We continued our resurgence with a big turn out in the Met League at Wormwood Scrubs. Surprise of the day was the under 13 girls team who won both the A and B team competitions.
Kerry Baily was first in for the under 13 girls finishing ninth. Evie King was 13th with Grainne Gahan and Genevieve Creane completing the A team in 16th and 18th. The B team were Ellis Redmond (22nd), Mari Johnson (23rd), Katie Eastmond (27th) and Charlotte Gould (38th).
The senior women also fared substantially better, up four places on last time to sixth place. Leading the way with the best senior performance of the season was Alison Hopkins who finished 14th.
Lynn Wilson was 32nd having passed Patricia Thomas on the second lap. Patricia finished 40th. Gill Morgan was next in 58th followed by Mary Walsh in 83rd. Carol Jones overhauled Julia Gristwood to secure the final scoring place. They finished 87th and 93rd.
The under 15 and 17 girls team struggled in the absence of several runners. Hannah Pollak was 19th, Helena French 30th, Nicky Shelley 35th, and Elizabeth Matthew 42nd.
Anthony Haynes narrowly held off Dalton McGuigan as the pair finished third and fourth in the under 13 boys race. Fellan McGuigan was ninth and Duncan Pinder 17th as the team finished second.
The under 15 and under 17 boys were also second. Jamie Taylor-Caldwell improved to fourth place with Richard Charles coming through strongly in the later stages to take sixth. Luke Nicholas had a steady race to finish twelfth. Mark Cameron pipped Anthony Shaw for the last scoring place. They finished 21st and 22nd.
Nineteen club members toed the line for the men’s race ensuring there was going to be some strong competition for the scoring places. As usual Andy Kotsyubka made a strong start but unusually Rob Wilson caught him and ended up first home. Rob was 30th with Andy 40th.
The mid-order all packed well. Rob Brown, Richard Tomlinson, Bill Gristwood and John Blanchard came in within half a minute of each other. They finished 71st, 74th, 78th and 82nd.
Mark Delahunty was 103rd with Chris McIver in 118th not far ahead of the fast finishing Ian Birch. Andy Dodd was 130th with Phil York improving to 142nd.
The club bounced back from last week’s poor performances to grab their share of the silverware North of Thames Cross-Country Championships at Kingsbury on Saturday. The men won the four to score trophy, Richard Charles the under 15 boys title and Martha Reynolds the under 17 women’s trophy.
The men’s race was a close battle with Hillingdon for the four trophies for four, six, eight and twelve to score. With three in the first seven finishers the destination of the first trophy was never in doubt but Hillingdon narrowly won the other trophies.
A fast start soon spread the men’s field out but by the end of the first short loop Hussain Jama and Andy Skorubskas had caught the Thames Valley runner in second. These three remained locked together until for the next four miles until Andy upped the pace. However with 100 metres to go Hussain sprinted clear to claim the silver medal with Andy left to take the bronze.
There was another close battle behind them as Rob Wilson lost out in a sprint finish and had to settle for seventh. Bill Gristwood got away from John Blanchard in the second half of the race and only just lost out in the battle to be the first veteran. Bill finished 19th with John in 22nd.
Mark Delahunty managed to shake off Chris McIver to finish 34th, just four seconds ahead of Chris in 36th. Ian Birch made a more aggressive start to the race and ended up first over 50 in 40th place.
Andy Dodd, Steve Plested, Eamonn Bradley and Rob Howells completed the line-up.
Richard Charles was dominant in the under boys race finishing 60 metres clear. Mark Cameron was seventh with Christopher Charles ninth. With Archie Allen in eleventh the team were only seven points behind Hillingdon.
The under 17 women ran with the seniors giving some stiffer competition for Martha Reynolds. Former international Bev Jenkins proved too good for her but she was a comfortable second overall. Elizabeth Matthews was fifth under 17.
The senior women’s team of Nikki Baker, Fiona Cotterill, Mary Walsh and Julia Gristwood finished third. Nikki just missed out on an individual medal in the veterans category.
Daniella Raffel had also picked up a medal finishing third in the under 15 girls’ race at the beginning of the afternoon. Grainne Gahan and Nicky Shelley were sixth and seventh.
An under-strength club line up struggled at Woodford Green at the weekend. With key runners missing across all the age groups we finished well down on our normal positions.
The only team to improve their position were the under 15 and under 17 boys’. They produced a solid team performance to finish third. Luke Nicholas showed a return to his best form to finish fifth ahead of a fast finishing Richard Charles in seventh. Jamie Taylor-Caldwell started strongly but faded towards the end and finished tenth. Chris Hepworth had an improved run to complete the scoring team in 20th. Seventy five metres further back there was a mad dash up the last hill as Mark Cameron, Christopher Charles, Bashir Zaheer and Anthony Shaw finished in quick succession. Their final places were 30th, 31st, 32nd and 34th.
Dalton McGuigan led the under 13 boys to third place too. He finished fifth. Next in was Anthony Shaw with Duncan Pinder and Fellan McGuigan close behind in 11th, 13th and 15th places.
The men’s team saw the welcome return of Hussain Jama who finished 15th. Andy Kotsyubka was half a minute behind in 24th but with only eleven runners the team slumped to tenth place.
Ben McCallum improved to 48th to be the club’s third finisher again. Rob Brown was the club’s top veteran in 97th place with Steve Plested and Ian Birch back in 127th and 143rd.
Phil York overcame having to stop with a hamstring problem to finish 203rd, winning a close battle with Rob Howells (207th) and John Falvey (212th). The team was completed by Graham French in 237th and Alan Keeler in 273rd.
The under 15 and under 17 girls’ race saw the club finish fourth despite missing most of the winning team from the last match. Hannah Pollak improved by one place to sixth. Helena French was 29th, half a minute clear of Joanne O’Connell and Nicky Shelley in 33rd and 34th.
Kerry Baily led the under 13 girls home again in eighth place. Ellis Redmond was 22nd with the Gould twins Ashley and Charlotte completing the team in 27th and 32nd.
Ashlee McGuigan was the best of the club’s senior women in 24th place, but with only five runners they finished tenth team. A strong run from Patricia Thomas saw her finish 36th with Gill Morgan next in 49th.
Nikki Baker was 75th on her return from injury. Cross-country newcomer Cyrena Cyrus was 103rd.
Four teams from the club went up to Mansfield to contest the National Cross-Country Relays. Whilst all the teams had a successful afternoon, the under 17 women recorded the club’s best ever result in this category to finish 20th.
The under 17 women ran at the same time as the under 20 women, Martha Reynolds stormed off from the start and was in fifth place for the combined field going around the lake and entering the woods. Some of the under 20s overtook her towards the end, but she still finished in fifth place in her age category. Helena French kept the team in a respectable 28th place. Hannah Pollak pulled back a few places on the last leg to eventually come home in 20th place.
The under 13 boys ran three good legs, all within nine seconds of each other. Anthony Haynes led out and handed over to Duncan Pinder in 25th place. Duncan held that position and Dalton McGuigan gained three places to finish 22nd.
Georgia Bell led off the under 15 Girls. She flew around and came in tenth. Nicola Shelley battled hard on second leg coming passing over to Emma Davies in 50th. Emma Davies overtook 14 other teams and to finish 36th.
The under 17 men had Luke Nicholas on first leg running in the top third of the field coming home in 24th place. Basheer Zaheer kept up the challenge in a strong field passing over to Chris Hepworth in 62nd. Chris overtook four teams in the woods to bring the team home in 58th place.
The senior runners stayed closer to home and contested the North London Championships at Horsenden Hill. The men’s team came away with silver medals for the second week in a row.
Andy Skorubskas had another solid run to take individual bronze. Next to score was Rob Wilson in 12th. Rob Brown got the better of Bill Gristwood to finish as the club’s first veteran in 19th. Bill was 21st. John Blanchard and Richard Tomlinson completed the team in 24th and 29th.
Chris McIver was next home in 40th. Andy Dodd held off Steve Plested as the pair finished 44th and 45th. Chris Lee was 69th.
Rob Brown, Bill Gristwood, John Blanchard and Steve Plested were the third veterans team.
The women’s race saw Patricia Thomas dog Lynn Wilson’s footsteps until the last hill when Lynn pulled away to finish seventh. Patricia was eighth with Julia Gristwood in 20th.
Lynn won bronze in the veterans competition and the team won silver in the veterans team competition.