Fantastic Weekend for the Harriers - February 4^th & 5^th 2006

Wells City Harriers had arguably the most successful weekend ever by winning two national titles at the weekend whilst three juniors won Somerset School’s titles. One of the Club’s British Internationals Frank Tickner of Bruton convincingly won the British Universities XC Championship held at Fife, Scotland, and a quartet of the Club’s Senior men won the English AAA 10km Road Team Championships at Chichester. Meanwhile for the juniors, amongst the 30 Harriers taking part, there were three individual age-group winners at the Somerset Schools XC Championships, and 19 of the squad have now been selected for the South-west Schools Championships

Frank Tickner, who is studying French and English at Birmingham University, took control of the British Universities XC race after about a mile of the six mile event. Fellow International and North of England Champion Andi Jones initially led but was no match for Frank when he decided to hit the front and simply run away from the opposition An added bonus for Frank came when he led his University team to team victory over arch rivals Loughborough and St Mary’s, Twickenham.

Boosted by the news of Frank’s victory in Scotland, his Wells team mates had an equally convincing win the following day in the British 10km team championship. This is the first National team title that the Harriers have won, and underlines the progress that the club have made over the last twenty five years since its early beginnings as a group of friends meeting once a week to go for a run from Wells Cathedral Green.

The team of Adrian Marriot, Andrew Hennessy, Carl Morris and Pete Grist had a 38-point winning margin over second placed Belgrave Harriers. Individually, Adrian was 10^th in 30.01,Andrew 15^th 30.30,Carl 18^th in30.43 and Pete in 32.16. Pete showed no ill effects after the previous weekend’s collapse at the South of England XC Champs. The winner of the race at Chichester was Peter Riley, Salford Harriers 29.24 with Keith Cullen, Highgate Harriers second in 29.27.

Add to the above runners Frank’s elder brother British International Ben, and England cross country international Andrew Baker and the Harrier team are looking a strong outside bet for a medal at the National Cross Country team event being held at Parliament Hill, London in two weeks time. Please contact Clive or Paul for details of the minibuses going to London. (01749 812420)

Not to be outdone by the seniors the junior Harriers were competing a little closer to home at Taunton Racecourse in the Somerset Schools XC Championships on Saturday. Conditions were tough in the biting cold but some thirty junior Harriers took part in the eight different age-group races over varying distances. Three won individual titles, three others medalled, and nineteen were chosen to represent Somerset Schools in the South West Schools Championships that are being held later this term in Bournemouth. Congratulations to Jessica Wood, Alice Woods and Rosie Cooper on being Somerset Champions.

The Harrier results were:

Year 7 Boys     3^rd        Lewis Lynham

7th       Lewis Voizey

                        17^th        Freddie Whittaker

                        24^th      Jo Mapletoft

Year 7 Girls      1^st        Jessica Wood

                        11^th      Luis Cassidy

                        16^th      Hattie Ffooks

Year 8/9 Boys  3^rd        Alex Wiltshire

                        4^th        Charlie Maclean

                        5^th        Ben Venus

                        7^th        Matt Stone

                        32^nd      Louis Curtis

34^th      Sam Hall

Year8/9 Girls    1^st        Alice Woods

                        3^rd        Justine Bowers

                        4^th        Leighanna Chappel

                        6^th        Natalie Parker

                        7^th           Christie Jones           

Y10/11 Boys    5^th        Ross Davey

                        8^th        Tom Lock

                        14^th      Chris Pearce

                        25^th      Ollie Parsons

Y10/11 Girls    1^st        Rosie Cooper

                        3^rd        Laura Parker

                        9^th        Hannah Forrest

Senior Boys      7^th        Matthew Parsons

Senior Girls      7^th        Kyra Hawkins

As if all of that effort wasn’t enough the Harriers then fielded a squad of 15 runners at the 5^th fixture of the Wessex XC League at Ferndown, near Poole, on Sunday to maintain their presence at or near the top of the League. The course was to everyone’s liking with little mud and yet a testing set of short sandy hills. Louis Curtis was the only junior who decided to go again after running the previous day and ran well despite tired legs to finish in 15^th place, just behind Tristam Goldsmid, in 13^th in the U’13 boy’s race. In the U’15 boy’s race, Anders Goldsmid and Jamie Williams once again had a tussle to see who would be first Harrier home with Jamie just getting ahead in 15^th place to Anders’ 18^th. In all cases for these juniors their positions were the best yet in the League to date.

For the Senior Women, England veteran international Karen Buckley led the Harrier team home with her 2^nd place after a race-long tussle for victory. Tracey Halliday was14th and Catherine Goldsmid closed for the team in 29^th. Achieving his highest placing to date and looking odds-on cert for the Senior Men’s V45 League trophy was Dickie Wythe who finished in 4^th place just 24 hours after finishing 5^th V45, 12th overall,  at the South of England Masters XC Championships held at Ruislip in Middlesex. Also achieving this feat of ‘doubling up’ was Dave Stanfield, who finished 31^st at Ferndown after Saturday’s 59^th position at Ruislip. Andrew Deamer was the other Harrier to gain a top-10 finish at the Wessex League with an impressive 8^th place.

Other Harrier Finishers at the Wessex League fixture : 14^th Jon Sharp; 30^th Graham Goldsmid; 54^th Paul Chadwick; 63^rd Pete Wright; 77^th Nick Edwards;