Essex League Great Notley
Smalls leads Harriers Veterans to last race show down
The Cross Country season is drawing to a close and with the final fixture at Gloucester Park Basildon to go, Colchester Harriers Veterans are in a show down for the Veterans league title with Springfield Striders. Who ever comes out on top at Basildon will win the league. Harriers have never lost this title yet so will be gunning for it on the day.
The latest fixture at Great Notley Country park saw the intrepid Allen Smalls lead the team home in a superb 19th place, Cameron Humphries had his best ever run for the harriers in 26th, then came Paul Rodgers 36, Jon Nears 45, Colin Ridley 46, Andy Lovelock (Essex debut) 63, Pete West 74, Gavin Scanlon 80, Russell Goodridge 87 and Simon Morgan 109.
Senior men, top 4 teams Springfield 103, Chelmsford 177, Orion Harriers 188, Colchester harriers 233.
Veteran men top 3 1. Springfield 135, 2. Colchester Harriers 146, 3. Benfleet 195.
Other Essex results were senior ladies 19 Rachel Dale, 51 Toni Wilson. Under 17 men 9 Drew Olley, 19 Fergus Crouch. Under 15 boys 4. Max Caulfield, 7. Danny Millward, 15 Ziggy Lambton. Under 15 girls 20 Mollie Whitford, 26 Hannah Rodgers, 30 Isabella Minder. Under 13 boys 35 Charlie Parmenter. Under 13 girls 5 Milly Presland, 24 Madeline Claydon, 44 Daisy Bulmore.
200th Park Run
Colchester Castle celebrated its 200th run with a reverse course! On a cold day with strong winds 396 runners ran and times were slow with only 4 runners beating 19 minutes. First home for the Harriers was Anthony Barraclough in 2nd place in 18:11. Then it was 5 Andy Rayner 19:03, 6 Keith Marley 19:05, 9 David Wright 19:41, with Jasmine West 2nd lady in 21:19. At Cornard Wayne Cook was runner up in 18:03, with jerry Walder 5th 19:23 and Brian Smith was 14th at Mersea in 24:59.
Benfleet 15
The Benfleet 15 is one of the toughest races on the Calendar with 15 miles of tough cross Country over the Hadleigh Downs. New signing Tom Cresswell led the Harriers home in 1:43, then Came Keith Marley overcoming his recent injuries to clock 1:50, Chris Mamby, Richard Boden, Richard Millward, Craig Mitchell and Gavin Scanlan all ran well, while Rebecca Cooke was well up in the ladies race in a great time of 1:59.