It’s every handicapper’s nightmare – kids with no form over the distance. Sure enough at the Club Handicap for the Smith Shield over the Crawfordsburn Trail, Brian Smith‘s trio of the Patterson twins and Thomas Simpson went off first and simply ran away from the field with Mark Patterson taking the Shield from Michael and Thomas.
Behind them (well behind them) it was more the usual blanket finish with James Budde taking it from Francis Marsh and Kerry Iveston, Francis having the fastest net time, James the second fastest and rapidly improving to something like his best and Kerry defying the strong wind to take a minute off her previous best over the course.
Afterwards, club awards were presented for the recent cross country season. Mark Patterson and Jordan Neil took U13 and U15 awards, Michael Dyer and Francis Marsh best Junior and Senior with Tony Wall taking the over 40’s and George Bell probably starting a new reign with the over 50’s. For the girls, Jessica Craig and Kerry Iveston took the U15 and U17’s and Vicky Clegg was top senior woman