Finding form late in the season after a calf injury stalled his start, Lofthouse's win in the five kilometre President's Handicap had a telling impact on the coveted Club Aggregate - which could only have been won by the club's most senior member, Geoff Ryan, if seven-time gggregate winner Peter Gibson was beaten.

With an amazing sequence of 14 top five race finishes behind him, including five seconds without a win, the ultra-consistent Gibson seemed destined to finally break through and snatch the aggregate from Ryan's grasp in the last round.

Under the handicap conditions, 65-year-old Lofthouse received a three minute start from the 56-year-old Gibson, but after some desperate racing at the Greenacres course that deficit was reduced to a mere 24 seconds at the finish, with third placegetter Ian McCready recording an even faster time than the pair.

"Peter would have deserved to win (the aggregate) because he turns up every week often to find someone just a little bit better on the day, which happens in handicap racing," Lofthouse said.

"That said, there are others at the club, 300 to 500 run veterans, who put in every week and have never won an aggregate. Geoff is one of them and I wanted to win for Geoff who tells me that this is his last year. By winning a second race I've only succeeded in hampering my handicap for next season but at least I'll still be racing."

The 73-year-old Ryan had begun the season with three ambitions - to run all 19 races, to bring up his 300th run and to win at least once, but at start 307 he had exceeded all those goals, having won two races and now an aggregate.

"For every sportsman there's a desire to knock off a champ, like taking a mark over the top of Buddy Franklin's head," Lofthouse said.

"Gibbo is our undisputed aggregate champ, but can't be expected to win them all. To Peter's credit he was gracious afterwards and we shook hands. He was the victim of circumstances, that's all. "No one could have predicted the improvement I made over the last half of the season because I didn't expect it either."

Lofthouse had been in the hands of a chiropractor and masseur during the week as the result of a back injury which caused him pain only when he wasn't running.