NYSD Cross Country Hartlepool 2nd March 2003

Richmond and Zetland Harriers were at Summerhill Country Park on Sunday 2nd for fixture 5 in the NYSD X-C League. The venue is popular with the runners and in recent years has been used for N E Counties and Veterans Championship races. The course is very testing, especially after rainy weather, with a stream to cross, several steep hills to climb and equally sharp descents, a ploughed field and chicane-like fences to negotiate. Race day was dry, bright and breezy and there were only a few unfortunate runners finishing without a pair of spikes!

The Club had a single runner in each of the three junior male races - Douglas Roberts under 13, Philip Fitzpatrick under 15 and Nick Zissler under 17 - and co-incidentally they all finished in second place. All three Harriers have missed part of the season and, whilst not in contention for their individual Championships, will finish with a medal with another good result in the last fixture at Richmond.

There were five Harriers in the under 13 girls race and they finished first team, a single point ahead of Scarborough, their closest rivals. Jo Adams was first home for the Club in 4th place, followed by Scarlett Gray 8th, Sophie Broadway 11th, Rosie Adams 12th and Katie Roberts 15th. Alex Wheatman of Scarborough is now a clear leader in the individual Championship but there are medals to be won, with awards to the top six from their best five finishes over the season.

Jessie Roberts is similarly well placed in the under 15 girls category, now with four wins from five races. There was little competition without Tori Wheatman of Scarborough and Jessie ran away from the field to finish clear by 25 seconds. Jade Cawthray was a little more than a minute down on Jessie in 8th place but earned a cheer for her bravery, finishing with bloodied feet from blisters.

The best result on the day came in the Ladies race with the team finishing in third place, behind Thirsk and Scarborough, now joining M&C on level points at the top. Equally buoyant was Louise Jackson who finished 2nd on the day to Catherine Hare of Loftus but tops the individual standings. Rachel Robinson ran another well-judged race to finish 7th with Fiona Hughes 20th and Sadie Potter 30th making-up the scoring four.

Unfortunately, the joy of the Ladies was matched-in-reverse by the despair of the Men who saw any hope of winning Division One wiped-out by the quality of the Nestle Rowntrees team - 6 finishers in 22 places for just 81 points, the lowest winning number of the season. The Harriers team was already without several of their “A” team and, although bolstered by Scott Wardman’s appearance, was reduced to six when Taff Rogers pulled-up with a calf strain. John Aspell had no complaints about his 5th place, running with tired legs having raced for his Regiment at Aldershot earlier in the week, finishing one place behind Paul Welham of NMH on the day and now second to him in the individual Championship. Scott Wardman showed he had recovered from the injury which had kept him out of the Yorkshire, Northern and National Championships by finishing 12th overall and 2nd Junior - training at LMU, under the expert eye of Wilf Paish, is a positive experience. But two men don’t make a team and it was left to the Vets to fill the remaining four scoring places; Jim Robinson 48th (and 4th M50), Chris Peacock 55th, Mike Brooks 56th and Ian Hepworth 92nd, and the team down to 7th giving Rowntrees a 10 point lead in Division One. In the individual Veteran’s category, Jim Robinson is now tied with Neil Scruton of Scarborough and both have all to race for at the last fixture at Richmond School this Sunday.