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Leics County XC Champs

7th January 2012
Rotherby, Melton Mowbray

A new user friendly course with just one stiff climb on each lap, plenty of room to overtake and fine weather with mostly firm ground did not tempt Wigston Phoenix runners. Only 6 of our runners turned out for the most prestigious cross country event of the year in Leicestershire.

To be fair, several were struck down with injury and illness and Craig Baker and Tom Drake even made it to the warm-up, but were not fit enough to compete.

Those that did run did us proud. In the Senior Men’s race, Mark Powell ran one of his best races for a while and looks in ominous form for 2012. He could not stay with Paul Richardson (Owls), but saw off a bunch of young Owls and took 2nd place in the Men’s race, and 3rd place overall as U20 newcomer Sam Densham from Charnwood came 2nd.

Congratulations to the Owls Men who won the team trophy for the 23rd consecutive year which is probably a record for any County event countrywide. Captain Paul Miles says they will celebrate when they achieve 25 wins!

Our 3 Men Vets (running as over 35 Masters) had a great race. The 2nd of the four laps saw Alex Webster ahead of Andy Peet but towards the end of the 3rd lap they were neck and neck and Andy gradually pulled ahead on the final lap to finish 6th with Alex 7th. This was good running and I sense a healthy rivalry for 2012 as I quote Alex “I will get him next time!”

Clive Jones, as pictured above, performed well in the middle of the pack to finish 26th. As each lap went by, he said to me “soon be on the roads at Barrow”. However, the importance of his performance was demonstrated when Wigston Phoenix took 3rd team place, and were only missed out to Charnwood in 2nd on “count back”, as we had the same number of points as them.

A mention of Jason Williams, ex Owl and son of our own senior master, Peter Williams. Jason found himself in a good position and pressed on well to such an extent that he won the Masters event and took the trophy. Well done to him.

And so to the Ladies, and another superb performance by Julie Lamb finishing 5th in the Lady Masters event. Julie had been suffering from a heavy cold, but this course suited her with a sharp climb (twice) and no steep downhills, which, by her own admission, she does not excel at. She pressed hard all the way and was faced with a sprint finish with a fellow Vet and was just pipped for 4th place.

Our only other lady was Kirsty Walker, who worked hard lower down the field and did well to finish 14th in the Senior Ladies race.
Maybe next year we will have a better turn-out now that Wigston Phoenix are getting well established. A special mention also of Mike Stiff who worked prodigiously on registration and results – calm and collected whilst chaos reigned all around him!

I spent a hard 2 days setting out the course, acting as Chief Marshal and dismantling the course. This was done partly by me driving the farmer’s Land Rover truck around dodgy, slimy paths in twilight and then complete darkness. The farmer was glad to see the truck back in one piece, and so was I! More help from Wigston Phoenix next time maybe.

Ramon Howe.