Leamington, Sat. 10/12/05

 Gloucester XC League

The third league fixture was run in surprisingly mild conditions at  Newbold Comyn in Leamington. It was an arduous, muddy course with a water crossing which got progressively worse each lap until, on the final lap it resembled the Somme.  The hill also got bigger and steeper each lap with the camber on the transverse downhill causing you to slip sideways. All good practice for the Midland Championships there in January.

Simon Lanckham kept up his consistent record in the U/15 boys event, clocking 16-08 to finish tenth. The race was won by Leamington's Chris Bull in 15-56.

The numbers in the women’s race were down compared to the fixture at Dursley with only 56 finishers over what is a comparatively long two-lap course for the women’s event. B&R completed a team in the seniors/combined event with Helen Russell 21st, Jane Anderson 28th and Judy Appleby 34th. The team total of 83 points placed them 8th out of 11 teams to close out on the day. By my reckoning (which is completely unofficial and may be unreliable), the women’s team actually moved up from 10th to 8th place in the overall standings as Gloucester A.C. and Tewkesbury did not complete teams on the day. Severn A.C. continued to dominate the women’s event with their senior team scoring just 11 points to have a total of 33 points after 3 races, 96 points ahead of second-placed City of Bath. In the women’s vets team event Bourton packed well to finish with the lowest team score on the day (78 points) and over-turn Thornbury’s (6th with 118 points on the day) one point lead in the league (again by my reckoning they are the only two clubs to have closed out teams in all three vets races).

Women's finishers

1  Rachel Felton  (Severn)   30-02

2  Lucy Townshend (Bourton) 30-45

3  Sian Lewis (Severn) 31-04

21 Helen Russell (B&R) 36-08

28 Jane Anderson (B&R) 36-55

34 Judy Appleby (B&R) 38-02

There was a fast start to the men's three lap race in warm and sunny conditions. Early on B&R’s Phil Carbutt, Kevin Lanckham and Damian Lewis were all well up in the first ten or thereabouts. However, Damian had to ease up and on the last lap was passed by Ian Keyte and Paul Atkins. Damian had run himself in to the ground but hung on to finish for the team and I understand that he has now recovered. Phil Carbutt (still running under his pseudonym of Garbutt) repeated his feat of being first B&R runner and first vet 50 over the finish line.

The B&R men’s combined/senior team (first six to count) totalled 267 points to finish 6th out of 9 complete teams on the day. They remain 6th out of 9 teams who have finished in all three fixtures to date. The only four vets runners (Phil, Ian, Mike Leci and Steve James) totalled 247 points to finish high up, 4th out of 10 teams. After 3 races, the vets team (848 points) are still 5th out 10 teams but aren’t far behind Gloucester (2nd 749 points), Leamington (3rd 823 points) and Dursley (4th 847 points). Clevedon remain out in front in both men’s team events.

Men's finishers

1  Joshua Lilly (Severn)  37-47

2  John Muddeman (Leam.) 38-16

3  N. Page (Clevedon) 39-25

6  Phil Carbutt (B&R) 39-48

13 Kevin Lanckham (B&R) 40-46

44 Ian Keyte (B&R) 45-02

52 Paul Atkins (B&R) 45-54

60 Damian Lewis (B&R) 46-24

92 Mike Leci (B&R) 50-47

105 Steve James (B&R) 54-43

As usual, click HERE for full results of this fixture “Dave Mac’s House of Harrierdom” run by Dave McNamee of Cheltenham & District Harriers.

The final GLXC League fixture will be at Cinderford in the Forest of Dean on Sat. 21st Jan. 2006. Remember last year’s wintry conditions?

(P. Anderson & I. Keyte 11/12/05)