Gloucester Cross Country League

Plock Court, Gloucester

Saturday 13th December 2008

Above: Sally Hogan was an emphatic winner in the Under 15 Girls race.

Plock Court lived up to its reputation as a wet course with a large corner of the field flooded after the heavy rain of the last few days. The Under 11s races only use the dry half of the field anyway but all the other races were shortened to avoid the water  - many of the youngsters were disappointed but there was plenty to splash through on the rest of the course.

Above: Tom and Ben battle it out on the finish straight.

First in action for B&R were Tom Neylon and Ben Lanckham in the Under 11 Boys race who set a good example for their dads by finishing 7th and 9th, just 8 seconds apart.

Above: Jacob was only just edged in to second place.

Above: Lewis sprints for the line.

Jacob Hood came so close to winning the Under 13 Boys race coming in to the muddy home straight side by side with a Team Bath runner, just getting in front only to be beaten in to second place by a sprint over the last 30 metres. Lewis Anderson also had a good run to be 15th out of 32 finishers improving on his 18th in the last race.

However, we didn’t have to wait long for a B&R winner as Sally Hogan sporting her new red and blue B&R racing hair style was a clear winner by 22 seconds (!) in the Under 15 Girls race – she ran so well that she also beat the Under 17 Women who ran in the combined race. This continues the good form she showed in winning at the Intermediate Girls race at the Bromsgrove Schools District XC Championships (incidentally  Jim Morley and James Philpott were 1st and 3rd in the Under 13 Boys race and Jack Morley was 3rd in the Intermediate Boys race at the Bromsgrove Districts) .

Our only runner in the Under 15 Boys race was the ever consistent Chris Warren who turned in another good run to be 6th, in a close race with the only 30 seconds covering the first seven runners. Sorry Chris you were too quick for the cameraman.

Above: Jeanette was first B&R senior woman at Plock Court.

Above: Mel (391) ahead of Tamara (271) and Jane at the end of the first of two laps.

There was a good turn out for our women’s team with regular runners and two runners, Yasmine and Katherine, making their cross country debuts for the club. Jeanette led the team home in 17th position cheered on by husband Richard who is still recovering from injury – but who was tempted for a moment to run in the men’s race. Our next three finishers had a battle for supremacy with Mel gaining the advantage on the first lap and holding on to it to finish 23rd, three places ahead of Tamara and five ahead of Jane. Jane did have the consolation of an early Christmas present in the form of a new pair of spikes from the stall in the car park (no amount of argument could pin the blame on Phil for leaving her other shoes at home).

Above: Yasmine making her Gloucs. League debut.

Above: Katherine (311) chose a muddy one for her first B&R cross country!

The second member of the Ball clan, Charlotte, must have enjoyed Leamington because she was back for more mud this week and finished 37th – does she have her sights set on daughter Tamara? Yasmine has been trying her hand at all sorts of races on road and multi-terrain and the flat Plock Court course presented her with no problems as she winged home in 51st. Katherine had been encouraged to make her debut and in spite of this being the wettest and muddiest course here for years kept up a steady pace over both laps and finished 73rd saying that she’d really enjoyed it and would do more. Another recruit for our growing ladies team. The women completed two teams of three in the seniors competition, 6th and 12th out of 18. The club had their best team result of the day in the veteran women’s competition with a second place just 9 points behind Team Bath. Unfortunately though making up some ground on their rivals, they still lie outside the medal places in the overall table.

Above: James Hood (200) tracks Kevin Lanckham on the first lap.

The B&R turnout was a little down in the senior men’s race as Phil Woodyatt  and Jamie had not been able to get through the flooded lanes around Timberhonger either by car or on foot, Andy Freeman may have succumbed to the lure of Villa Park and a few runners may have been saving themselves for the Sneyd 10 on the Sunday. Both seniors and vets teams scores were hit by the unavailability of the in-form Ian Keyte due to illness. The squad did well to finish 4th out of 13 teams in the senior competition and 5th in the vets race (unfortunately Gloucester got a very strong team out to finish second and push our senior s out of 3 rd in the overall table). However, a really good sign for the future is the presence of young runners in the men’s team with two of our junior men finishing in the first 10 and the trio finishing second in the team competition.

Simon Lanckham was best placed for the first of three laps with dad Kevin and James Hood battling it out not far behind. James moved up through the field to be our first finisher in an impressive 4th place (some improvement on 68 th at Blackbridge!) with Simon in 9th – confirming the recent form book by beating Kevin in 14th.

Above: Tom Richardson holds off a Cleeveland runner.

Above: Dave Daniels about to overtake a GWR runner.

Tom Richardson was a welcome sight in a B&R vest as he finished 44th to be our 4th scorer. Dave Daniels ran his trademark strong second half to the race, moving up about 10 places over the last lap and a half to finish 56th even though the course was “ a bit boring”. Phil Anderson had tried to keep ahead of Dave and although the pace told after halfway it had pushed him up to 66th, an improvement on the previous league races. The second Richardson, dad Phil, running with his characteristic forward lean, finished 77th to complete the scoring for the vets team.

Above: Matt Saarwar keeps ahead of a CLC Strider.

Above: Mike Neylon ran well in his XC debut for the club.

Above: The sheer enjoyment of racing again shines from Len Quartly's happy face. 

There was a flurry of B&R vests as Pete Hawcroft, Matt Saarwar and Mike Neylon were separated by just over 20 seconds in 88th, 89th and 90th places. This was Matt’s debut for the club in a senior race and he completed our junior men’s team. I think this was Mike’s club debut at XC too having been last seen sprinting in the vets T&F cup final at the Alexandra Stadium. There was the added bonus of the return of the ever-young Len Quartly returning from injury to finish 121 st (there is probably no truth in the rumour that he had been watering the course overnight with a hose to ensure that it would have to be shortened for his comeback). Thanks to Richard, Tony Woodward, Steve James and all the other runners from the club who hung on to support the men as the sun lowered and the temperature dropped.

Incidentally Lewis voted the chips at Plock Court the best at an athletics venue this year.

The final league fixture is on Saturday 7th February 2009 at Newbold Comyn in Leamington Spa.

Click here for full results on the Gloucester League website

(Phil Anderson)