cross country reports
From the
Spring Edition WRR Magazine
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Race |
Date |
Author/Submitted |
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Saturday, 26th January
2008 |
Written by: Joanna Goorney Submitted: 13th February 2008 |
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Written by: Dave Young |
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Written by:
Yvonne Russell - Relegated Cross Country Captain Submitted: 11th
March 2008 |
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Written by: Dave Young. Submitted: 18th March 2008 |
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Written by: Richard Davies Submitted: 16th March 2008 |
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Northern Cross
Country Championship Saturday, 26th January
2008 |
This
being my first full season doing cross country racing, I had no idea what to
expect coming into my first experience of a big race.
Most
of the team travelled by coach but I was off to the annual dinner of the Pinnacle Club, (a national ladies
climbing club), in the Peak District that evening so took my car. I printed off directions from the NOEAA website. I know how to get to Leeds, (I've been to the Climbing Wall there lots of times),
but had no idea where
When
I finally met up with the club, the girls (Julie C, Kath and Carmel), were very pleased to see me as they
were starting to think that there were only going to be three of them - we
needed four to make up a ladies team.
Since it was very windy, we weren't allowed to pitch the club hotel
tent. So everyone huddled around a tree
for shelter. (Obviously an oversight by
the organisers having the race headquarters in the windiest part of the park!)
Our
race went at 12.25pm. It was a very well
organised mass start with 100 pens spread across the field. We were to start in pen 93. When the gun went everybody filtered in
together. Luckily the ground was pretty
firm. The course itself consisted of a
lap of the field followed by a loop of the park followed by an even larger loop
of the park, (the men had to do this loop twice). The loops had a steep descent followed by a
steep ascent towards the end. The ascent
provided a great spectator vantage point.
I now know this hill to be called "Hill 60" - allegedly the top
speed reached when tobogganing down the slope!
As
I came round to the big hill for the second time, somebody shouted, "Work your arms, Joanna". I had got into battle with Bev Wright from BW&FAC and was determined not
to be overtaken at the top of the hill where I have a habit of not picking up
speed quick enough - I knew the finish was not far away. My only grumble was that there was no "Finish"
sign and I
wasn't quite sure how far I had to go.
Luckily, I saw it just in time and was able to sprint for the line.
The
race was a step up from running in Mid. Lancs races - the course was
taped all the way round, there was sand on the footpaths that you had to cross
and it was a slightly longer distance, (Carmel measured it at 4.75 miles), making an
excellent event. There was also a lot more women taking part - 290 finishers.
The
men's race went at 2pm. Nearly 700 men
took part in this. After watching the
lap of the field, we went to the steep hill to watch the men coming up it. First up for Wesham was Charlie "the Gazelle" closely followed by Alex. By the time some of our later runners were
coming up the hill for the first time, they were already being lapped by the
leaders who were making it look very easy.
For
so many people taking part, the event was brilliantly organised - loads of
ladies toilets with little queue, (lots of bonus points), marshals everywhere
and a great course.
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Results |
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Ladies 1 Gemma Miles 27:04 (Kendal AC) 96 Joanna Goorney 33:24 155 164 Julie Cruise 36:12 191 Kath Hoyer 37:07 Team - 23rd out of 30 |
Men 1 Dave Webb 37:07 ( 91 Charlie Pass 42:55 156 Alex Rowe 45:13 163 215 Les 295 Derek Buckley 48:57 316 Trevor Raynor 49:29 330 John Collier 49:43 |
352 John Bertenshaw 50:11 358 Alan Glasgow 50:16 401 Dave Waywell 52:26 536 Mark Midgley 56:12 631 John Sharples 56:12 652 Mike Walsh 66:44 Team - 18th out of 53 |
Written by: Joanna Goorney
Submitted: 13th February 2008
Edited by: Brenda J Earnshaw WRR Editor
Cross-Country Mid-Term Report
No more cross-country
now until the County
Championships at
So far we have had
three Mid-Lancs meetings plus the English
National Relays. Turnout has been excellent with thirteen
ladies and twenty-three men taking part so far. It’s great to see so many of
you out there enjoying cross-country and well-done all of you. A special
welcome goes to newcomers, Kerry
Eccles, Nick Brandwood and Mike Walsh.
On the trip to
Once again we had the
clash with the Wesham 10k and the
We haven’t met much in
the way of hills as yet or even mud for that matter, though I am sure we will
enjoy plenty of both on our visits to Blackburn and
Well that’s all for
now. Enjoy the December break, though if I know you lot, you’ll still be doing plenty of racing.
Hope you all have a fantastic Christmas
and New Year and I look forward to seeing you at
Written by: Dave Young
Edited by: Brenda J Earnshaw WRR Editor
Relegated Cross Country Captain….
The recruitment of a Ladies Cross Country Team was also no credit to me. The girls at WRR have really come into their own
of recent, in terms of motivation, enthusiasm and camaraderie! There are some great cross country runners in
Wesham from the top, fast prize winners to the rest of us, that don’t
necessarily come away with a trophy or medal, but who are equally successful in
the fact that we complete the same course as the trophy winners, experience the
same mud, dirt and sweat!
As well as Captain Young pointing me in
the right direction for cross country, my other fellow Captain, none other than Captain Julie Murphy, also helped me loads! She gets a
special mention for the fab catering provided on cross country days out! Julie was also very supportive, not just in
cross country, but to the club as the Ladies Captain.
Having a joint captain, who knows what there doing and does it well,
makes things a whole lot easier! Teamwork and great friends is what it’s all
about!
I think Captains Hoyer and Cruse will be a great duo and it will be a pleasure to have them encouraging,
us to turn up and wear our Wesham vests with pride and get out there have fun as a team…..we know us
girlies can do it!!!
Written by: Yvonne
Russell - Relegated Cross Country Captain
Submitted: 11th
March 2008
Edited by: Brenda J
Earnshaw WRR Editor
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Cross-Country End of Season Report 2007/08 |
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Another cross-country
season has just finished and it has been another season of success for teams
and individuals at Wesham Road
Runners.
The ladies began the
season newly promoted to Division
2 and it has been a season of consolidation as they have finished in an
excellent fourth position, just two points behind the bronze medal winners. A
terrific first season in the higher division, so well-done ladies’. Four seems to
be the ladies’ favourite, or possibly least favourite, number this season as
the LV35 and LV45 teams also finished in fourth place. Joanna Goorney also finished in fourth place in
the individual championship. Whilst it is a little disappointing for them to
finish just outside the medals, I think the ladies have done really well this
season carrying on from where they left off last season. There have been two
complete teams at every meeting in the Mid-Lancs League except the
The men’s “A” team finished fifth
in Division 1 with the “B” team in, yes you’ve guessed it, fourth place in Division 3. More success
in the vet categories though with the vet 40’s winning bronze medals in
division 1 and the vet 50 team taking gold in their division. The quality in
the vet 50 category at Wesham is incredible, highlighted by the superb tussle for individual honours
between Gary Pendlebury and Alex Rowe.
The team highlight
must be the performance at the Northern
Championships at
The season was rounded
off with the Annual
Presentation Dinner which was held at the Garden Restaurant on Monday 3rd
March. The prize winners were:
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Ladies’ Champion Joanna Goorney LV35 Yvonne
Russell LV40 LV45 Julie
Cruse LV50 Pauline
Weller |
Men’s Champion MV40 Mark
Midgley MV45 Nigel
Shepherd MV50 Alex
Rowe MV60 Dave
Young |
In honour of his
incredible record of winning the Men’s Championship on ten occasions, Alex Rowe was presented
with the trophy in perpetuity. I am sure you will all agree he fully deserves
this honour for his excellent success and commitment over the years. Let’s face
it,
This, of course, meant
that we needed a new Men’s
Championship Trophy and I would like to take this opportunity to
thank Brian Porter for his kind donation of a new silver
The choice of the
winner of the “Mud, Sweat and
Spikes Award” is always a difficult one and this season was no
different, with several people being worthy of consideration. We finally
decided to give the award to someone who has shown tremendous commitment and
enthusiasm over many years, Alan
Glasgow. Alan is always one of the first to offer help, support and encouragement at
cross-country meetings. I have been immensely grateful to him on many occasions
for his help and support at meetings. Alan’s obvious enjoyment of and enthusiasm for cross-country
are an example to us all, so many congratulations Alan, richly deserved.
As you know this was
my final season as Men’s
Captain, although I still intend to be a regular at what I
consider to be the best and most enjoyable discipline within our sport. I would
like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has taken part in
cross-country whilst I have been captain. Your efforts, your enthusiasm and
your help have been amazing. It has been a privilege and a very real pleasure
to be Men’s Cross-Country
Captain at Wesham and I wish Julie Cruse and Alan Glasgow every success as captains next season. I hope they enjoy the role as
much as I have.
Written by: Dave Young.
Submitted: 18th March 2008
Edited by: Brenda J Earnshaw WRR Editor
Not everything is
all that it seems!
Last week when I had
another call from one of the Hunt
Masters asking me if I fancied laying a trail for the
hounds again and I jumped at the chance.
This time was to be a little bit different as I was to be accompanied on
the run by a journalist called Matt from
I met up with Matt and Carlin, a photographer who
came with him, at Out
Rawcliffe on Friday afternoon. We were shown round by
some of the hunt members who took us round the route on quad bikes. The route we were to follow was carefully
planned to give the following riders the chance to keep up with the ‘action’
and take them via specially prepared jumps in the hedges and gateways. Matt mentioned that he trained for Triathlons, I couldn’t
get out of him what his running pace was but he looked fairly lean and I
wondered if I would keep up with him.
The route was divided
into five sections and we were shown where to wait for the hounds and riders to
catch up so the field had the opportunity to regroup. We were shown which fields we were allowed to
use where permission had been obtained from the landowners and livestock had
been cleared.
Bizarrely Matt and Carlin were not the only
journalists there, we were also joined by a couple of other guys who were
writing pieces for the ‘Financial
Times’ and ‘Big Issue’!!
Matt seemed a bit nervous as we were introduced
to the hounds. There were eight and a half ‘couples’, that is 17 hounds all
slobbering and jumping up at us, Clive, the huntsman, in his red jacket invited us
to feed them some snacks as they milled around us getting our scent. These hounds follow us by our scent alone; it
is known as following the ‘clean boot’, we were not dragging aniseed or
anything with us.
Clive controlled the hounds
by calling and blowing a horn, he had bred all these hounds and knew them by
name and knew their traits and characteristics.
At 11.30, with everyone ready, we were asked to lead off across the
fields. We were given a five-minute head start before the hounds and riders
followed.
The sound of the
hounds baying and the hunting horn as they set off in pursuit put a bit more
urgency into our run which had probably slowed a little across the very wet and
boggy ground. It was clear that the
hounds were a bit headstrong and running a bit fast to follow our scent over
the wet ground but, by the end of the first leg, about 1.5 miles, Clive and the ‘whippers
in’, the other red coated horsemen had managed to calm them a bit.
As we started the
second leg Matt seemed to be trailing a bit; he was not used to running off road and he
was feeling the effect of the rough ankle-twisting ground. However, he dug in
and managed to stay with me although he was not very talkative!
Carlin, the photographer, was being taken on a quad
to strategic parts of the route where he was getting pictures of runners and
riders. Some of the jumps were huge with
water filled ditches below hawthorn hedges which most of the riders cleared;
the less confident found ways round these obstacles.
It became clear that Matt was going to be the
main feature of his article and I felt a bit like his guide as Carlin was concentrating on
getting him in the shots.
We stopped at the end
of the third leg for a longer break in a farmyard and this was a good chance to
have a chat to some of the riders and hunt followers who were chasing us round.
Setting off after this
longer break was a bit tough as we had chilled a bit and the legs had stiffened
up but we soon got into our stride and the land seemed a bit drier and better
going. The ‘whippers in’, who ride hard
alongside the hounds, had changed their horses at the last break showing how
hard they were working on the soft ground. We spotted about five
At the next break the
photographer with the help of the riders managed to set up a great shot of Matt running with the
hounds and riders close on his heels. It
was just like the movies where things are not always what they seem and are set
up for the camera; I even caught Matt rubbing a bit more mud onto his shirt to
make it look dramatic!
Matt agreed to let me know when his article would
be published in ‘Men’s
Fitness’. I had to
admit it was not a magazine I had read before, but then neither is the ‘Financial Times’ or ‘The Big Issue’! Of course, if I get my picture in
any of them I will be happy to sign your copies.
Written by: Richard Davies
Submitted: 16th March 2008
Edited by: Brenda J Earnshaw WRR Editor