Birmingham Cross Country League

Coundon Hall Park, Coventry

Saturday 14th February 2009

Above: How’s that for team work – four B&R runners emerge from the trees at the end of the first lap.

Above: Calvin leading James but the younger runner was to prevail by just 14 seconds.

Despite the temperature being plus five degrees (according to Andy’s car), B&R’s runners were greeted by swathes of ice-covered water at Coundon Hall Park for the last Birmingham League fixture of the season. With B&R safe in the upper half of the table but out of reach of the promotion places it was a case of making sure that we didn’t slip from 6th place and a final chance for personal battles. B&R’s first four runners, James, Calvin, Simon and Kevin pushed each other on and all finished in the first forty. James led the team in but Calvin continued his improvement finishing in his best league position to be 31st. Simon beat Kevin by four places to win the latest round of that family competition.

Above: Richard keeps ahead of a runner from Sphinx.

Above: Andy battles it out with one of the host team Northbrook.

There was a short gap to our fifth finisher Richard Dando and Dave Daniels ran a strong second half in the race to be sixth scorer for the team. Mike Hanson had been our fifth scorer in the last race at Wyken and decided to run even though he had been ill this week. He admitted that this might have been the wrong decision as he was unwell and had to step of the course near the end of the second lap however he recovered and made up many of the places he had lost, including passing Phil Anderson and Andy again. Andy admitted that his legs had felt tired but Phil couldn’t close the gap over the last lap. The two Phils had another close contest with Phil Anderson getting his nose in front on the first lap but never breaking clear from Phil Richardson – they were eye to eye either side of the hedge at the end of each of the three laps. Having put the club tent up, with many envious glances from the other canvas-free teams, chairman Len elected to run. Unfortunately his leg injury began to play up and as the club had only 11 starters and could not complete a B team, he retired to save himself for the rigours of Parliament Hill next week. The A team finished a creditable 6th on the day and the club remained 6th overall. Promisingly two juniors, James and Simon, featured prominently in the scoring six. Thanks to Tony Woodward, John Dineen, James Hart and Lewis Anderson for supporting the team at Coventry. Thanks to all the runners who turned out for the club this season, to the supporters who braved the elements and to Len for managing the team throughout the season.

Above: Phil Anderson tries to hold his position against runners from Kidderminster & Stourport and Sphinx.

Above: Phil Richardson pulls away from a Sparkhill runner.

Above: Len was running well early on but was to step off to protect an injury.

Congratulations to City of Stoke, Wolverhampton & Bilston and Bournville for winning promotion to the first division – Bournville’s achievement was notable given that it was their second promotion in a row. In the first division, Coventry Godiva had 4 runners in the first five finishers at Plock Court in Gloucester as they clinched the league title well clear of Birmingham University and Tipton Harriers. At Stafford Common in Division Three, Cannock & Stafford were first on the day but second-placed Royal Sutton Coldfield clinched the title.

B&R’s next cross country fixture will be the English National Championships in London next Saturday. The final fixture in the Gloucester league at Leamington Spa which was postponed because of bad weather will probably be held on Saturday 28th February.

(P. Anderson)

B&R Performances at Coundon Hall Park

Position	Name	Time
28	James Hood	40:20
31	Calvin Scoltock	40:34
38	Simon Lanckham	40:48
40	Kevin Lanckham	40:51
58	Richard Dando	42:19
105	Dave Daniels	44:54
120	Mike Hanson	45:54
130	Andy Freeman	46:34
140	Phil Anderson	47:01
144	Phil Richardson	47:26
DNF	Len Quartly

210 finishers

Team results

Pos.	Club	Pts.	Total pts.	Final pos.
1	City of Stoke	106	491	1
2	Wolverhampton & Bilston	132	582	2
3	Bournville	186	647	3
4	Gloucester A.C.	191	784	4
5	Worcester A.C.	222	986	5
6	Bromsgrove & Redditch  A.C.	300	1267	6
7	Northbrook A.C.	335	1435	7
8	Sphinx A.C.	366	1796	12
9	Stourbridge R.C.	381	1472	8
10	Tamworth A.C.	399	1780	10
11	Dudley & Stourbridge	407	1781	11
12	Newcastle (Staffs.) A.C.	446	2289	18
13	Stratford upon Avon A.C.	453	1732	9
14	Dudley Kingswinford	458	1968	15
15	Sparkhill Harriers	466	1963	14
16	West Bromwich Harriers	551	2178	16
17	Leamington C. & A.C.	591	2204	17
18	Kidderminster & Stourport	764	1958	13

Click for full results