Rob Andrew reports: Bournville Harriers men with another strong turn-out, recorded a resounding victory in the 3rd of the 4 League races at Wolverhampton on Saturday.
This followed on from success at the County event at Cofton the week before, and a continuation of the momentum generated from the second league race at the start of December.
On a tough and mazy course there were a number of good performances, capped by a fine run by Andy Halliday who came home first scorer in 5th place. Having ‘run for the team’ when maybe not at his fittest over the last few weeks it was good to see him show his potential with this result, although I don’t approve of his idea of ‘chatting’ during races. Certainly not to me!
Andy’s run was backed up by a great demonstration of team running by the rest of the ‘A’ team with all 6 scorers finishing within the top 20. Good runs from Gareth, and Chris Collins in particular returning after a pre-Christmas operation. Solid runs too from myself and Sean. I was impressed that Dean completed the race despite feeling seriously under the weather, as did Jon Grix who led in the ‘B’ team. This show of depth and commitment to the team was commented on the day by one of the league’s top runners, and is I believe the reason we look to be heading to the ‘A’ team league title.
Following Jon in for the ‘B’ team – which finished 2nd on the day – were Simeon, Steve Cumley, Adrian, Stuart Pearson and Danny Wilson. There wasn’t the same close finish between these guys as at the previous race at Severn – probably testimony to the tougher conditions and the ‘swim lane’ course. Both Adrian and Stuart ran faster than at the comparably demanding County race at Cofton the week before so must either recover quicker than the rest of us or are better at pacing themselves. It would be great to see all of our ‘B’ team runners finish inside the top 100 at the last race, and win the ‘B’ team race on home territory.
Due to the good turn-out we had enough runners to complete a ‘C’ team. Matt Slater led the team home followed by Ed Hartley, Jack Roberts,Chris H-M, Bob on the telly and last but not least Paul Foot making a welcome return to the Midlands. Ed ran quicker than at Cofton last week and seems able to successfully combine training and contributing to our ‘comments’ page. It’s good to see that out of these combined efforts at least his running gets better with time !
Special thanks to Barrie and Katie Roberts who helped with all the admin and results on the day, ably supported by Brian Pearson. Good support too from Joe and Andy Clayton, and all in all a good day for the club.
Finally just to note that the final league race will be held at Cofton on February 12th, in conjunction with the Ladies Midland league race. BvH is hosting this event, and it would be great to complete the league season by putting on a good event, and hopefully secure the league title. If you are not able to race, please could you consider turning up and helping out with the various marshalling jobs that will be required on the day. This will be a great opportunity to ‘showcase’ the club and to turn it into a real ‘home’ event we can all be proud of.
Results here (PDF)
Photos to follow hopefully
With such depth and commitment,not only will we return to Division 1,but we will stay there for years to come.None of this is `rocket science`,we get out what we put in.All of those who participated were a credit to Bournville Harriers.
Barrie Roberts
Well done, chaps! Look forward to the 12th 🙂
Well done guys! 🙂 That’s fantastic news!