Yorkshire Inter Counties Cross Country Championships 6th March 2004

Richmond and Zetland Harriers had three athletes compete for Yorkshire at the Inter-Counties X-C Championships on Saturday 6th at Wollaton Park, Nottingham - three athletes who had been selected from their top six finishes at the County Championships. Andrea Woodvine ran for the Senior Women, finishing the 8K course in 30:50 for 53rd place and was second counter for the team which finished sixth. Nick Zissler was fifth counter for the Under 17s, completing the 6K course in 22:33 and finishing 137th. Douglas Roberts ran for the Under 13s who were also sixth team and Douglas was sixth counter, finishing the 3K in 87th place in 13:26.

Cross Country NYSD Richmond 7th March 2004

There are always more-than-enough races for the best athletes and, given his performance on the Saturday, it was little wonder that Douglas Roberts opted-out of the following day’s NYSD fixture, despite it costing him the Under 13s title!

Mike Brooks & Orchestra

The NYSD fixture on Sunday 7th was the last of the season, was a “home” fixture at Richmond School and proved more entertaining than expected. The course around the school playing fields, adjoining parkland, pasture and footpaths, has been used successfully for the past three years. The annual risk assessment took into account the recent tree felling by the pond at the foot of Whitefields Farm field and routed the course to avoid the leftover timber. Unfortunately, the assessment didn’t include Sparky, the 37 year-old white horse that grazes the field who, excited by the athletes walking the course, discovered he could walk through the pond, out of his field, and on to pastures new. It took five adults to round him up and coerce him back to his stables, much to the amusement of the watching athletes, coaches, parents and spectators, and luckily caused only a ten minute delay to the race programme.

There were six races through the afternoon, a reduction of one with an experimental combination of the Under 17s into the Men’s race - the younger contingent running one less lap and scoring separately. Several individual and team titles were still “up-for-grabs” and there were good results on the day for the Harriers. Jessie Roberts won the Under 15 Girls race and, scoring 49 points out of 50, won the individual title. Backed-up by Scarlett Gray in 4th place, Jessie also led the team to a clean sweep - their sixth win out of six - and the team title too. Philip Fitzpatrick and Simon Robson were 2nd and 3rd in the Under 17s race and also led their team to victory on the day. In the Men’s race, Scott Wardman was first Harrier home in 7th place, was 2nd Junior and more importantly, he scalped his elder brother James by one place. Jon Orange followed, three places behind, choosing a faster work-out and showing he’s lost none of the ability that saw him finish 52nd & 4th Vet at last year’s London Marathon, won him the individual title in the Harrogate Road Race League and end the season ranked third in the UK over 1500m as an MVO40.

Jon Orange in action

Jon finished in 11th place overall and was 2nd MV1, enough to confirm his place as NYSD Vet Champion and justify interrupting his training for a renewed attempt at the Vet’s title in the 2004 London Marathon, next month. In addition to aiming for the individual and team Cups, Plates and Shields, all athletes scoring 20 or more points from their best five races earn a medal and the Club has fifteen to collect at the end-of-season Road Relays and Prize Presentation. This number includes Joanna Gray who, in her maiden-season, has only run in the last three races but has scored 21 points and out-shone husband Shane who managed to lose his one and only MV1 point with a time penalty in the penultimate fixture.

RZH results: Under 13 Boys - 9th Rory Wadsworth; Under 13 Girls - 4th Rosie Adams & 21st Jane Thornton; Under 15 Boys - 12th Chris Andrade; Under 15 Girls - 1st Jessie Roberts, 4th Scarlett Gray, 11th Jessica Gray, 12th Sophie Broadway & 15th Katie Roberts, 1st team; Under 17 Boys - 2nd Philip Fitzpatrick, 3rd Simon Robson, 5th Chris Archer & 6th Scott Livermore, 1st team; Under 17/Junior/Senior/Veteran Ladies - 4th Louise Jackson, 10th Fiona Hughes, 16th (& 4th LV1) Joanna Gray, 23rd Sarah Gregory, 28th Leah Jackson, 31st Erica Moks, 39th Jenny Fenwick & 40th Shirley Mathurin, 4th team; Junior/ Senior/Veteran Men - 7th (& 2nd Junior) Scott Wardman, 8th James Wardman, 11th (& 2nd MV1) Jon Orange, 12th Ken Harker, 33rd Edd Richards, 43rd Shane Gray, 52nd Taff Rogers, 58th (& 3rd MV2) Mike Brooks, 59th (& 3rd MV2) Jim Robinson, 63rd Chris Peacock, 64th Chris Lamb, 80th Mark Mullin, 87th Colin Sewell & 93rd Chris Harvey, 2nd team.