English National Cross Country Champs -19th February at Cofton Park, Birmingham

There were half-a-dozen runners from Richmond and Zetland Harriers amongst the 3694 in English National Cross Country Championships on Saturday 19th February at Cofton Park, Birmingham and another two in the Snake Lane 10 the following day.

Mike , Fiona and Andrea at Birmingham - Don't they look happy!

Cofton Park is around 170 miles from Richmond, adjacent to the Longbridge car plant on the southern fringe of Birmingham, but was Mecca for a day for all those who enjoy competition. The day was cold and the rolling grassland course was heavy in places, particularly for the Senior Men after nine earlier races, but there were blue skies and that made it all right. James Brownfields-Pope ran in the Under 17 Men’s race, he finished in 230th place and completed his hat trick of Yorkshires, Northerns and Nationals. Edd Richards ran in the Under 20 Men’s race in his second Nationals and finished in an impressive 81st place. Andrea Woodvine is in her last year at Nottingham University, she had Finals to consider and hadn’t been training consistently, but the relative closeness and lure of the big occasion was sufficient - Andrea finished in 115th place. Club Coach, Fiona Hughes was another who couldn’t resist the competition and who completed her hat-trick; she swapped her Dad for her husband as support team and only just missed a place in the top half, placing 256th out of 451 finishers. The last race of the day was for Senior Men, three large laps, seven and a half miles and with 1316 finishers, there was someone to race every inch of the way. “It’s the buzz; the best Cross-Country race in the world; the London Marathon of Cross-Country running; like the Grand National” - some of the comments on the day. Jon Orange finished in 190th place, five and a half minutes down on the winner, an inspired Glyn Tromans of Coventry Godiva Harriers. Mike Brooks was a further seven and a half minutes behind in 786th place, missing the top half by almost two minutes but happy with his endeavour.

Snake Lane 10M Pocklington - 20th February 2005

The Snake Lane 10 at Pocklington, near York, is another “old favourite” in these parts, providing a good test for all runners, aspiring to the Marathon or not. Liz and Neil Piper both enjoyed their runs and shared some success; Neil finished in 75:04, 227th overall and was 18th M55 whilst Liz was timed in 97:20 for 507th place and 6th in her F55 category.

Last weekend’s fixtures were badly affected by the weather. The North Yorkshire Schools Inter-Counties X-C match at York was run over an extremely wet course (results next week) but the North East Harrier League cancelled, the NYSD X-C League fixture postponed until this Sunday and the Clay Bank East Fell Race was postponed until Sunday 17th April.