Jolly Holly Jog - Ripon - 30th December 2007

Paul Roberts

The aptly named Jolly Holly Jog fixture continued its growing popularity this year, with 472 runners taking part in the main race on Sunday 30th December, starting from a new location in the fields close to the Cricket Club, where it also finished. The junior athletes were first away with the off-road fun run, which covers approximately 1.5 miles around the cricket and rugby pitches. Liam Fletcher was certainly on form on the day, victorious as overall winner, which also earned him 1st place in the Under 21 Male category with a time of 8.46, which was 27 seconds clear of his closest competitor. His sister Helen Fletcher also had a fine run, finishing in 25th place in 12.34, improving by almost 2 minutes on last year and showing that she has a good endurance base. Laura-Mae Gregory undertook her third race to date and found the course hard going in places, but showed determination to finish well with a sprint finish to take 59th place in a time of 16.06. Her younger brother Ben Gregory, aged 9, enjoyed his first ever race and was pleased to finish only 52 seconds behind in 16.58, claiming 61st position from a field of over 75 competitors.

The main event got underway at 11am prompt and proved to be more challenging than usual this year, with a entirely new course, which was almost totally off-road and included more hills and mud, making it more of a trail race. It still takes in a large part of the scenic and enjoyable Studley Park with herds of deer on view, for those with time to appreciate it. Last year’s winner, Ricky Stevenson of New Marske Harriers easily retained his title by a huge margin of almost two and a half minutes, however, Doug Roberts was first home for Richmond and Zetland Harriers in a fantastic time of 35.28 and 7th overall, using this race as training for the current Cross Country season. His father Paul Roberts also put in an excellent performance, finishing in 15th place with a time of 38.12 and placed well in the highly competitive Male 45-54 age group. Next across the line and only female Harrier on the day, was Sarah Gregory, surprised with a better time than last year on a harder course after some tough training in December, finishing in 101st position with a time of 45.45 and third in the ladies 35 age group. Ray Robson had missed most of his training over the Christmas period with a back problem, but enjoyed putting his racing shoes back on and took 164th place with a fine time of 49.37, setting him up nicely for an outing in the next NYSD cross country fixture at Whitby on Sunday 13th January.