It was a bumper weekend for the club with cross country action across the region for both young and old.
The ladies team kicked things off at Pittville Park in Cheltenham where torrential rain in the days leading up to the race had turned the little trickle of a stream into a raging torrent. The ladies certainly didn’t let that stop them finishing 4th on the days and securing the top spot in the Masters classification. Vikki Mackay led the girls home in 17th place overall, and 2nd in the Masters race in 26.37, Isobelle Jones was 20th in 26.48, Megan White was 21st in 26.52 and Lindsay McCallum was 27th in 27.11. Lucy Semple was first back for the B team in 28.30 to take 49th place, with Sabrina Thomas placing 85th in 30.57, Emily Simmonds clocking 32.26 to secure 105th and Abbie Thompson running 36.31 in 127th place. This performance has shot the ladies up the league into 6th place with two races remaining.
While the ladies went south the men travelled north to Betley Farm in Cheshire for their second race of the season, they were a couple of big guns missing but with some returning they were hopeful that the returnees would offset the missing. With numbers down overall by around a hundred from that first cavalry charge at Leamington the field was considerably thinner across three laps of rolling farmland. Jonny Morris brought the club home in 11th place in 31.45, James Neilson was 26th in 32.45, Alex Kelly was 96th in 36.05, Jonny Harris placed 101st in 36.24, Garry Worrall 107th in 36.46, and Dan Turner made up the A team in 109th in 36.48. Ben Foster was just 2 seconds adrift and a place behind in 36.50, Paul Marson placed 118th in 37.38, Rob Sannwald- Dunn was 133rd in 38.24, Joe Marples 139th in 38.55, Sundeep Sunar 150th in 40.09, Dan Vaughan 156th in 40.27, Dave Norman was 180th in 44.48, Rob Edwards followed him home in 181st in 45.09, Andy Dyall was 190th in 49.19, Lee Partridge placed 194th in 51.54 and Russ Blair crossed the line in 196th place in 60.05. On the day the club placed 13th and find themselves 11th in the league with two to play.
It was the turn of the youngsters at the club on Sunday at Newbold Revel where Grace Hendy placed 5th in 15.23 in the U17 womens race. In the U11 boys there was a 22nd place finish for Joshua Mzuku in 7.45, Kurtis Clayton was 25th in 7.48, Bertie Dixon placed 34th in 7.50, Edison Bowden was 41st in 7.55, Joseph Blunt 50th in 8.00, Ezrel Enwerem 87th in 8.34, placing the club 5th in the age group. In the U17 mens race Sam Thursfield came home in 6th place in 16.51, and we have Simon Hughes listed in 48th place in 20.44 and Aryan Pal 52nd in 21.34, with the club placing 7th. In the U11 girls race there was a win for Alba Jones in 6.14, Abigail Evans chased her home in 5th place in 6.50, Pixie Palmer was 10th in 7.00, Clara Edwards was 20th in 7.17, Isla Gaunt 32nd in 7.36, Isabelle Davies 39th in 7.42, Harper Williams 72nd in 8.23, Isabelle Bowden 80th in 8.31, and Amber Hay 106th in 10.52. Good enough to place 2nd in the age group. Rocco Hawley was first back for the club in the U15 boys race in 5th place in 9.58 in what looks like a proper dust up for first place with only 6 second covering the first five places. Harry Monkton was 12th in 10.20, Jonathan Yang 13th in 10.22. Nahum Worrall 26th in 11.10, Aaron Guest was 47th in 12.11, placing the club 2nd in the age group. Biba Guest was first home for the club in the u13 girls race in 20th place in 11.20, Anaiya Patel was 69th in 13.09. The was a win for Seb Palmer in the U13 boys event, crossing the line in 9.51, Finley Anslow was 56th in 12.33, Elijah Enwerem 60th in 12.46, placing the club 10th. In the U15 girls race Kiki Guest came home in 21st place in 12.51, Phoebe Bridgen was 44th in 13.41, Maya Rosa Jelic Ramesh placed 46th in 13.48, Clara Butler-Montero was 53rd in 14.11, Amiyah Pal 57th in 14.21, Alice Cattell 63rd in 14.36 and Charlotte Rogers 68th in 15.11with the club placing 6th in the age group.
Overall, the club were 5th on the day and with three fixtures completed of the five in the season they are also 5th behind RSCAC, Rugby & Northampton, BRAT and Birchfield Harriers.
Further afield there was more action stateside where Louies Hackett took part in her first track race for some time after an injury blighted three years. Louies placed 7th in an indoor mile at Notre Dame University clocking 5.01. Twenty-four hours later she crossed the line in 1st place in the Saline Merry Mile on the road, clocking an almost identical time of 5.02. The last time she raced on the roads was in 2022 at the Telford 10k.
There was some indoor action at Loughborough where Kofi Ocran clocked a PB on 7.69 to place 2nd in his race over 60 metres. Shae McIntosh also bagged a PB in the same race with 8.04 in 6th place. Kofi also clocked 7.71 taking another runners-up spot, with Shae winning his second race over the distance in 8.05. Samantha Agomoh was 2nd over 60 in PB of 7.82, Michelle Okafor placed 5th clocking 8.34 again over 60 metres, Gabriella Okafor was 3rd in a 60m PB of 8.52, Samatha won a later race over the same distance with a time of 7.78 lowering her earlier PB. Michelle also claimed a victory in a later heat in a new PB of 8.25. Gabriella was 4th clocking 8.55 in her second race over the distance.
Tony Cheema led the field home in the Claverley 5k, a charity event around the country lanes, in 19.34.
And finally, there was some action under the lights at the Shrewsbury 5k, Jack Stockton completed the 5 lap course around the cycle track in a rapid 15.45 to take 21st place, Darren Owen-Jones was 114th in 20.17, Stu Whitehouse was 127 in 21.27 and Mark Illidge was a place and a single second behind in 128th in 21.28.
To bring this to a conclusion this week there is still time to enter the Turkey Trot on Sunday 21st December, if you have not already done so, and we can never have enough marshals so please give us a couple of hours if you can.
Dave Norman
