The third Chiltern League fixture of the season saw the team make the short hop up the M1 to Stopsley Park in Luton. This event doubled as the senior cross-country club championships so there were club medals as well as valuable league points up for grabs.
The course at Stopsley is a regular feature on the circuit but was much changed for this edition. The course normally features a tough climb up a steep hill but due to a dispute between the council and a local landowner, the route was altered to take the hill out and the result was a relatively flat and in the words of some’ rather boring’ course. The weather was kind and there was relatively little mud to impede runners progress.
The womens team was somewhat depleted due to the absence of several runners because of illness and injury. The team showed the strength in depth that has developed in recent seasons as other runners stepped up to make up for the absence of others. Claire Hallissey had a fine run and enjoyed her best ever placing in coming 7th overall and taking the outright club championship prize. Katy Warren also achieved her best ever placing, coming in the top 20. Backed up by Kerry Ardley, Georgi Mann, Becky Fawcett and Celia Findlay the team had all 6 scorers home inside the top 50 places which was good enough for a solid 4th place in the match. This means that the team are in third place after three fixtures. In the veteran ladies event, the team secured an excellent 2nd place on the day which has also lifted them to 2nd spot in the division.
The mens team continued their excellent form with another fine performance to finish in 7th on the day and retain their 7th place overall, just a few points behind the team in 6th. This represents a huge improvement for the mens team compared with pervious seasons and was exemplified by the near record turn out for the team.
Like Claire in the ladies race, our first man home got enjoyed his best ever placing. In finishing 25th Rhys Rowlands enjoyed a great run, working his way through the field after a steady start. James French and Jamie Marlow produced good runs to finish in the top 50. Excellent running by their team mates saw good ‘packing’ right through the field to produce another excellent team result as well as there being several tussles for club championship medals.
Overall in the league standings which includes the junior teams, the club stand an excellent 6th place out of 14 teams in Division One. We now look forward to the next fixture in the New Year at Keysoe and before that at the county championships at Stevenage on 5th January.
Very well done everybody. The full results are below including club championship medal winners.
Pos
25 Rhys Rowlands 34:18 Senior Gold and overall winner
39 James French 35:22 Senior Silver
46 Jamie Marlow 35:45 Senior Bronze
63 Matt Hamilton 36:36
67 Phillip Oddy 36:48
75 Mike Carpenter 37:09
92 Ben Stratford 37.57
102 Chris Marriott 38.48
123 Peter Nagy 39:53
129 Vadim Sumenkov 40:35
138 Benjamin Kenny 41:25
148 Gareth Clark 42:00 V40 Gold
149 Steven Russell 42:01 V40 Silver
153 Andrew Fulford 42:07
159 Paul Coleman 42:28
165 Richard Slack 43:00 V40 Bronze
180 Adrian Marshall 44:43
192 Danny Wells 45:54
195 Harry Gillian 46:35
198 Simon Whiting 46:53
202 Bill Wylie 47:25
204 Philip Pugh 47:56 V60 Gold
205 John Stevens 48:02 V60 Silver
210 Robert Davies 49:22
214 Ashley Gingell 50:22
216 Matthew David Stears 51:43 V60 Bronze
221 Casper Du Buisson 54:48
222 John Slack 56:23 V70 Gold
224 Alan Grover 59:07 V50 Gold
6 Claire Hallissey 21:35 V35 Gold and outright winner
18 Katy Warren 23:08 Senior Gold
25 Kerry Ardley 23:35 V40 Gold
31 Georgina Mann 24:06 Senior Silver
37 Becky Fawcett 24:28 V35 Silver
49 Celia Findlay 25:32 V50 Gold
57 Sophie Routledge 25:50 Senior Bronze
68 Louise Flower 26:44
73 Danielle Hall 27:16
95 Claire Sanders 29:01 V35 Bronze
112 Gemma Carpenter 30:20
114 Karen Wass 30:29 V40 Silver
117 Carole Pitts 30:44 V50 Silver
118 Erica Klein 30:51
120 Penny Wallduck 31:06 V50 Bronze
126 Denise Burford 31:56 V40 Bronze
130 Paige Nicklin 32:51
