CLUBNEWS
8th JANUARY, 2008
5th January – Yorkshire Cross-Country Championships, Huddersfield
STORMING REVIVAL LEADS GOOD MEDAL HAUL
People could be forgiven for moaning that a Championship being held round a school playing-field was bound to produce a ‘soft’ course – that is, if they didn’t know the topography of Huddersfield. Fartown High School has fields cut out of an area which resemble a fell-side; starting about fifty feet below the school, the back end of the lap is above the level of the roof. There was a fair bit of flat running, separated by short but vicious climbs and descents, and the recent rain and snow ensured that the course would cut up. In short it was a fair test; and it was one that Leeds City’s members by and large passed, bringing home one title, two sets of Silver medals and one of Bronze, and producing the biggest turn-out of female Seniors for years. The only disappointment was that in four of the ten age-groups the Club didn’t put out a team; but in one of those nobody did, and in each of them there were meritorious individual performances.
Two races only saw one Leeds City participant. The Under-13 Boys saw the cross-country debut of Luke Murray, who’s done well in every other event he’s had a shot at; and his 11th place in this seems to indicate that he’ll progress, though as The Scribe was wrestling with the Club tent at the time he didn’t see much of this one. The other solo effort came from Sophie Waterhouse in the Under-17 Women, and was as gutsy a race as she’s produced; she didn’t go off as a Rotherham trio attempted successfully to take the field to the cleaner’s, but was never far away, and on the second lap made a determined effort to work up to fourth-placed Clare Lilley, closing dramatically at one point. Perhaps she pushed a bit too hard, and wilted a little on the last lap to 7th; but if she continues to work the way she is doing in training the day’s going to come when Sophie will push hard and not wilt. It may be a hard lesson learned, but one aspect of the learning is that she’s good enough to be up there.
There was no team either in the Under-20 Men (who ran part-way with the Seniors) but that was because James Wilkinson and Joe Townsend were representing the North in Belfast and Alex Davy was present but unwell. In addition James Lavin slipped on one of the greasier corners of the course and had a bit of a hard landing, not enough to cause serious damage but quite enough to knock the stuffing out of him. Spike Williams, who should have gone to Belfast but pulled out, was well up with the Seniors early on but having missed a bit of pre-Christmas training had a bit of a later wilt; he’d have been pushed to catch Jonathan Brownlee anyway, and third wasn’t a bad effort at all. Mike Salter in fifth place had one of his better cross-country days, and should gain County selection from it. The Under-13 Girls team was another that The Scribe missed due to tent-wrestling; the team finished last of the 17 finishers (a good overall turn-out) but not by a lot; India Wilson (48) and Holly Wilton (57) had good runs to form, but Grace Coburn (54) seemed to be suffering a bit from Christmas.
The only other team out of the medals was the Senior Women, but the remarkable spectacle after previous comparatively fallow years was the sight of twelve Leeds City athletes facing the starter – including two Under-20s, who ran with them. (There isn’t a separate team race, and only Rotherham found a theoretical three.) On the official result sheet the A team finished 8th, one behind Holmfirth’s B team; but the race was only three to count, and had it been the four that the Northern and National demand it would have been a different tale, with the Club in a narrow third place. It would have better represented the turn-outs from the clubs; with winners Hallamshire finishing eight, Holmfirth nine and Leeds City twelve, they provided nearly a third of the field.
Individually Alex Gostling (9) led the squad home, but not as convincingly as she might have due to still feeling the effects of a heavy cold; in the circumstances it was a gutsy run. Celia de Maria (31) is still feeling a foot injury, and was a bit tentative; the bonus for her was finishing without too much trouble and being all right the next day. For most of the three laps there was the pleasing spectacle of Rachael Woodnutt looking much more like the Rachael of old, and battling well; but although she held on well, she was passed on the last lap by an even more striking performer in Alison Varley, whose performances on comparatively little training have been quite remarkable. The pair finished 34th and 36th (Alison was 5th Veteran), two really battling runs; and they’ll have to keep looking over their shoulders, as Fiona Maddocks (43) continued her improvement in her first competitive winter and Jennie Guard (48) also took another long step back to form. The other sextet had a battle royal further down the field, never being separated by much; leading home the C team was Jodie Gregorczyk (68), who was 7th Under-20 to finish and may just get a County vest out of it, just holding off by one place another welcome returnee in Anna Martin, who looked better on the mud than for a long time. Two places further back there was a Presidential contribution from Veronique Marot, while another three behind Jenny Harrison, looking a lot more comfortable on the soft going, just held off a striking debutant in Sorrell Hoare. Sorrell Who, readers may ask? Well, as Sorrell’s only been a member for about five weeks and is just getting used to squad training there may be a lot more to come from her. Rebecca Devney (80) weakened a bit on the last lap of what was only her second Senior-level race, but is still looking more like her old self.
In the Under-15 Girls’ race the very juvenile Leeds City team gave a good account of itself in the most competitive team race of the day; ten points separated the first four, and the Gold and Silver were decided on last counter. Furthermore, with four to count they’d have been very close to second.
Again, a leading group went away early; the Leeds girls weren’t with them, but came through from the twenties early on. The heavy going and sharp climbs might have been expected to suit Johanna Wilton, and she was always the leader of the bunch, coming home in 11th place; Emily Robinson was up with her going out on the second lap, but Caitlin Regan came through strongly as Emily had a little ‘wobble,’ and the pair finished 15th and 17th respectively. (One point, made by a bystanding coach – several Leeds City athletes in this and other races, including Caitlin, lost ground going downhill, and there might be a case for some technique coaching.) Once again Chloe Harley backed up strongly in 23rd, another solid effort away from the track; Rachel May had a good-looking run in 33rd, and the B team was rounded off by Katie Seddon, who overcame a shaky patch to finish 39th.
The Under-15 and Under 17 Lads both got Sliver medals – in Mike Wood’s case a pair, as he finished second after a three-way ding-dong which went right down to the last double descent. The team race was just as close, and probably turned on Elliot Todd not finishing; he’s had a stomach upset over Christmas, started to see how things went, but was never really with it and was probably wise to come out. Gordon Benson rose to the occasion, and produced a fearsome finish which took him through to 6th and to within three second of fourth; Alex Hart, who’s turning into a regular battler, ground his way through to 22nd, and Robert Torch, knowing he had to hold up the team, ran himself into the mud to make 26th – but against a strong Richmond & Zetland quartet it wasn’t quite enough.
There was a battle in the older lads’ race as well, but it was one in which Geoff Belcher came off a bit the worse for wear; having taken a field to the cleaner’s in December he had another bash, but Jack Hallas and Abdirasak Ahmed were too strong on this occasion and he went back to fifth. The promising sight in this race was the appearance of Will Plastow in a blue and yellow vest, having swapped Ilkely for Leeds City only a week earlier; 14th indicates that once he’s cleared for team competition he’s going to be an asset. Eddie Mason (17) had an up-and-down race, looking decidedly wobbly about half-way round but coming through well in the latter stages, while Danny Davies (22) ran a much more confident race and Mark Lunn (25) started near the back and progressed through the field steadily for the entire distance to record his best-ever County finish.
And so to the Seniors – and there were premonitions of doom. Beaten by Bingley in the West Yorkshire League, with threats of the Blue and Whites’ big guns being brought out, short of all the members who represent other counties (there was the possibility of Leeds City athletes winning four other County Championships!) and Dave Webb running for the north in Belfast, and with several member carrying injuries, creaks or indifferent form, even Arthur Cockcroft was predicting “we could be no better than third,” while a Bingley member was overheard by Darran Bilton to comment on the starting line, “I reckon we’ve got it this year.” That was before the start; but by the end of the first lap the nerves were settled as every one of the nineteen Club members, but especially the leading six, set about rising to the occasion. By the send of the second lap there were six Blue and Amber vests in 30; by the third six in 22; and on the last lap it was a magnificent six in 17! To rub it in the sixth Bingley scorer finished only two places ahead of Arthur Cooke – who was rounding off the B team – and there were another four in the first hundred.
Nobody from the Club challenged the magnificent battle for the medals – not decided until the last lap – but there were some most heartening runs. Martin Gostling (6) led the challenge for most of the way, never dropping below 10th, working up to 6th, and still being in with a running chance of 4th with half a mile to go. Chris Birchall (10), who’s struggled for form for eighteen months, suddenly found it and ran like the Chris of two years ago, while Mike Burrett (12), who’s been in his own words “running like a donkey” all winter, suddenly took on a thoroughbred’s stride again. Most remarkable was the performance of Martin Hilton, plagued by foot troubles and allegedly on the verge of retirement, who reckoned he’d be happy jogging round in the fifties but once the gun went was right up there with the gang; he was caught on the last lap by Adam Osborne, well over his traumas in Singapore and looking powerful, and the pair finished 14th and 15th – just keeping in front of Darran, who came through in the last two laps like a thunderbolt to wrap the team up in 17th. Not bad, as The Scribe said, for half a team!
That was far from the end of it. Aidan Adams and Mark Bryant had a race-long battle in the thirties, to be joined – and split – by Nick Hooker running out of his skin in his first Senior Championship; the trio finished 31st, 32nd and 33rd. Sean Cotter (who as usual got to the start line with about a minute to spare!) ran his usual battling effort, moving through steadily to 42nd, only to be shot past on the last circuit by Yorkshire’s Youngest Middle-Aged Man, Martin Farran, who revelled in his local knowledge (he trains on the abandoned railway line that runs past the school) to finish a splendid 39th – seven better than his age! With Arthur in 45th the B team finished a fine 5th. Two more very young debutant Seniors – Oliver Ziff (52) and James Dean (74) – made a major contribution to the first C team (as far as The Scribe is aware) ever to finish in the first ten; sandwiched between them Pete Steel (63) and Andy Cartwright (71) both produced workmanlike performances. Simon Hill (having another good run to form in 123rd) and the recovered Alistair Davy (153 – it was good to see the Old Gentleman disporting himself again) made up the numbers, and for good measure there was John Mace – at not far short of 60 running his first Senior Championship and making a fair fist of it in 158th.
SUCCESS OVER THE WATER FOR THE MISSING BODIES
The trio of Club members who went to represent the North at the UK Cross Challenge in Belfast (and which genius in Birmingham organised that on County Championship weekend?) did rather well for themselves. Dave Webb finished fifth in a Senior race with a leavening of Africans at the front, while James Wilkinson was second in the Under-20 race and Joe Townsend (called up very late to replace Spike Williams) justified his place by finishing 9th.
26th December – Boxing Day Handicap, Harehills
WEBMASTER EVADES TWONS AND REAPS REWARD
However fulsome his Christmas presents to his family and others might be, however frequently he stands his round on festive occasions, there is one activity which causes Phil Townsend to mutter annually the words, “Bah, Humbug” – and that’s compiling the seasonal handicaps. On Boxing Day he usually contrives to produce an extremely tight-run thing, and 2007 was no exception. Apart from a couple of tail-enders, the whole field was in within 1¼ minutes, with but two exceptions – Luke Atkin about half a minute off the back, and the winner a full minute and a half in front!
How did Twons get it so wrong? Well, it has to be remembered that in the last six months Janek Popiolek has had a deep-vein thrombosis and fluid on the lungs, has only just got back to running, has been four minutes behind other vets. on training runs and finished up by being misdirected in the Deserters’ Dash; after that lot he possibly deserved Phil’s Christmas Present. Furthermore, having found the field not coming back to him, he ‘dug in’ and held his nerve, proving again that even if you get a generous mark you’ve still got to run off it. However, make the most of it, ‘Pop’ – you know you’ll never get it again!
The rest of the field saw some real battling, with Phil’s handicapping being close enough for the back-markers to be ‘in with a shout’ with one to go but careful enough to give the front-markers chance to hold on – which by and large they did. (Results elsewhere on the site) Up the last straight Alison Varley managed to face off the challenges of the Williams family (Spike, recovering from sore shins, let brother Matthew and Dad Mark get close up) and Old lag Graham Needham; a determined climb just did the trick. The outstanding time came, to few people’s surprise, from James Wilkinson, who, going off the back with Chris Birchall ten seconds in front, blazed round to become possibly the youngest athlete to go under the magic thirteen minutes for the Five Laps of Fury. Nick Hooker (13.25) and Joe Townsend (13.29) were also pretty sharp (especially Joe, who’s also been carting a creak), while Chris’ 13.33 looked to have more of an edge. Also noteworthy were Sean Cotter (who didn’t actually try to enter his dogs!) the Handicapper himself (given an unexpected 20-second ‘lift’ due to poor communication between Judge and Timekeeper – who was responsible will be mercifully censored!), and Tony Gill, running either his 24th or 25th consecutive Boxing Day.
NEW YEAR, NEW AGE-GROUP, MORE POTS
On December 19th Trevor Clough turned 50. It took him exactly ten days to start reeling in the pots in his new age-group; he finished 71st in a quick 35.48 at the Ribble Valley 10k at Clitheroe, which was enough for third place. It hasn’t taken him long to find out there are some pretty quick Over-50s around either.
Actually, the first result of 2008 came from the Far East – Cleethorpes! Scott Mitchell became the first reported Pot-Hunter of 2008, finishing third in the Cleethorpes 10k and second proto-Vet behind the winner – one Mick Jagger. (Not that one! – this one at least got the satisfaction of beating Scott!) Judging from Scott’s time of 34.08 – 40 seconds or so down on the winner – it was wither hilly, windy or cold.