Birmingham XC Lge. Div. 2

3/12/05 Coundon Hall Park

Kevin Lanckham 2nd B&R finisher

The morning of the second fixture saw injured team captain Barry Cooke making a slightly anxious phone call to make sure that the club would at least put out a full team. Looking like we might only have seven runners and needing six finishers to count, we arrived in Coventry with instructions not to drop out and Barry was facing the prospects of putting aside his manager’s coat to don his spikes. But we were all relieved as more club members turned up to run than expected plus we had the added bonus of about another ten supporters manning the course. Thanks Barry, Tony, Len, Richard, Jeanette, Billy, Paul Collins, Jane and Paul Atkins’ kids for forsaking the warmth to spend Saturday afternoon in a muddy field.

So ten B&R men set off on the 6.25 mile, three lap course around the park and the playing fields. Although much of the course was sodden there wasn’t any really deep cloying mud and the laps were flat and fast. The course was different to the last time I’d run at this park but Tony could remember having run this particular route with the start near the changing rooms and going through rather than alongside the two small groups of trees at half way and near the end of each lap.

In the woods, something stirred…….Ian Keyte

Phil Carbutt led B&R home (now where have I heard that before?) in 23rd place followed by Kevin Lanckham in 30th. There was a bit of a gap to Ian Keyte and Mark Graham (improving on his sixth scoring spot at Senneleys Park). Alex Hood ran well to be fifth scorer in 79th position and his performance bodes well for the future (Alex’s father also used to run for the club). There was a battle for the final scoring place with Paul Atkins (recovering from an achilles injury) fighting off Phil Anderson for seventh place over the first two laps and then pressing on to just edge out Gavin Moorhead as a sixth scorer over the last lap. Alan Elsmere and Phil Richardson both competed well to come in 120th and 130th respectively and to add points on to other teams’ totals. There were 166 finishers.

Leaving Coventry we thought B&R had scored 347 points to finish 10th on the day and slipped four places to eighth in the league. But now the official results are available we can see that the total was 374 and we were 12th team on the day.

Not sure who made the mistake adding up on the day but it's a bit deflating to find out we're 30 points worse off. It had been anticipated that absences due to injury and work commitments (good luck to Damian Lewis on his entrance examination in Manchester this morning) would result in a low team position but the points total was probably slightly better than had been feared in the morning. The third fixture will be a real tester (and a long journey) for the club and it will be important to get a good turn out to get us moving back up the table.

Next BLXC Div. 2 fixture: Abington Park in Northampton on Saturday 7th January 2006 at 2.30 p.m.

Leading finishers

1 T. Penfold (Birchfield) 34-54

2 Harradence (Solihull & Small Heath) 35-35

3 T. Warrender (W&B) 35-41

B&R finishers

23 Phil Carbutt 38-19

30 Kevin Lanckham 39-11

72 Ian Keyte 42-05

76 Mark Graham 42-17

79 Alex Hood 42-27

94 Paul Atkins 43-47

96 Gavin Moorhead 44-01

100 Phil Anderson 44-14

120 Alan Elsmere 46-24

130 Phil Richardson 47-42

Click HERE for full results.

Team results (6 to count)

1 Birmingham Rowheath 140

2 Rugby & Northampton 159

3 Wolverhampton & Bilston 192

4 Northbrook 196

5 Birchfield 206

6 Warwick University 241

7 Cannock & Stafford 277

8 Kenilworth 282

9 Gloucester 302

10 Sphinx 367

11 Solihull & Small Heath 371

12 Bromsgrove & Redditch 374

Trentham Did Not Start

Positions after 2 fixtures

1 Birmingham Rowheath 300

2 Wolverhampton & Bilston 358

3 Birchfield Harriers 364

4 Rugby & Northampton 405

5 Warwick University 435

6 Northbrook 438

7 Kenilworth 516

8 Cannock & Stafford 519

9 Bromsgrove & Redditch 564

10 Gloucester 712

11 Sphinx 715

12 Solihull & Small Heath 889

13 Trentham DNF

Team results have been corrected using the official figures from BCCL website. (P. Anderson 13-12-05)