Gloucester Cross Country League

Blackbridge, Gloucester – Saturday 15th December 2007

B&R AC teams ride high in the league

Above: B&R team after a day at the races at Gloucester (understandably most of the young athletes had left as their races had finished ages before the photo was taken). Click for bigger photo.

Yet another great turnout by our athletes and I don’t just mean in numbers as some Club members took the opportunity to display a touch of ‘sartorial elegance’.

The best turnout in this league by Club juniors, six in all, for a very long time started the day of well.

Left: Jamie Scoltock raced early and supported all afternoon. Right: Another top five finish for Sally Hogan.

Jamie Scoltock (U13 boys) was the Club’s first runner finishing 23rd and in a good time.

Next away was Sally Hogan (U15 girls). Running in the combined U15/U17 race she was 8th overall and ran well to be narrowly 4th in her age group. Sally sported Club colours with one blue sock and one red sock to set the fashion trend for the day.

Above: Sean Bowden makes short work of the climb back on to the finishing field.

In the U15/U17 boys combined race, Sean Bowden (4th), Adam Peacock (6th), and Simon Lanckham (7h), all ran well as a team for the Club to get the team 2nd place in the U17 boys. In the same race, the Club’s U15 runner, Chris Warren (left) was 5th in his age group.

Above: Helen Russell lead two Clevedon runners round the short lap.

Left: Jane Anderson at halfway on the big lap. Right: Tracey Jones turned out to make up the team in spite of a rotten cold.

The ladies team was hit by late withdrawals but still produced a good result to show the value of teamwork and commitment. The runs by Helen Russell (12th), Jane Anderson (28th), Tracey Jones (37th) and Yvonne Priestman (45th) (left, determined to run to ensure a complete vets team) meant that in the Senior ladies league they deservedly maintained their push for medals, whilst in the Veteran ladies league, they lie 2nd with first place remaining a very distinct possibility.

A sea of red and blue vests lined up in the men’s race with 15 Club runners involved in a field of 148. And continuing the fashion theme, Eamon Thompson and Ken Wood were also well-kitted out wearing some sober but very elegant new spikes.

However the prize for ‘fashion accessory of the day’ goes to Steve James (left, the footwear is orange) who wore a very fetching pair of extremely bright, day-glow orange, go-faster, spikes. Race organisers had to offer all other runners sunglasses to protect their eyes against the glare!!!!!  Steve thought he was being clever because he reckoned that if he was still running when it got dark, we could find him. But he forgot that because we could see him, we would all run in the opposite direction.

And the race? This was another successful outing. The Senior men’s ‘A’ team closed the gap on 5th place in the league whilst the Vet men climbed a place to 3rd and look well set for a bronze medal.

Left: James Adie racing again after shin splints. Right: Steve Clews had a great run on his comeback. Sorry about the blurring but they were both going fast!

Great runs by Dave Kesterton (4th) and James Adie (5th) set the tone, finishing only around a minute behind the winner before, with another strong run in 19th place, was Kevin Lanckham. Next home and making a welcome return after a long absence from competition, was Steve Clews. Steve’s experience showed as he passed 3 of our Club runners, amongst many others, on the last lap to finish 55th.

Jamie Dancyger (59th) and Calvin Scoltock (61st) completed close on Steve’s heels to leave the Senior men’s ’A’ team 4th on the day and 6th after 3 fixtures.

For the Senior men’s ‘B’ team, Tom Richardson (62nd), Phil Anderson (74th), Jimmy Atkins (84th), Phil Richardson (88th), Peter Hawcroft (91st) and Dave Stokes (107th) all went well to record 9th team place on the day.

The Club’s remaining runners were Eamon Thompson (118th) whose excellent run cemented the Vet men’s team into 3rd place, Steve James (130th) and Ken Wood  (141st).

And one last fashion comment. Obviously upset at not being able to match the spruce looking Steve James, Phil Anderson’s attempt to get attention was to slip over in a warm up run and severely muddy his tracksuit bottoms!!! Pleased to say he recovered his composure to run a good race.

As ever, well done all runners and supporters.

Len

19/12/07

Next Cross Country event will be the Worcestershire County Championships at Droitwich on Saturday 5th January 2008 (race times are shown in Fixtures).

The last Gloucester Cross Country League fixture will be at Plock Court in Gloucester on Saturday 2nd February 2008. Let’s have another big turnout and go for those medals – can the men hold off local team Gloucester AC to get vet’s team medals and can the women’s vets get team silver or even gold?

Men's Individual Results

Men’s Team Results

Men’s League positions after 3 races

Women’s team results

League position after 3 races