CLUBNEWS

5^th FEBRUARY, 2008

2^ND February – European Clubs’ Championship, Albufeira, Portugal

CONTINENTAL HIGH SPOT ON THE ALGARVE

Leeds City Senior Men’s Harriers’ squad’s third tilt at the European Clubs’ was by some distance their best yet. Sixth place in a race of considerable quality, two higher than their previous best, is particularly creditable as the team was weakened at the last moment when Martin Gostling’s creaky Achilles (which put him out of the Northern) didn’t allow him to run and the squad was cut to five. This meant that nobody could afford a bad run; and nobody had one. The following report of the lads’ efforts was e-mailed to Clubnews (via Greg Hull) from Simon Deakin:-

“This event is open to the Champion Clubs of each European nation and, given the varied standard of distance running across the continent, features a fairly wide spread of abilities from the best Europe has to offer (the fully supported and sponsored Portuguese and Spanish outfits for example) through the more typical "Harrier" style Northern European clubs to the likes of Luxembourg and Liechtenstein. Past experiences have shown that we would be unlikely to compete with the top 3 sponsored teams so sights were set on a 4th place finish which would rank as a victory against the "proper" clubs.

The course itself turned out to be the same one used for the well established and high quality "Almond Blossom" cross country races and was typically European in character being set within a compact area and featuring many tight turns and short hills and generally being firm, but a little sandy underfoot. Parliament Hill or Roundhay Park it wasn't but, combined with the strength of the opposition, there was no doubt that the ten-kilometre course was going to represent a severe test of our abilities. As expected the pace was furious from the off and James Walsh and Simon Deakin made fast starts sitting a few seconds off the leaders in the top two dozen. Darran Bilton, Mike Burrett and Martin Hilton, all affected by injury or illness to one degree or another opted for a more measured approach and settled in further back. By the end of the second lap James and Simon were running together on the edge of the top twenty, and Mike was beginning to make progress, overhauling Darran, who's sore Achilles tendon was not enjoying the firm surface. Martin, also suffering from Achilles and feet problems was having difficulty getting into his stride.

On the third of the five laps James made a decisive move away from Simon and setting his sights on a small group in front continued his progress strongly to end up in an excellent 17^th place. This is the best anyone from the club has managed in this event by quite a margin and confirmed the Midland champion's good form from the previous weekend. Simon faded slightly to lose a couple of places on the final circuit to claim 24^th position, while Mike continued his positive progress, pulling through all the way to 51^st. Darran rounded out the scoring four in 63^rd with Martin backing up in 77^th place. This all added up to 155 points and 6^th position, only a handful of points off the Czech team in 5th and not far off the Turkish team (spearheaded by the redoubtable Anus Selmouni) in 4th. There seems little doubt that a fully fit and healthy team would have been able to score at least 40-50 points less, which would comfortably claim that 5th place and possibly even challenge for 4th spot.

The general feeling was that this represents an excellent performance against high quality opposition. As the strength and depth of the team continues to improve one had to wonder what the club’s ultimate potential in this competition might be. Hopefully, one day, we'll get to find out!”

Both Simon and The Scribe may be indulging in pipe-dreams, but the latter recalls that about seven or eight years ago the Seniors were running about fifth or sixth in the National, slowly improving their position and getting used to the depth of the ‘bigger pond’ they found themselves in. How about it, then, lads??

2^nd February – West Yorkshire Schools’ Championships, Batley

TEN GO NATIONAL

Assuming that the normal policy is followed (and it usually is) ten Club members will have selected themselves for the West Yorkshire team for the English Schools’ event in March, and the only event where there won’t be a Club representative will be the Intermediate Girls, in which Rachael May, who had a good run in 15^th place, was the sole contestant. Best individual finish among the girls came in the Senior Girls, with Sophie Waterhouse giving Chloe Patchett a contest and finishing second; Jodie Gregorczyk in 8^th place also secured her place. Johanna Wilton’s 5^th in the Junior Girls completed the Senior qualifiers, and it wasn’t too much of a surprise that the hills of Batley were to her liking; Chloe Harley (15) and Becky Whitfield (29) were about where the previous week’s form would have placed them, and did themselves justice, while in 27^th the younger Georgia Yearby showed again she has potential.

There was only one individual County champion this year; the honour went to Elliot Todd in the Junior Boys, and after his storming performance at Roundhay it came as no great shock. If there was a shock in that race is was that, in spite of Gordon Benson having a great deal better run than the previous week in 6^th place, he was the Club’s third man in – because Alex Hart produced one completely out of the hat to finish one ahead of him. Mike Wood placed a comfortable third in the Intermediate Boys, where he’s at the lower end of the age-group, and Lee Allsopp had a sound effort in 14^th. James Wilkinson finished second to Jonathan Brownlee in the Senior Lads, and will be joined by Mike Salter (who was one behind him) and Geoff Belcher, who placed 6^th; in 11^th place Mark Lunn had another better run, in spite of the results recorder seeming to think he was running in the wrong age-group!

TALES OF SUCCESS AND ERROR

The usual reason for people entering the Dewsbury 10k is to get a fast time (it certainly ain’t for the scenery!), but this year’s entrants were frustrated by the continuing howling gale which seems to have blown all week; when the consistent Dominic banister takes over 31 minutes to win a race that usually has several under thirty there’s clearly been some odd conditions. Nevertheless there was another first-class team performance, and some excellent individual efforts, on Sunday, with pride of place going to Susan Partridge as first woman home in 20^th place, in an excellent 34.02; she not only beat Blackburn’s Pauline Powell (who’s a former Northern cross-country champion, remember) by 49 seconds but if she could have found the four seconds extra to get in front of Arthur Cooke she’d have counted on the winning men’s team! Arthur’s run (33.59) was an excellent one, emphasising his recent good form, while in 15^th Scott Mitchell (33.38) took a further long step back to form; but star of the male show was Chris Birchall, in a close third place just 16 second down on Dom and twelve on Dave Norman. Chris is really coming back from a patchy year or so at just the right time, and according to Roger Norton looked strong and fluent. Andy Cartwright, who had a good Northern, returned to the tarmac he prefers and got in 43^rd (35.50) probably his highest placing in this race; while in 59^th Trevor Clough (36.49) was second Over-50 finisher. On the distaff side Sorrel Hoare turned out in her first big-field road race since joining, and considering she’s still gaining experience in racing 44.48 and 364^th on 1097 finishers was a good effort.

While waiting for March 1^st when he becomes a ‘real’ Leeds City member and counts in team races Alan Buckley isn’t sitting twiddling his thumbs. He took part in the high-quality Alsager 5-Mile Road Race on Sunday, which incorporated an Inter-Counties race judging by the vests on view in the race pictures, and finished 6^th behind Belgrave’s Phil Wicks, representing the South. It was clearly a hard-fought race; Alan’s 24.20 was only eleven seconds adrift of second place.

When The Scribe gets an e-mail accounting for a member for finishing further down the field than expected due to arriving at the wrong place or time, there can really only be one conclusion – Sean Cotter’s at it again! ‘Scooter’ went to take part in the first race of the Yorkshire Veterans Grand Prix Series on Sunday, and somehow got to the wrong bit of Horsforth (“I don’t feel entirely daft,” he reports, “as another runner went to the same place.”) Having got to the correct spot and set off about 1½ minutes adrift of the rest, he “had to work through the entire field and was hampered by narrow tracks where I couldn’t pass the slower runners.” He managed to work up to 9^th in an official 29.52 (“I timed myself at 28.25 and should have got third.”); two other Club members in John Mace (61^st in 37.10 and 7th Over-55 in spite of his exertions on Brian Hilton’s 60^th-birthday bash the previous day) and Dave Barras (72^nd in 38.27 on a course that didn’t really suit him) carried the colours.

One we missed last week was Richard Strachan’s victory in the 400m at the Northern Ireland Indoor Championships at Belfast in the comparatively (for Richard) slow time of 47.53; but to say there were extenuating circumstances is putting it mildly! Invited by Gary O’Neill (who ran 52.0 in the heats and didn’t get through) to go over to sample the hospitality and competition of his home province, the pair were involved in a saga which, as related to The Scribe, involved a broken-down car, two tow-trucks, a missed flight, a dash by two trains and a bus to catch the Holyhead ferry, a train from Dublin, a flat with no electricity and a midnight search for a hotel! To misquote Doctor Johnson, “it was not done quickly, but the wonder is it was done at all.”

ONE SMALL ERROR FROM THE SCRIBE

Apologies are due to Jack Mosley – the Scribe claimed last week that he didn’t reach either Final in the Under-15 Indoor Championships at Sheffield, when he actually qualified for the 200m Final.