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Yorkshire Cross Country Championships
to be held at Rotherham on Saturday 10th January 2009

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Tony also has entry forms for the Northern XC Champs to be held at St. Helens.

It Shouldn’t Happen To A Veteran

Sunday mornings should not start before 8 am, but it did for four intrepid veteran members of the Club on the 12th October as they set off on the 85 mile trip to Esholt, home of the original set of Emmerdale.

Dave Horness, Dave Collett, Mark Walker, and Neil Duffield were heading for the Yorkshire Veterans Road Relay Championships. The course was set in the grounds of a Yorkshire Water estate.  It was traffic free, but the start was located right next to a sewerage treatment plant.

Despite an average age of 48, the team were running in the over 40s age group. Each runner wore a mini number on their back showing the category, its soul destroying when someone two ages up goes flying past! The legs were 2.5 miles long, the big question was, could the team break the hour.

Mark took the first leg and put in a credible 14:44, Dave C followed with 15:19. Neil finished with a solid 15:03 and Dave H anchored the team home with a 16:14 for a total time of 61:19, bringing comments of ‘When I was a lad, I ran faster on my own!’

There was no time to rest, or wait for the results (although Dave H did manage to wolf down a plate of Pie & peas); the gang had another race venue to get to.

With Neil driving at 69.99 mph, and Dave C knowing a short cut, the crew arrived at Croft for the NYSD XC just 17 minutes before the Senior race was due to start.

The gun went, and four creaking bodies set off tentatively. The finishing order replicated the mornings times with Mark and Neil working their way through the field to score for the A team.

A steady drive back to the coast saw the travellers home safe and sound, ten hours, 200 miles and two races later.

X/C Flatts Lane Guisborough Sunday 16th Nov 08

The 3rd fixture in the NYSD league was held on a new course at Flatts Lane. The course featured an initial climb of about 800m to reach the circuit which provided excellent running on a demanding course.

Hosted by New Marske they provided an u/11 race in which Maddeline Mastrolonardo was 11th (2nd girl) and Jen Duffty 15th and 3rd girl.

In the u/13 girls race we had 3 runners in the top 10 with Shannon Parkin 5th,Georgina Estll 8th,Maria Mastrolonardo 10th, the 4th member of the team Megan Trowsdale was 18th to put the girls in 2nd place.

After running at Gateshead on Saturday where she finished a brilliant 11th place Grace Rodgers showed her strength by winning the u/15 race.

We fielded a strong team in the Ladies race and Angharad Owen recorded her first senior victory in the x/c league. After leading from the start she was put under pressure by Tracey Waller but she responded brilliantly to record a well deserved victory.

The rest of the ladies backed her brilliantly with Julie Mastrolonardo 4th,Nicola Kent 7th and Julia Jackson 13th.With a score of 25 points they regained top spot in the league and now have a 2 point lead over R&Z.

The men’s race also saw one of our runners in top spot, Lewis Rodgers led a group of 5 athletes through the early stages, mid race he appeared to lose contact but on the final lap he moved back through the field and as they approached the downhill finish he only had last years champion Gary Dunn for company. At the bottom of the hill Lewis had opened up a 25m lead which he held to the finish.

Dan Middlemas fresh from his victory in a fell race the previous week came home in 6th place and Dave Parkin was 10th. The other team scorers were Rob Williamson 26th,Dave Collett 32nd,and Robert Howard 48th. Their score of 123 points put them into 2nd place behind Billingham Marsh House.

After 3 fixtures the team now stand in 2nd place BMH 27pts,L&W 26 and R&Z 19.

Interestingly Grace, Angharad and Lewis had all had hard races on Saturday at Gateshead and Dave Parkin had travelled to Swansea to get his first England vets vest.

After the meeting over a coffee the discussion amongst the old members was about the number of winners the club had had in the senior races over the last 25 years.

I reckoned apart from Lewis, Dan Middlemas, Stephen Hepples, Paul Trott and Craig McBurney had all won. We also had someone else in the same year as Paul, it may have Mike Anderson. I am not sure about John Hunter and Alec Duffield.

In the ladies apart from Angharad, Catherine Hare has won recently but then we go back a long time to Sally Kay and Julie Easton.

If anyone has any other names to add please send them to Chris

Tony

NYSD Richmond 16th March 2008

The last fixture of the 2007/08 season was held at the old racecourse, Richmond, this being a new venue high above the town.  The running surface was perfect for cross country running with the biggest hazard being the cold northerly wind.
Because many of the individual and team trophies had been decided the number of athletes taking part was down on normal.
We had three girls in the U13 race; Shannon Parkin continued her improvement finishing in 6th place, Catherine Urban finished 20th and unfortunately Nicole Hutchinson had to drop out with an injury.
Nathan Parkin had a good first lap in the U15 boy’s race but faded a little on the second lap to finish in 12th place.
The women’s team were looking to consolidate overall 2nd place.  With Angharad Owen 4th, Julie Mastrolonardo 6th, Megan Ellis 7th and Julia Jackson 14th as team counters and Joyce Hutchinson finishing in 15th place, the team were successful in their bid by finishing in 2nd place on the day.
The men’s team required only 1 point to win the title for the third year running. Lewis Rodgers, after his exertion at Nottingham finished in 6th place.  Dan Middlemas and Rob Williamson had competed in a fell race in the morning but to ensure the club had sufficient finishers they doubled up and Dan was next counter in 9th place and Dave Parkin 10th.  The other team counters were Paul Wildmore 18th, Dave Horness 41st and Alan Howard 44th.  Rob was 46th and Jimmy O’Brian 68th and running in their first race of the season Mally Peggs finished 71st and Tony Hare 72nd.  The team finished in 2nd place which gave them the championship.
We also won the U13 girl’s title for the third consecutive season and there were four individual winners; Lewis Rodgers U20, John Hunter V1, Dani Braithwaite U13 and Brenda Hare V3.  There are also numerous individual awards and all the trophies will be presented at the club’s presentation evening on Friday the 25th April at the Bunch of Grapes.

If you want to see the previous 3 years XC pages please click on one of the archive links in the left hand column.

Dani Braithwaite, Lewis Rodgers and Megan Ellis - Nottingham 2008

Start of the women's race Barnard Castle Oct 2007