Saturday November 10th saw 45 Harriers toe the start lines at the various age-group races at the 2nd of the season's tough Gwent League cross-country matches held at Brecon. It was great to see so many out competing and the performances have bolstered our team standings in various age groups, with individual honours being taken by a host of athletes. Sam Somerville was stand out for his victory in the u15 boys, with Luke Prior 2nd in the same race. Matt Dickinson was 3rd in the combined u17/u20 men's race and was actually 1st u17. Charlotte Baker was as consistent as ever with another 6th place in the u15 girls race. In the seniors, Jon James & Lloyd Collins once again led the way: Jon 2nd for the V40s and Lloyd 1st for the V50s.
The Gwent League fixture was held at a new venue, Parc de Pugh, with the fast flat course adjoining the river and consisting of various circuits of the fields. First up was the Novices race where Luke Macpherson was again beaming from his 8th place achieved with a customary sprint finish to burst past three rivals in the last 100m. In the u13 boys' race we had a great squad of juniors competing: Alex Williams was yet again 6th, incredibly consistent, with Bradley Seager 7th and Luke Baker 9th. Joe Heath's 20th place ensured we finished 1st u13 boys team on the day and move to 3rd after the first two fixtures. They were ably backed up by Chris Ellis, 25th and Dylan Dukes 36th. Four of these boys will be young enough to compete in this age group again next year so that is some achievement, and they will take the experience gained here into their next competitive outing.
In the u15 girls race Charlotte Baker's 6th place was supported by Amy D'Arcy in 24th, Tash Jones 29th and Jess Morris 32nd. That's some good team running and this now moves us up to 5th team after the first two fixtures. The u15 boys saw a fantastic 1-2 for the Harriers. Sam's first place was as steady as ever, and with Luke again finishing 2nd all we needed was some other great performances to gain a good standing for the team.and sure enough James Bridge finished 6th and James Williams 12th to close for the team. Oliver Dickinson ran himself to a standstill for a gutsy 24th and Johnny Ellis was a great 29th. Having been in 2nd team place after fixture one, this performance moves the team to overall leader in the u15 boys group after two matches. Again three of this squad of 6 will be young enough to run in this age grouop next year so that's some good running.
For the u17 women, combined with the u20 womens race, Lilly Hawkins was an excellent 2nd for the u17s (7th overall) whilst Rebeca Carver was 5th (15th overall) and Abigail Gibbons was 13th (24th) which was some good running. These performances meant that they did enough to win on the day and are now out in front leading in the u17 womens table after two matches. For the u17 mens race, Matthew Dickinson was an excellent 1st here (3rd overall but those ahead were u20s) here with Phillip Bridge 8th (11th overall) and Matt Cole 13th (18th). This has now taken the team to top of the u17 mens table after two fixtures.
We managed to double the Harrier women competing here compared to the previous fixture. Well done to Gill Macpherson and Julia Dukes making their debuts this season and helping to gain valuable team points. Sam Baker was 88th, Cath Goldsmid 112th, Gill 134th and Julia 149th.
Then came the final fixture of the day where a huge field of 269 men finished the 10.3km circuit (two big laps). First in for the Harrier men was Jon James, 6th, with Jack Bancroft home in 24th, Lloyd Collins 40th, Jon Gilling 58th, Tom Dukes 92nd, Jon Rowe 108th, Graham Goldsmid 134th, Pete Darton 142nd, Simon Arnold 148th, Nathan Baker 172nd, Geoff Cole 193rd, Steve Dickinson 198th, Paul Chadwick 200th, Rex Whitcombe 222nd, Pete Wright 227th, and Adrian Bridge 244th.
That geat turn out of senior Harrier men placed us 5th team on the day and 6th after two fixtures. Steve Dickinson is in danger of winning most improved athlete for the Harriers with his performances, but all 15 of the men should be congratulated in contributing to our team effort.
After the first two matches we now have: Luke Prior leading for the u15 boys with James Williams and James Bridge 9th & 10th respectively; Lilly Hawkins 2nd and Rebecca Carver 5th after two matches for the u17 women; Matt Dickinson leading for the u17 men with Phillip Bridge in 4th place; Alex Williams in overall 6th place for the u13 boys;Charlotte Baker in overall 6th place for the u15 girls; Luke Macpherson in 10th overall for the novice boys. Harriers of any, and all, standards are invited to come and give cross-country a try at the 3rd fixture on Saturday December 1st at Blaise Castle, Bristol.
The Kelseys achieve a top ten finish!
Chris and Ben Kelsey finished 9th in the extremely tough and competitive two-day OMM held recently in the Howgills. Chris in probably his 20th+ outing at this event, and his son Ben, who has also now done a few, managed to navigate their way round the Long score course to finish on a great 595 points for the two days. The Original Mountain Marathon (formerly known as the KIMM) requires all competitors to navigate the course carrying all provisions for the two days and cope with a night out on the Fells. Using their well-honed orienteering skills and good endurance over the weekend they competed for a total time of 12 hours 44 mins, just inside the 13 hour cut-off. More information of this great event here http://www.theomm.com/
Wednesday's Street 5km race will be the 140th edition. We are still waiting to hear from anyone who reckons they have done over 100 of these races over the last 23 and a bit years! Can all Harriers please make it a priority to come and run in the event and if not racing then to help marshal at the event. In the accompanying junior races, over 1km and 2km, we almost had a new course record last month for the 2km event when Alex Williams ran a nippy 7.02 for the 2km course, just 4 seconds down on Luke Prior's March 2011 record time of 6.58 (how did he do that?)
The ballot for the Club's two London Marathon places was conducted at the track training session last Tuesday and of the 4 names in the hat, Ian Eddy pulled out Paul Maskell and Richard Morgan as the lucky recipients. We are stil seeing if we can source further places for Robert Moore and David Fussell. The training never stops.
There will be some social events coming up next month: the December Street 5km event (Dec 12th) will be the opportunity for as many of the Wednesday runners and all Club members to come and have a go at the course and enjoy mince pies, and a drink afterwards. Tuesday Dec 18th will see a parlauf event, based on the track at Millfield school where we will also encourage folk who don't usually come to that training session to come and give the Tuesday session a go. Clive will create teams of two for some friendly competition; with a small social event afterwards. Meanwhile Simon Prior has been given the go ahead to sort out a Wednesday evening skittles night at the Wells Rugby Club - watch out for details of the date.
TEAM DEADLINES: By December 1st please let Team managers know if you want to be entered for the County XC Championships (Univ of Bath, Sunday Dec 10th); and /or the SW XC Championships (Bicton College, Devon,Jan 6th); and/or the South of England Championships (London, Sat Jan 26th)