Wells City Harriers have once again been competing hard at the regional cross country races this past weekend. U11 Ruby Shaw (photo above) from our Monday training group repeated her previous victory when she won her race at the Wessex XC League making it two wins out of two. In the older age groups u15 Daisy Abernethy & senior woman Daisy Davies (both from our Yeovil partners) also won their respective races which were held at Bryanston School, Sherborne. Conditions underfoot were very tough due to the heavy rain on the Saturday.

 

This web report also looks forward to the next round of cross-country fixtures coming up, has a round up on the Somerset Race Series as we approach the final race, introduces our new website article feature 'Meet the Harriers', and calls for volunteers for the Street 5k Race Series. & Anyone for coaching?

 

 

The Wessex XC League event was well supported by the Harrier members from the Yeovil Olympiads partnership side of the Club. There is just the one fixture left in this particular League on Sunday 17^th December and Harriers are invited to register to compete at least 10 days before that event using the link as found on the Team tab of the website. Entry to the League is free for all Harriers from the Yeovil or Wells side of the joint Club as the Harriers pay an affiliation fee to support the League.

 

 

Wessex XC League results

U11 girls:

1^st Ruby Shaw

U11 boys:

4^th Dylan Mason

9^th Rowan Kelly

20^th Milo Cook

U13 girls:

7^th Sadie Littlechild

11^th Xavia Bennett

U13 boys:

10th Jamie Dawson

16^th Dominic Cook

U15 girls:

1^st Daisy Abernethy

6^th Isobel Stacey

7^th Esme Littlechild

8^th Vienna Townsend

U15 boys:

4^th Elliott Ware

8^th Harry Dawson

U17 women:

2^nd Daisy Davies

5^th Amelie Cook

9^th Mikaela Harnett

U17 men:

3^rd Joseph Usher

4^th Dexter Townsend

10^th Charlie Brand

SW

1^st Daisy Davies

SM

13^th Laurence Badman

28^th Geoff Cole

34^th Howard Harnett

(Reporting on races? – as usual if there’s anyone taking part or supporting at these races who can write a report using the results, or take a photograph, and then send through for the website that’s appreciated – I only get to hear from the Monday juniors I coach. Send to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and either myself or the Harrier Secretary will edit and add to the website for record)

Below - u11 Ruby after her 2nd victory in this League.

The next competitive cross-country fixture, however, will be the 2^nd set of races in the Gwent XC League taking place on Saturday November 11th at Cardiff, which includes the national Cross Challenge event so for sure there will be some talented runners from across the UK taking part. Again, entry for Harriers in the Gwent League fixture is free to compete here and any Harrier needing to be registered should contact either Jon James at Tuesday training or the Harrier Secretary Alexander Coombs at least 48 hours before the event.

 

Looking further ahead, many of the Harrier competitive members are now gearing up their training ready for the County Cross Country Championships to be held in December. Full details of how to enter the races, to be held at the University of Bath on Sunday the 10^th will be on the Team tab of the website when entries open. Entries will probably close a week ahead of the event. Contact the Secretary if you need any further information. See: Cross Country (wellscityharriers.co.uk)

 

 

Somerset Race Series 2023

 

With just the one race to go in this year’s Series we have some Wells City Harriers high up in the overall rankings.

F35 Rosie Park is currently in overall 2^nd place, 1^st F35.

Senior woman Louisa Saunders is in overall 5^th place, 2^nd senior woman

F55 Cath Goldsmid is in overall 11^th place and is 2^nd F55

F65 Kim Clarke is in overall 13^th place and leads for the F65 category

V60 Graham Goldsmid is in overall 4^th place for the men and leads the V60 category

V70 Chris Clarke is in overall 17^th place and leads the V70 category

All of the above Harriers have now completed at least 8 races (8 to count in the Series) 

 

& Can Matt win the Series? 

Up and coming maybe through the rankings is Senior Man Matt Lusby who has completed 7 races and needs to run the final race to count. He currently has 17 points from 7 races (ie averaging 2nd or 3rd place every race so far). If he repeats anything like the same again he will be overall Somerset Series Champion for 2023! I look forward to seeing him there.

Final Series race: Brent Knoll 5.7 mile fell race on Sunday 26th November – a great hilly running circuit – entries open now. See: BRENT KNOLL MT (somersetseries.com) 

 

Note: The Somerset Series was started long ago to encourage runners of all abilities and ages to race at the local races across the County which are either organised by the local Running Clubs, or are supported in some shape or form by them - in this latter category the races at Babcary, Butleigh and Baltonsborough are supported by the Harriers and are included in the annual Series. I anticipate that the 2024 Series will start on New Years Day with the Chard Flyer 10k - lovely little race to blow the cobwebs off!

Training update - anyone for coaching?

The Club’s Monday night training sessions under the floodlights at Millfield School continue to attract some talented runners and training is now heavily geared to those who will be competing for the Club at cross country fixtures. Photo below from this week's session. 

 

Competitive youngsters age 9 and over are encouraged to enter the County XC Championships, and the Club would be pleased if there were one or two parents who will team manage at that event. Please let the Club Secretary know if you can do that.

 

If there are any budding athletes out there who want to compete for the Club at cross-country and want to join the training groups then they are invited to contact the Secretary. Age 14 and over for the Tuesday session and age 8-15 for the Monday session. (Note: Waiting list for the 8-10 year olds for 'Fun Athletics' at present).

 

 

Any Harrier member who would like to help coach at these sessions should contact us so that the Club can maintain and expand these sessions going forward as a few of our older coaches, including myself, reduce our input. See Coaching (wellscityharriers.co.uk)

 

 

Meet the Harriers

We are excited to announce our new website feature 'Meet the Harriers'. Here you will get an insight of what it is like to be a member of Wells City Harriers and learn about the successes, achievements and personalities of our members. Our first feature is of Harrier member and coach Jon James. Click here to read his interview. Be sure to check back to read about our next featured Harrier. You can find the articles under the 'About' tab on the menu, then select 'Meet the Harriers'. 

 

Street 5k – number 199 next Wednesday

Wednesday 8^th November sees the 199^th running of the 5k race at Street, starting at 7.30pm, with entries now available online following the links off RunBritain and via the Harrier website. Accompanying the 5k race will be races over 1k and 2k for juniors – School year 5 & 6 for the 1k race; and School years 7 & 8 for the 2k race. Entry on the night for the junior races and limited entry on the night for the 5k from 6.30pm. Prizes awarded straight afterwards in the Race HQ in the usual age categories.

Plans are also in hand for the 200^th running of the Street 5k race in December on the 13^th. This will be a great milestone for the Club which started organising the monthly races back in 1989, and have taken place every autumn and winter month since then other than when Covid restrictions prevented their taking place.

 

 

As usual, these events don’t happen without a lot of activity behind the scenes and on the night by Harriers – so if you’re a Harrier member, or you are a parent of a junior member, please offer to volunteer next Wednesday or at one of the subsequent Street races that run monthly through to March.

Is there anyone who can take some photographs and write up the usual web report after the races? Anyone who would like to bake a cake or two for the 200^th birthday – we had a lovely one when we celebrated the Street 5k 20^th year birthday! (see photo on the history tab). 

 

ANNUAL DINNER - all members should have received an email on 1st November about the Harrier Annual Dinner to be held on Friday 8th December - check your inbox. Bookings with menu choices needed soon.

 

& Finally....News for the website? As usual we need reports in Arial 12 point and good quaity photographs preferably by the Monday night 8pm for that week's web report - an abbreviated version & photos are sent into the local Mid Somerset News series of newspapers by the Tuesday morning. Send to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.