The club had plenty of positives to take away from the NIAF Cross Country Championships in Castle Park despite problems in finishing teams and the Intermediate Women”s team took the silver medal. Even with his recent disrupted training, James Budde ran his usual fine race in the 6 mile “Junior” for 5th in 37.35 and Robin Brown had a great run for 11th in 38.01. Originally being unavailable, Simon Seaton was off the team sheet but an unofficial run round the course would have been worth 19th in 39.40. Nick Arkensparr in only his second cross country worked hard for a respectable 30th in 41.03 and Thomas Simpson did well for 48th in 44.00 so with Michael Dyer elsewhere the team was in bronze medal form. Nicola Simpson, Kerry Iveston and Lauren Scott had to concede the U20 Championships for lack of a 4th fit runner as did the lady vets where Stephanie Hambling, Debbie Matchett and Sarah Benton were a fit runner short for 2nd place. However the terms of the promotion allowed them to combine their assets for the “Intermediate” Championship where they were 2nd. We were also pleased to finish 10 runners in the ladies races and a further 14 in the mens Vets.
The Vets Championship was extended to 5 miles with Francis Marsh best for 7th in 27.43. The scoring team was completed by George Bell (37th in 30.51); Tony Wall (50th in 31.45) and Ian Atkinson (55th in 32.06) Trevor Spencer and Norman Lellyett were the club bests in the M55 and M60 groups as were Hugh Young who won the M65″s and Ken Hawtin, 2nd in the M70″s..