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NYSD Cross Country Hartlepool - 7th November 2004Richmond and Zetland Harriers competed in the second NYSD X-C League fixture on Sunday 7th at Summerhill Country Park, Hartlepool and maintained second place in their quest for the President’s Trophy. Although they could only muster 25 athletes and 3 scoring teams, other Clubs were similarly short of numbers and the gap at the top is now down to 12 points.Summerhill is always a testing course and, although the day was cloudy and mild, there had been enough rain in the preceding week to turn ploughed fields into quagmire and maintain the heavy going.
The Club’s first runner was Iain Smith of Brompton-on-Swale; he made his debut in the Under 15 Boy’s race over 2.9K and finished in 16th place. There were five Girls in the Under 15’s race and Rosie Adams continued her good start to the season; she was first home for the Club in 8th place and collected 3 points on the individual tally despite being a year young. The Women’s race combined the Under 17s, Under 20s, Seniors and Veterans over 4.8K and there were six Harriers toe the line. Jessie Roberts finished first for the team; she was 10th overall and 1st Under 17 and, with two wins out of two, now heads her age group with maximum points. Philippa Abrahams was another making her X-C debut and her 19th place and third counter helped the team to 3rd place on the day. The Under 17 Men lined-up with the Under 20s, Seniors and Veterans but their race was over 6.3K, two laps, whereas their elders had 9K, three laps of the course which had been made even muddier by 140 pairs of feet previously. Phil Fitzpatrick finished in 4th place and is now equal 3rd in the individual cumulative places. The Men’s race was the sixth and last of the day, it was won by Rob Cole of Mandale and there were 122 finishers. Ken Harker had a great race, making-up nine places on his finish at Barnard Castle and overturning several “names” to finish first counter in 6th place. Nick Zissler was second Harrier home and was 3rd Under 20, finishing in 10th place overall, and is second to his friend and rival Lewis Moses of Newton Aycliffe in their age group. In the absence of three of the “A” team, one on exercise with the Army, another injured and a third watching Paula Radcliffe on television, the Club had enough spirit in the reserves to finish 2nd team to Hartlepool with 6 in 43, and to finish 2nd in the unofficial over 40’s (4 to score) and 1st in the unofficial over 50’s (3 to score) team places. Further down the field, Mike Brooks finished 56th overall and 1st M50 and, with two wins out of two just like Jessie Roberts, he now heads his age group with maximum points.
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