Gwent Cross Country League – Blaise Castle, Bristol

March 6^th 2010

Early report

(Have you got information to add? Or extra photos for the Rogues Gallery? Send it, or them, in)

What a great day for running cross-country- dry and bright, with an interesting and varied course including a section through the woods. & what a great day for the combined Wells & Yeovil team in the Royal Blue & Yellow vests. Despite some juniors being unable to race due to the prospect of their racing every weekend of this month for various schools, Inter-counties and club events there were 47 Club members out competing at this fixture.

First races off were the Minor boys & Girls races (Year 6 and below) and we had four in the boys and six go in the girls, with some making their debut and some at the youngest end of the age group. Well done to Johnny Ellis who had a great finish for 7^th and led home his younger brother Chris, 24^th, Joe Heath, 30^th, and William Pate, 31^st. In the girl’s race, Harriet Fox ran well for 27^th, with great packing by the other five: Madeleine Baldwin 49^th. Victoria Prior, 51^st, Jessica Pate 52^nd, Emma Denham, 56^th and Kayleigh Sullivan 59^th.

Then came the Senior men’s race – brought forward from the usual timetable – and as usual the largest field of all the races – some 200 or so. Could the men achieve promotion again for the 3^rd year in succession? We managed to rustle up 16 runners in this race and it was quality and quantity. At the sharp end was Elliot Haimes in 8^th running on his marathon training legs, and close behind Alastair Lindsay, fresh from running at the National XC Champs the previous weekend, to finish a brilliant 12^th here. Men’s team captain Jon Gilling was in 21^st and then Andrew Deamer 37^th. Then came a great squad of runners all chasing high finishing positions (& each other!): Simon Prior 79^th, Graham Goldsmid 88^th, Karl Watts 114^th, Simon Arnold 117^th, Paul Chadwick 137^th, Rex Whitcombe 147^th, Geoff Cole 148^th, Pete Wright, Ian Carpenter 154^th, Adrian Bridge 168^th, and Andrew Pate 172^nd. Wow that’s some good running and it was enough to deliver the promotion – now we just need to get similar numbers out next year in every race to take Division One by storm!

The following race was the u13 girl’s race. We welcomed Lauren Armson to the squad as she made her debut here and she had a great first race. All 5 that ran contributed to the great ‘on the day’ performance, and helped to ensure that over the 5 fixtures the girls were crowned the Top u13 girls team out of the 30 or teams that contest this League. Jemma Jones had a strong run for 5^th, with Annabel Arnold 9^th, Abigail Gibbons, 11^th, Lauren 41^st and Amy Gibbons 61^st for valuable team points. Annabel, Lauren and Amy will still be young enough to contest this age group next year.

In the u13 boy’s race, the boys went into the race knowing that Cardiff AC were just ahead of them in the overall League standings. The squad of 5 did their best to overhaul the gap but we were just short at the end of the day and had to settle for silver medals in the team stakes. Oliver Fox again won the race to make it a clean sweep of 1sts, and Charlie Martin had his best finish yet in the Gwent league for 2^nd despite the fact that he has been racing lots of late for Club, school and County Schools. Charlie gained 3^rd place overall in the League standings after this performance – a great return on his 18 months or so of training with the Harriers. James Bridge was next in – an excellent 16^th – closely followed by Luke Prior, 18^th and Tom Jones, 26^th. Well done boys.

In the women’s race we had Jenny Moore breaking off from Marathon training to come and run for 16^th place, and Katerina Prior gave good support with 40^th place and she will finish in the top 6 or 7 in the F35 category over the five fixtures.

Then came the u17 Men’s race, combined with the u20s race, with the usual trio of George, Cam and Reuben toeing the start line but unfortunately George was unable to finish and it was left to Cameron Rafferty to run for 16^th and Reuben Whitcombe for 23^rd in the combined race (actual finish in u17s yet to be confirmed). In the u17 Women’s race Jess Wood was the only one to make it and she was an excellent 10^th in that combined race. (we await actual u17 position).

The final two races saw the u15 girls, and u15 boys races taking part whilst the presentations had started for the other age groups – this thinned out the support a bit but those that ran still ran as well as they could. Hayley Carver made her team-scoring debut with a great 24^th place here, and in the boy’s race the quartet of Harrier runners packed well together led home by Matthew Dickinson in 7^th, with Philip Bridge 18^th, Sam Harding 20^th, and Marcus Gibbons 34^th.

All positions and times from Blaise Castle to be confirmed on the final results tables to be found on the Gwent League website in the coming days.

See the Rogues Gallery for early photos – more to be added during the week.

After the full 5 fixtures:

Team awards:

• u13 girls – Top Team from across the League!
• u13 boys – 2^nd overall, we believe just pipped by Cardiff AC
• Senior Men – 1^st in Division 2 and promoted for the 3^rd year in succession – thanks to a great turn out by the Club members.

Individual awards (gaining medals):

• u13 girls – Jemma Jones, 3rd overall
• u13 girls – Abigail Gibbons, 4^th
• u13 boys – Oliver Fox, 1^st
• u13 boys – Charlie Martin, 3^rd
• u15 girls – Emily Smith 4^th

There will be other top ten positions to celebrate and we await the final listings.

WELL DONE ALL!