Northern Cross Country Championships - St Helens 24th January 2004

Team & Supporters

Seventeen athletes from Richmond and Zetland Harriers, many with their Coaches and families, made the journey to St Helens on Saturday 24th January for the Northern Counties X-C Championships. They were amongst two thousand starters from more than two hundred Clubs, all winners in the human race - the one that thrives on competition, the one with the motto “good habits, learned young, last a lifetime”. The Club had competitors in eight out of ten races on the day but, with four-to-score in all but the six-to-score Senior Men’s race, there were no complete teams. Sherdley Park, St Helens has been employed many times for local X-C and County Championship races and this year’s permutations, around the perimeter playing fields and criss-crossing the wooded slopes were a credit to the organisers. The fleet-of-foot described the course as testing, the pack thought it was heavy going and the tail enders’ adjectives did justice to the mud-up-to-yer-shins conditions in parts.

U13 Boys

Douglas Roberts was the pick-of-the-bunch for the Harriers, finishing 17th in the Under 13 Boy’s race, just 51 seconds behind the winner and, but for a bruised heel which prevented him going with the pace in the last K of three, he could’ve made the top ten. Rory Wadsworth in the same race, his first at this level, wasn’t overawed and finished in 99th place, 3:33 behind first and 3:42 ahead of last.

Rosie Adams, Francesca Fowden and Jane Thornton lined-up for the Club in the Under 13 Girl’s race, over the same 3K course, alongside Alex Wheatman of Scarborough and close to 200 others, but had mixed results. Alex, star of the NYSD races, enjoyed another win; Rosie and Jane battled the mud to finish in 92nd and 163rd places respectively; but Francesca was caught by a stray elbow in the starting melee, badly winded, brought to a standstill and dnf.

Chris Andrade

The Under 15 Boy’s race was over 4K and Chris Andrade continued his role as the Lone Harrier, with maximum support including Nobby, his Dad, who ran every muddy step in his mind shouting encouragement. Chris finished in 163rd place, 2:43 behind the winner and more than 5 minutes ahead of the last boy.

The Club had their second dnf in the Under 15 Girl’s race when Jo Adams, struggling with the heavy ground, felt pain in her shin and, mindful of serious injury, made a wise decision to stop. Already without a resting Jessie Roberts and several others from the high-flying NYSD team, it was left to the twins, Scarlett and Jessica Gray, to fly-the-flag and they did magnificently - Scarlett finishing in 50th place and Jessica 103rd, both mud-splattered and happy!

U13 Girls

Philip Fitzpatrick became another Lone Harrier when Nick Zissler got injured playing rugby for Barnard Castle School but it didn’t deter him - he adopted his usual “up-and-at-‘em” tactics in the Under 17 Boy’s race, running as hard as he could from the gun, and wound-up 47th from 135 finishers, a little more than 3 minutes behind the winner after 6K (nearly 4 miles) of hard graft.

U15 Girls

Scott Wardman and Edd Richards had a similar task but up an age group to the Under 20s meant another 2K to race. Both lads prefer the track; Scott topped the Club steeplechase rankings in 2003 and Edd finished 4th in the 1500m on the boards at the EIS Arena, Sheffield just the week before, but both know the value of a competitive X-C season like the multitude of Great British middle distance runners of yesteryear. On the day, the first three home broke 29 minutes, Scott finished 34th in 31:26, Edd 66th in 33:43 and the last three were all outside 40 minutes.

The Club had no competitors in either the Under 17 Girl’s race or the Under 20 Girl’s race where Johanna Jackson of M&C, another runner leading her NYSD category, earned a well-deserved bronze medal for third place. Being a Championships, the Under 17s and Under 20s were separated from the Seniors and ran 4.5 and 6K in their races whilst the Seniors ran 8K (5 miles give or take the odd yard) of the proverbial muck ‘n’ bullets. Helen Lawrence of Wirral AC was clear of the field before they had covered the opening 400m and ran away with the title. A little way back, Andrea Woodvine, Louise Jackson and Fiona Hughes were each having their own battles: Andrea turned the tables on Sharon Marshall of Wakefield who had pipped her at the Yorkshires; Louise similarly upset Sharon Taylor of Bingley; and Fiona closed the gap on Amy Green of Spenborough from 9 to 4 places and from 51 to 15 seconds. The girls finished 24th, 37th and 80th respectively and, with another competitive Harrier, a top ten team place is their sights.

"Legless" Senior Men

The biggest race of the day, the longest and the largest, was the Senior men’s race over 4 laps and 12K with more than 700 runners lined-up in pens along the length of a football pitch. RZH were drawn in pen 112 alongside Stockport Harriers and momentarily jostled with Steve Vernon, the eventual race-winner, such is the democracy of Athletics.

The leaders were more than 10 minutes ahead of the Harriers’ gang-of-four Vets but that didn’t stop the most serious of races; at the finish there was less than 90 seconds and only 57 places between them. Paul Roberts and Shane Gray took the honours and the scalps of Brian McNabb and Mike Brooks for the first time this season, just rewards for more than fifty minutes of serious endeavour and adding even more spice to their next NYSD outing at Barnard Castle.

On an equally competitive but slightly less serious note, Fiona Hughes, Ladies Captain, Coach and Team Manager, gained another title en-route - Quiz Champion! Ably assisted by Louise Jackson and with a little help from Dad and Frank, the Ken Sayer’s Coach Driver, they scored a magnificent 16 out of 20 and then donated their Whoppa-of-a-Prize to Club Funds.