Midland XC Championships 2006

Saturday 28 th January

Newbold Comyn, Leamington

Above: Paul Atkins (far right) & Gavin Moorhead (far left) on the first lap of the senior men’s race

B&R’s senior men & women arrived at a bitterly cold Newbold Comyn to be welcomed by the sight some of the younger runners finishing covered from head to toe in mud which didn’t bode well. The reason became clear when it was found that the stream crossing had been (reputedly) dug out to make it muddier and wider and that some of the runners had taken a dive in it.

By the time the senior runners got to Leamington for their afternoon races, B&R’s best individual performance of the day had already occurred with Matt Addison finishing third over 8 km in the U20 men’s race. Damien Lewis also had a good run to finish in 17th position, well inside the top half of the field.

The U15 boys had the best turnout in the younger age groups for B&R with Sean Bowden (15th), Simon Lanckham (52nd) and Ben Richardson (85th) over 4km. Unfortunately, unlike the County Championships, four runners are needed for a team so their individual efforts didn’t count towards a team place.

James Hood was again our only representative in the U17 men’s race but ran determinedly over the tough 6 km course to finish in 56th place.

There was a disappointing turn out in the girl’s categories where, although more runners had been entered, Sophie Bales in the U13 race was our only competitor. Again, the lone runner gave it her all and finished in 54th, inside the top half of the field.

B&R's first seniors: Helen Russell early on (left); Richard Malin fighting it out in the top thirty (right).

Helen Russell and Jane Anderson ran for B&R in the women’s race and were glad to find that the distance was only 6 km rather than 8 km. The large pack headed off round the small first lap of the grass field to spread the runners, passing the start again and repeating the first part of this lap before heading out on to the narrower and trickier paths of the one big lap. A stiff climb lead to the beacon at the top of the observation hill followed by the quick downhill on the camber of the hillside which tested the holding power of the runner’s spikes. A narrow slippery path led to the lowest part of the course alongside the river before entering the wooded section. This was better underfoot but at the end was the wide muddy ditch. However this wasn’t as bad as expected provided that you didn’t falter on entering it, as the mud was the consistency of thin porridge by now (certainly not as clinging as the quagmire at Stafford Common in 2005). A final muddy stretch of path led out of the woods to the uneven grass field at the far end of the course and the relatively straightforward run for home. Helen finished 56th in 24.33 with Jane following in 100th in 26.28. Charnwood A.C. dominated the race taking the first three positions and their fourth runner finishing 16th as they also clinched first place in the team competition.

Left: Gavin Moorhead nearly beats the camera shutter. Right: Phil Anderson shadows Steve Couldwell.

The senior men’s race used the same route as the women’s race but included three rather than one large lap to make the distance up to 12 km. Eight runners had been entered but with both Phil Carbutt and Barry Cooke injured, all six starters would have to finish for the club to get a team place. Tony Woodward and Phil Carbutt were strategically placed on the beacon hill to cheer us on, whilst Birchfield’s Cath Mijovic (who trains with the Tuesday group at Redditch) sprang up all over the course to offer encouragement (such as “Come on Phil, don’t let the old ****** have the satisfaction of beating you by a minute”). Rita Brownlie was officiating at the event but displayed some partiality by shouting for us too.

Richard Malin sped round the course in 43.11 to be first B&R runner home in 27th position. The closest battle between B&R team-mates was between Gavin Moorhead and Paul Atkins with Gavin winning out by just eight seconds on this occasion (see below for details of all B&R finishers). Notts. A.C. won the team event whilst the six B&R runners clocked up 855 points to finish 16th out of 39 teams. Local rivals Halesowen were tenth with 588 points and at present we don’t think that Kidderminster & Stourport closed out a team.

The senior men’s last XC race will be the final Birmingham League fixture at Wolverhampton on Saturday 11th Feb. at 2.30. A good turnout is needed to keep us above the relegation zone (let’s try and match the performance at Senneley’s Park). It’s also planned to have a social evening afterwards with a few pints and a curry to mark the end of the league season. Some of the B&R junior men and senior women have entered the National XC Championships at Parliament Hill in London so for them the season may not be over and good luck to them in their races.

Selected results from Leamington:(B&R in red) or click HERE for full results on MCAAA site.

U13 girls 3 km

54 Sophie Bales 15.16

U15 boys 4 km

15 Sean Bowden 15.47

52 Simon Lanckham 16.46

85 Ben Richardson 17.56

106 finishers

U17 men 6 km

56 James Hood 21.35

U20 men 8 km

1 Chris Rimmer 29.43

2 Richard Harper (Leamington) 30.21

3 Matt Addison 30.40

17 Damien Lewis 32.44

Senior women 6 km

1 Kate Ramsay (Charnwood) 19.57

2 Tara Krzywicki (Charnwood) 20.07

3 Juliet Potter (Charnwood) 20.11

56 Helen Russell 24.33

100 Jane Anderson 26.28

159 finishers

Women’s teams

1 Charnwood 22

2 Bristol & West 35

3 Telford 37

Senior men 12 km

1 James Walsh (Leeds City) 39.37

2 Julian Moorhouse (Birch. H.) 39.47

3 Rob Birchall (Notts AC) 39.50

27 Richard Malin 43.11

85 Kevin Lanckham 46.52

136 Ian Keyte 49.55

183 Gavin Moorhead 52.00

189 Paul Atkins 52.08

235 Phil Anderson 53.43

376 finishers

Men’s teams

1 Notts. A.C. 92

2 Tipton Harriers 112

3 Bristol & West 121

10 Halesowen 588

16 Bromsgrove 855

39 completed teams

Oh and Steve Couldwell did beat me but I managed to keep the gap down to 50 seconds, not that that was any consolation.

Phil Anderson 29/1/06