But at Shuttlingsloe came the first light at the end of the tunnel with two Wilmslow runners in his wake.
Roy Pownall is another who carries the baggage of his past performances. Arthritis in both hips was diagnosed towards the end of last year. This has caused him to change and limit his training, his past success was built on grinding-out the miles and this was no longer an option. However he has not let it reduce his racing and last month he reached second in the Summer Series table. But, even in his prime, hills were not Roy’s thing and after a disastrous Shuttlingsloe two years ago (someone told him there were easy Summer Series points going and he believed them) he resolved never to run it again. He was still maintaining this position on the Tuesday before the race but on the Thursday he appeared with his number on his chest and produced his best run of the season finishing with seven Wilmslow runners behind him.
The star, however, was Trevor Faulkner. Trevor has taken a long, long time to recover and is still nowhere near his times prior to his injury in the Everest Marathon. We lesser lights are always delighted when Trevor turns-up for a race, and he usually does, it gives us confidence we are not going to be the last Wilmslow man home. Trevor, particularly in cross-country, has often been the lantern rouge of the whole race, but it does not seem to dampen his enthusiasm. Trevor’s a good climber but sadly, for him, you have to come down again and all the scalps he takes on the ascent pour past him on the way down. But at Shuttlingsloe there were nine Wilmslow runners behind him at the bottom of the fell.