County Cross Country Championships Skipton 15th April 2005

Recent letters to the “athletics press” have bemoaned the numbers of runners competing in County Cross-Country Championships, so it was good to see Yorkshire runners buck the trend when nearly six hundred competed in their Championships on Saturday 15th at Aireville Park, Skipton. Coincidentally, there were 22 Richmond and Zetland Harriers amongst them and they fared well against Leeds and Sheffield and their big town rivals. The venue is well known to the Harriers as Skipton AC, the host Club, have organised an Open fixture at the start of the season for many years. The usual course was extended to cope with the Championships and took in the fringe of the adjacent golf course and a burn as well as Aireville Park and Aireville School playing fields. The outcome was to add even more hills to the normal heavy going found in all Pennine settings.

The Club had three teams finish in the eight races and the 4th place finish from the Under 17 Men took the day’s honours. Phil Fitzpatrick was first Harrier home in 13th place, less than a minute and a half behind the winner but suffering on the second lap from his efforts to stay with the leading group. He was well supported by Chris Archer, Chris Andrade and James Brownfield-Pope: the team were pipped by Bingley and finished out of the medals by just 21 points but, had Simon Robson been fit enough to race after his recent lay-off with injury, positions may have been reversed! Individually, Douglas and Jessie Roberts took joint pride of place with their results, both finishing 9th in their respective races, although both had hoped for better with only the first six finishers being assured of places in the Yorkshire team at next month’s Inter-Counties fixture. Another honourable mention goes to Rich Hunt, a sergeant with Devon & Dorsets and current UK Open Triathlon Champion, who finished his 11K race in 22nd place despite running with a cracked rib, the result of sparring with a heavyweight boxer from his Regiment the day before.

RZH results: Under 13 Girls - 55th Naomi Moks; Under 15 Girls - 31st Rosie Adams & 40th Katie Roberts; Under 17 Women - 9th Jessie Roberts; Junior & Senior Women - 55th Fiona Hughes, 67th Erica Moks & 80th Jenny Fenwick, team 13th; Under 13 Boys - 21st Tom Osborn & 22nd Rory Wadsworth; Under 15 Boys - 9th Douglas Roberts & 13th Josh Miers; Under 17 Men - 13th Phil Fitzpatrick, 25th Chris Archer, 46th Chris Andrade & 50th James Brownfields-Pope, team 4th; Senior Men - 22nd Richard Hunt, 30th Jon Orange, 34th Ken Harker, 150th Colin Sewell, 186th Mike Brooks & 189th Neil Piper, team 12th.