CLUBNEWS

8^th APRIL, 2008

6^th April – Northern 12-Stage & 6-Stage Relay Championship, Catterick Garrison

LEEDS CITY FALL IN FOR SUCCESSFUL MILITARY EXERCISE

It was a day that had most things. The course, round parts of Europe’s biggest army camp, was well-marshalled and for the most part free of traffic; however, it had one problem at the junction-point between long and short laps, and some of the organisational back-up (no car-parking control, late arrival of generator for PA equipment, no clear marking of the start) left a bit to be desired. The weather literally had a bit of everything, starting off with warm sunshine and finishing with freezing sleet, with a heavy snow shower separating the two. On the competitive front Leeds City had an excellent day of it. 26 athletes were selected to appear, and 36 turned up and without exception ran creditably; the two slightly weakened ladies’ teams gave full measure on effort; the Men’s B team equalled the highest finish that any club’s ‘second twelve’ has yet managed (and guess what – it was another Leeds City team!); and the A team reclaimed in some style the one title they failed to defend successfully in 2007.

Men’s A Team – 1^st, 3.57.08

VICTORY PARADE FOR WELL-DRILLED SQUAD

Even for a squad as strong as the current Leeds City one a good lead-off is essential in the longest and hardest of all Championships; and as at Sutton Park last year Chris Birchall took the responsibility of providing it. At half-distance (the course didn’t lend itself to dashing across) a group of eight were cutting out the pace, with Chris sitting neatly tucked in, but with Home International winner Tom Lancashire among them it was unlikely that he’d be in front when they came back. Sure enough, Tom led home from Liverpool, with Chris in 6^th (28.11) just over half a minute down – but only ten seconds down on third. The platform was safely there.

The contest could be said, however, to have been settled on Leg 2 by the young Derby runner who had the effrontery to pass Martin Roscoe in the first hundred metres! There are few better ways of putting Doscoe on his mettle, and he stuck to the young pretender as he towed him past the opposition – and then, as the leading group of four turned off the main road section into the finishing run there was a sudden change of gear and Derby, Bolton and Liverpool were subjected to the Antique Roadshow. Doscoe’s 15.07 was eighth-fastest short lap of the day. The one disadvantage was that this left the youthful James Wilkinson exposed in front on his Senior debut, and the question was, would he cope? Well, it’s a fact that James was the only first-teamer to lose a place all day; but as the athlete in question was Liverpool’s rejuvenated former Olympian Curtis Robb, and as he had to do the second-best ‘shortie’ (14.34) to catch him, it can hardly be said that James’ buckled under the challenge. Moreover, while Curtis was hauling in James, he in turn was clawing a full minute out of everybody else with 15.09, and making the win look reasonably safe already.

The second long leg saw another debut – Alan Buckley made his first appearance in a Leeds team, and quickly set about making sure of the Senior Championship medal that he’d never got in all his long association with Gateshead. The opposition he faced wasn’t negligible – Adam Peers had been James Wilkinson’s main ‘Chase rival last year – but Alan smoothed away from him, steadily at first but with increased rapidity, to open a gap of over a minute. However, one feature that was to go on throughout the race came into play here; while Peers went back, Sale’s Gareth Raven was running fourteen seconds quicker than Alan’s 28.00, and the teams behind continued o shuffle without ever closing the gap much.

The next two legs were consolidations. While Sale went back a bit Martin Hilton (15.24) eased half a dozen seconds out of Craig Gunderson with a controlled piece of running to establish the lead at over a minute, and was anything but displeased after yet another interrupted season to be going that well. Leg 6 went some way to prove the old adage that a team is only as good as its reserves; when Martin Gostling decided he needed another couple of weeks to get race-fit after injury Arthur Cooke was drafted in, and the question was, could he hold the line? It’s true that he was the slowest of the eight short-leg runners (16.14), and he had some help that, with the exception of Ian Hudspith’s flying 14.19 which brought Morpeth briefly up to third, there were few really strong runners on his leg; but he dropped only seventeen seconds and kept the gap well open. It was to be Arthur’s first medal – and he earned it!

At this point the weather took a hand, in the shape of a blizzard of large, soft snowflakes which made seeing, much less running, difficult. It may explain why Simon Deakin ran the slowest of the Club’s long legs (28.30); he admitted afterwards that he was “watching the snow rather than watching the road, and at times I was almost mesmerised by it, and felt a bit giddy.” If he was his nearest opponent didn’t notice; he took half a minute out of Liverpool’s John McCole, though Glen Comish brought Sale back to third equalling Tom Lancashire’s 27.37 for fastest of the day. Indeed on Leg 8 Sale got as close as they ever did, as Steffan North edged ahead of Liverpool and ran over a minute quicker than Tim Crossland’s 16.04. (At least with Tim the Club didn’t have the worry of getting disqualified for going off course, as a number of teams did; Major Crossland knows his way around Catterick! ) The lead was down, momentarily, to just under a minute; but with a determined run into what was now turning into very unpleasant sleet Mike Burrett (15.36) pulled all the time back and then some to restore the 1½-minute gap.

It was probably pure inadvertence and not an attempt to psych out the other teams which led announcer Mike Bateman to comment at this point that “Leeds have a commanding lead, and World Cross representative James Walsh about to go.” In any case psychology wasn’t needed; James set off like a train and just never slowed, taking a minute out of Sale and over two out of Liverpool. He just ducked under 28 minutes (27.59), a feat only five others managed, and could probably have gone faster but for the sleet, cold and lack of close challenge. In any case, it would have taken a disaster to prevent the title being claimed, and there weren’t any, as Adam Osborne, sensibly keeping his hat on in view of the inclement weather, coped with the cold better than his opponents and opened up another twenty seconds with a thoroughly workmanlike 15.46.

Leg 12 showed the other side of the value of reserves, as Sale slipped out of the medals having been forced into fielding a lad who didn’t break 18 minutes, and who was eaten up by Liverpool’s Mark Keeley (late of Leeds Met. -15.37) and Trafford’s Ian Salisbury (15.46). So what about Leeds City? All that needs to be said is that Darran Bilton was the anchor man; and if the icing was already on the cake he stuck a great big cherry in the middle of it with the day’s ninth-best ‘shortie’ in 15.12, in spite of taking the wrong line at the finish and having to duck through the tape. Somehow it was an appropriate end to the day.

So medals were won, and James, Alan, Arthur and Tim took home their first Championship ‘gongs’ – but there’s no room for complacency. Leeds City beat Liverpool by just 4½ minutes – almost exactly the same margin by which Notts A.C. won the Midland! With Belgrave and Newham in the pot as well, there could be some molten tarmac round Sutton Park on the 26^th.

Men’s B Team – 11th, 4.18.59

SECOND BATALLION GAIN THEIR COLOURS

For the second year in succession Oliver Ziff was given the lead-off job, and once again tackled it sensibly and well; he started steadily early on and was back near 40^th place on the first lap, but got his head down and worked his way up to 31^st (31.22) by the finish to give a second sound platform. It was built on quickly, as first James Lavin (16.10) pulled back three with a really solid and determined run on a leg where quite a few mid-race teams had a strong man, and then Pete Steel (16.24), running early by request for family reasons, justified being moved up the order by picking up a further five (though he was overhauled by a 400m hurdler!) Again, only one team member lost places; and Martin Farran didn’t lose a great deal in terms of ground, but was passed by a couple of speedy young men and somebody who did a short lap by mistake! 31.40 wasn’t a bad effort from the squad’s Oldest Lag.

The places lost were more than compensated for on the next two legs, where the track-men (or erstwhile track-man in one case) made their contribution. Jake Harman doesn’t do cross-country, but has been keeping sharp on the roads, and looked pretty sharp picking up four (16.17) to put the team back into the 25 qualifying places for Sutton Park; and then converted quarter-miler Steve O’Neill (16.21) clawed back five more as the snow began to fall. It’s noticeable, incidentally, that any one of the first four B-team ‘short men’ could have been put into the A team without detriment to its performance – that-s having reserve strength all right.

In rough weather conditions the muscular, craggy and robust seem to go better, and as that’s a fairly accurate description of Josh Whitehead it’s no surprise that he ploughed through the blizzard in 30 33 – by a margin the quickest of the B team long legs – and made another three to 14^th. He was one of the few who actually looked to be enjoying the blizzard – though that’s a relative term! As it turned to sleet the cold rather got to the next two runners, who were a good bit slower than the other short legs, but as Chris Needham (17.17) gained a place and Leon Foster (17.19) held 13^th and took a fair bit of time out of the two behind him neither of them had any reason to feel they hadn’t done their share. The one slight off-day of the 24 men came from Sean Cotter on Leg 10, who seemed to feel the elements and was down to 32.56, which normally he’d have been expected to better by perhaps a minute; he nearly dropped a place, but held of Kingston-on-Hull at the finish.

The Leg 11 runner had something to concentrate on; Gavin Chatterton had been given dire warnings of what might happen (shot by snipers, locked in the Glasshouse, etc., etc.,) if he went off course at Catterick, and with four clubs having done so he wasn’t about to follow their lead. In fact he not only stayed on the straight and narrow but ran a composed 16.46 which opened a four-minute gap behind him and put the team a minute behind Altrincham (who not long ago were claimed to be a Rising Force in Northern distance-running.) 13^th would be fine for anyone on the B team – with the exception of Mike Salter! Having been hanging around all day as potential A-team first reserve, he set off like he meant it, found Altrincham had a weak last man, and stormed away to turn the deficit into a 100-second advantage with 15.54. Moreover, as Salford in 8^th place had been disqualified for going wrong, the actual finishing position equalled that of two years ago – a splendid effort.

Women – A team 7^th (1.51.09), B team 21^st (2.05.48)

ANYTHING BUT CAMP-FOLLOWERS!

Last year was the first time that two Women’s sextets were put on the road; this year, in spite of injuries and missing bodies, it was repeated, and in Greg Hull’s words “all twelve were dead keen to be part of it.” With the pardonable last-minute drop-out of debutant Lindsey McNeill (she only realised the week before that the race was on Sunday, which was her birthday and most of her family were visiting) two reserves had to be thrown in; it was decided to put them in early, on second leg to be precise, to give time for any resultant ‘damage’ to be made up. The plan seemed to work.

Lead-off for the A team went to Alex Gostling, who said afterwards she’d be glad just to get some consistent training in after her injury and illness problems and feel fit again; as she finished 8^th in 17.30, and several of the leaders among the 35 starters were ‘front-loading,’ some people are going to have to look out if she does. Fiona Maddocks, who should have been B-teaming, went in to do the best she could, which turned out to be pretty reasonable; she ran 19.59 (faster than any of the B team) only dropped eight and stayed within three minutes of the lead. She then drove rapidly back to Leeds and helped Leeds Hockey Club to win the semi-final of a cup competition!

From there the route was upwards, at a good steady rate, with three returnees from injury doing a lot of the advancing. Emily Klee (18.23) found several of the teams that had moved up on Leg 2 were ‘hiding’ a slower runner on 3, and profited accordingly by four places; Jennie Guard (19.38) reckons she’s a bit to do to get fit yet, but pulled back a further two with a determined effort; and Celia de Maria (18.36) said after making two further places that she’s “not sure about my fitness level, but I do know I was working hard.” Susan Partridge ‘only’ made one place – but as she’d a minute gap to make up to do it, and her 17.03 was ninth fastest time of the day, that was actually the sign of an excellent run – once again punctuated by the snowfall.

The B team’s effort followed a similar pattern. Ruth Wilcox (20.05) was back in 27^th, but the Women’s race tends to see more ‘front-loading’ even than the Men’s, and hers was (just) the quickest B-team time. Jenny Harrison, who shouldn’t have been running, came in to complete the team and got stuck in, only losing three with 22.54, and all of those were immediately grabbed back by the diminutive Sophie Lovell (20.07) who’s clearly a more than useful asset to the developing squad. Almost everything in competition is something new for Sorrel Hoare, and to say this was her first relay she coped well with it, making three places with 21.12 and finishing strongly. Fay Lebeter (21.09) seems to go better on tarmac, and ran with smooth determination to pick up another; and Sarah Whitley, who’s studying in the North-East and hasn’t been seen much recently, rounded things off by pulling back two more with a 20.21 run which clearly indicates she’s been doing a bit of training somewhere.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

There were two international meetings on in Edinburgh on the last weekend in March, both of which had Leeds City interest. The World Cross-Country Championships on Sunday saw James Walsh make his debut; he finished 126^th and placing 8^th in the British squad of nine, which as he’d placed 6^th in the Trial race seems to indicate that he didn’t have an outstanding day. Still, the majority of us won’t ever get the opportunity to try and do better, so no carping.

On the previous day Dave Webb, who so nearly joined James in the big event, ran in the Home Countries’ International and in terms of position finished did rather better; however, he might have had a distinct feeling of d‚ja vu, as apart from the intervention of Scotsman Russell it was very much the Personnel As At Roundhay at the forefront of the field. Dave finished 3^rd, just ahead, as in the Northern, of Steve Vernon; but on this occasion the man in front was Bolton’s Tom Lancashire.

Adam Grice didn’t have the best of trips to France for the World Students’ Cross-Country Championships at Mauquenchy; while the Great Britain team won the men’s event, he was the last of the six members to finish, in 43^rd place

RECENT ROAD AND EARLY TRACK

The last weekend in March was fairly quite as far as Club participation in road running was concerned; only a few mentions were found in races round and about. Trevor Clough and Julie Barley, who are doing a fair bit of touring round the road races, only toured as far as the Wakefield Hospice City 10k on this occasion, but toured to some effect; Trevor (44^th ion 36.52) was 3^rd Over-50 Vet, while Julie (163^rd, 41.04, was first Over-40 lady home.

A somewhat more distant tourer (or is he living over that way these days – it’s his second recent appearance in a Cheshire race) was Jon Greenwell, who placed 75^th in the Wilmslow Half- Marathon in 82.44.

A couple of Veteran members turned out in the Yorkshire Vets’ A.A. Monthly Run at Meltham on March 23^rd – most of the regulars stayed in bed, and judging by the picture of the lady making her way through snow and mud on the Y.V.A.A. website they probably had the right idea! Anyway Sean Cotter finished 2^nd in 38.54, about three minutes behind Dave Watson (who’s a proto-Vet), and John Mace was 4^th Over-55 in 40^th place overall (50.29).

The Lincoln City 10k must be a bit of a monster event; the results on a well-known website were divided into two sections to speed up loading and sorting, the division being made at 1600^th place! The two Leeds City participants were well in front of the dividing line; Scott Mitchell, the Club’s own Yaller-Belly, placed 21^st (34.25) and Steve O’Neill was eight places behind (35.19)

Not being required in his selected role as first reserve for the B team in the 12-Stage, Pete Kidd stayed nearer home and had a Sunday morning out at the Gin Pit 5 at Astley, near Leigh; a trip well worth it, as he finished 13^th in 30.42.

The first serious local early-season track meeting, the Spenborough Open on Sunday, was knocked back a bit by the cancellation of the Hammer and Discus due to cage damage (or rather, due to somewhat tardy repairs)’ nevertheless a fair turn-out of Leeds City members appeared, and some had a pretty successful day in spite of a stiff wind. Among the sprinters Elliot Hurley equalled his recent Under-13 75m record outdoors (10.3) and followed it with a very fair Long Jump (4.24) while Little Brother Louie had two similarly good marks among the Under-11s (11.6/3.83), and Harry Ansell-Wood, who equalled the 75m time, went on to win the 600 impressively in 2.02.4. Stephen Coles continued his development on two lines, winning the Under-15 200 in 26.3 after producing another very sound High Jump mark (1.60); Liam Braithwaite, second behind Stephen in the 200 (27.1), did likewise in the 100 (13.1), but was one of a number of youngsters moving up an age-group learning to live with older and often bigger opposition. Chole Harley (2.27.4) looked impressive winning one of the two time-trial Under-15 800s with a decisive second-lap move (the winner of the other was faster, but if it had been a straight race ….), and Gemma Kier had a first try at the 1200, running a sensible race for 5^th (4.25.9) and showing the potential to go faster.

There was some throwing, as Spenborough put on Shot competitions to replace the events they’d had to cancel, and the Javelin went ahead. Ben Sleigh had a successful start, certainly in the Under-17 Shot which he won with ease (11.31), though he was much less impressed with his Javelin win, about ten metres shy of last year (39.46, though the wind may have had a bit to do with it). Alice Simpson also opened her outdoor account with a Shot win well clear of the opposition, though again with 11.15 she was a good bit down on her recent Indoor mark. Charlie Nicholson opened her account with a PB in the Under-15 Shot (7.30); and there as even a PB for the Oldest Slinger himself, John Lunn, who improved his Over-65 best by a whole centimetre (6.50).

The damage to the cage at Cleckheaton caused a heavy petrol bill for the Evenden family; arriving to enter at about 9.15 a.m., they leapt into the car and headed east for the flatlands and the Scunthorpe Winter Open, where the cage was still up. The trip proved worthwhile on several counts, as Ros reports; in the first place it really was ‘Sunny Scunny’ for once, and Hannah launched into her outdoor season with two wins, a 38.14 Hammer and a 39.32 Discus. She also ‘conned’ her way into the Shot (there wasn’t actually a Senior competition scheduled, but if you were Referee would you argue with Hannah and Bethany Staniland??) Meanwhile younger sister Stacey “pushed her mother down a place on the Senior Hammer rankings; in her first under-17 competition she started with 18-plus metres, threw two more over 19, and finished the competition with 23.75.”

Two new young members chose to how over to the Manchester area over the Easter week to make their first appearances in Blue and Amber. Melissa Fletcher chose to go undercover in the Reebok Open at Sport City, and put up a sound 9.6 over 60m, plus 3.35 Long Jump and 4.42 Shot. Five days earlier at the Trafford Medal Meeting there was a pretty explosive debut from Caoimhe Crampton (and before anybody asks, the nearest The Scribe has got to saying it right is Keeva), who jumped straight into the Under-11 75m List in third place (11.0) and then got within 0.1 second of Alyssia Carr’s 150m record with 22.1.

CORRECTION

Hazel Barker (honest lady that she is) has e-mailed to report that her Pentathlon performance of 3346 at Clermont-Ferrand recently was not in fact a Club Over-45 record; she’d actually recorded 3440 at Linz two years earlier, and “the latest (result) reflects two more years of decline.” However, she also pointed out that while her 10.06 60m Hurdles on March 17^th was a Club record it didn’t last long; she duly hammered it in the individual event three days later with a 9.98 heat and a 9.99 Final! Some decline! Incidentally, look out for a new spate of record-setting at the end of the year – possibly at the fourth League match!