Penny Lane Striders
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Sad News

Former long term member of Penny Lane Striders, Charlie Rankin, died this evening in hospital after suffering a massive bleed on the brain on Friday. Charlie joined the striders in the early days of the club and was a loyal and supportive member. Long before the club developed structured training groups, Charlie and his friends would look after new runners, teaching them how to run long distances before they moved on to greater things. He will be sadly missed by those who knew him. May he rest in peace.

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This is very sad to hear. My thoughts are with his family.

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Sad news indeed,managed to keep in touch with Charlie over the years through our local church.Always asking about the club and its members,so glad we shook hands a couple of weeks ago.God Bless, Rest In Peace .

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So sad to hear the news. I had many a long chat with Charlie on our mini-bus tours

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Very sad indeed. He lived near us. Saw him only about two weeks ago. A lovely man

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Funeral details

Charlie's Funeral is on Thursday 25th October, 10am, at Christ the King Catholic Church on Queens Drive. 11.30 at Springwood and afterwards at CTK social club.

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Really sad to hear this, Chaz(Charlie)looked after me with the rest of the home guard when I started. RIP mate

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This really is sad news. Charlie was a very unassuming man, and the best pacer I ever ran with, whether training or racing. I learnt a lot about running from him over the years. He made it a science.

The Hare and the Tortoise:
He won the first ever handicap PLS race organised by Dave Gibson, which started and finished in Clarke Gardens. Running the outside perimeter and turning left onto Springwood, left at Hillfoot, left at Woolton Road, left back onto Springwood then left into the uphill finish. I mention this as our club champion at the time; Nigel Grant finished last (he'll laugh about this now) but he somehow managed to get lost on the course. I will leave it to Nigel to reminisce.

Charlie features on the front page of the Stride Out magazine in November 1998 (when I was the editor). He talks about how he won a free place in the Stockholme Half Marathon through the Liverpool International Half Marathon. Post race he went to the Sweden v England match followed by food and beer. He talks about sampling Guiness and Kilkenny and emptying the Kilkenny barrels at the Irish Bar. post script he said it was great to be the first strider home in a race (1:46:02).

He ran the London Marathon in his fifties in a very creditable 3:25:00 and in later years he could always be seen marshalling on our cross country course at Clarke Gardens encouraging all runners!

I would finish by saying he was responsible for getting many a member a pb in races over various distances as he ran very even paced and was like a running metronome, he was that good and that is the running legacy I will remember him for.

RIP Chas.

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Very nice article Joe, well said. Rest in peace gentleman Charlie.

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Very sad to hear about Charlie. He was a true gentlemen and a fantastic teacher. We will always cherish our memories with him on our endless runs. Rest in peace, Di and Fran

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So sorry to hear the sad news that a true gentleman has passed away , Charlie always had time for people,and I can remember him with his white gloves on during the winter runs, just when I thought I was moving away from him I would look back and there he was catching me up with them white gloves. RIP Charlie


Tony Fairbrother