CLUBNEWS

12^th FEBRUARY, 2008

9/10^th February – U.K. Indoor Championships, Sheffield

THIRD IN BRITAIN, SECOND IN YORKSHIRE!

In the far-distant days of The Scribe’s youth a remarkable record was set by former member Chris Hudson; he finished second in the Yorkshire Championships eleven times in the same event (800m/880yds) between about 1959 and 1972 without ever winning it, because his career clashed with that of York-based four-minute miler Walter Wilkinson. It’s just possible that a similar distinction might just fall to Richard Strachan, and remarkably it’s again a York-based athlete – Richard Buck – who stands between him and winning things at the moment. Certainly nobody could argue with Richard’s efforts this weekend at the E.I.S.; comfortably second in his heat in 48.59, third in his Semi-Final, though slowest qualifier in 48.12, and then on Sunday finding the bit extra to finish ahead of theoretically quicker men in 47.99. Meanwhile, however, the other Richard took the Gold with a PB of 46.53. It could still mean a trip to the European Indoors for ‘Strach,’ however, which isn’t to be sneezed at.

Matt Hudson also had a very reasonable day on Saturday in the 60m Hurdles. The organisers had decided to hold two finals – winners and fastest runners-up to A and another seven to B; Matt finished 4^th in his heat, got into the ‘lesser event’ and finished 7^th in that. However, considering his PB stands at 8.20 (done recently), to put in two runs of 8.22 and 8.23 in quick succession ain’t a bad day’s work.

A COUPLE OF MORE MATURE TRACK TITLES

The British M****rs’ Indoor Pentathlon Championships at the Lea Valley Centre in east London at the weekend saw the Club’s two remarkable Mature Multi-Eventers in action, and both came back with their age-group titles. For once Tony Bowman actually faced no opposition to take the Over-70 event, but at that age the most difficult opponent you face is probably yourself, and a score of 2737, made up of 10.7 Hurdles, 3.08 Long Jump, 7.19 Shot, 1.21 High Jump and 5.01.6 for 800, represents a sound effort. Knowing Tony, he’ll probably be more sprightly when summer comes round. Hazel Barker faced three opponents in the Over-45 Ladies’ event, and saw them off with 3166 (10.1, 4.08, 8.95, 1.45 and 3.23.8), a particularly good performance as she’s now at the ‘high end’ of her age-group, and will indeed (injuries permitting) probably be running up another batch of new Club records in August. (The Ranker waits with baited computer!)

A COUPLE OF EXCURSIONS OVER THE HILLS

You never quite know where Sean Cotter is going to pop up next! He seems to be one of those blokes (the Club’s had several in its time) who love to go a-wandering looking for odd races, and on Sunday ‘Scooter’ wandered over the Pennines for the Blackburn Winter Warmer 10k. He certainly wasn’t wandering when he got there; he finished 4^th and won the vets’ ‘pot’ in 33.53, only a couple of minutes down on winner Ben Fish.

Strangely enough, there were two Leeds City members out in Lancashire on Sunday, though on very different terrain – and one of them hadn’t quite as far to go. Pete Kidd, who lives in Bolton but was recently seen ‘doing his thing’ in Roundhay Park, went down the road to Horwich and took to the hills – or to be precise the Winter Hill Fell Race, finishing 85^th of the 196 finishers in 2. 09.08; the distance isn’t stated, but as Winter Hill goes up to about 1600 feet the Scribe doesn’t suppose anyone was too concerned about measuring it.

PROPOSING TO TAKE A QUICK TRIP TO THE MED.

A quick scan of the Northern Athletics website this week revealed the “proposed team” for an Under-20 match in Malta at the end of April. It’s probably not a surprise, but a deserved accolade, that both Tom Mosley (100m) and Hannah Evenden (Shot & Discus) are included; it’s a most pleasing surprise that Kadena Cox is scheduled to accompany them, also to run the 100.

OOPS DEPARTMENT – BUT NOT THE SCRIBE THIS TIME!

There was a slight error in The Scribe’s report of the Dewsbury 10k last week, but for once it wasn’t a case of the Old Feller overlooking something, but the organisers making something of a spheroids of the results and missing out Alex Gostling. It was quite something of an error as well; Alex, who was 70^th overall in 37.14, was the seventh lady finisher, and when her time was added to those of Susan Partridge and Sorrel Hoare, Leeds City won the Women’s team race by a good five minutes. This could be a cautionary tale for those tempted to rush into technology; Roger Norton (who drew The Scribe’s attention to it, for which many thanks) reckons he’s never yet known a race using chip and pin timing where there hasn’t been some sort of a problem.