English National Cross Country Championships
Alton Towers, Derbyshire
Saturday 23rd February 2008



General report

Was my Sat Nav. the only one to take the scenic route after Uttoxeter? We diverted off the main road on to several miles of hairy single track lanes including fording a thankfully shallow stream, it did however, avoid several miles of nose to tail traffic.

Although I curse the dreaded tent, the Club tent pass put us on pole position in the car park; we only had to cross the road to where the tent area had been located just down wind from the Portaloo area, the smell from which was a source of great amusement to Jak Frankham and Alex Jackson.

The Charabanc party arrived shortly afterwards and a reasonably good day ensued.

The races were too many to record in detail, there did seem to be a "spike" theme going on; Alex Jackson had no spikes in his shoes, Laura Muth's feet had a growth spurt and she had to borrow Sarah Capewell's shoes. Liliane Sutton finished the race with one shoe for the third time this season, and Mitch Blundell ran virtually the whole race with half a shoe!

What bit of the course I saw was soft to boggy and resembled Hampton court maze without the hedges. The bit of the course I didn't go to looked to be about 1000m. below where I was standing. "Best left out" I thought judging by the faces of the competitors.

On the down side Danni Johnson suffered a recurrence of her foot injury, and Amanda Dalkins was a DNF. The first senior man was 360th that would be Mitch with one shoe, next was Laurent in 427th. The remaining three runner's ages totalled around 160 yrs.

On the plus side Ben Griffiths beat his mate from Sutton for the first time, Adam Blundell was a fine 48th in the U 17 men, James Trollope finished a brilliant 9th in the Junior men's race, and Debbie Walters had a brilliant run in the senior ladies to finish 32nd.

Nothing like a bit of reflected glory, Birchfield coach Keith Holt steered Tom Humphries (Cannock & Stafford) to a superb victory in the senior men's race, dominating the field virtually from gun to tape.

Birchfield family of the day must go to the Morley's who fielded runners in three age groups, Faye U15 girl, Lewis U17 man, Mike senior men.

TEAM RESULTS

U13 BOYS: 18th team.
Scorers: Jamal Logan 43rd, Camron Wood 88th, Oliver Griffiths 156th, Josh Hackett 176th.

U13 GIRLS: 17th team.
Scorers: Jessica Freeman 68th, Ellie Howat 77th, Sian Whittingham 159th, Katy Warren 260th.

U15 BOYS: 38th team.
Scorers: Ben Griffiths 182nd, Josh Lacey 290th, Alex Jackson 322nd, Patrick Thewliss 334th.

U15 GIRLS: 26th team.
Scorers: Laura Muth 86th, Danni Johnson 136th, Liliane Sutton 206th, Faye Morley 244th.

U17 MEN: 23rd team.
Scorers: Adam Blundell 48th, Nick Hardy 103rd, Jarryd Dunn 181st, Lewis Morley 241st.

U17 WOMEN: None.

JUNIOR MEN: 8th team.
Scorers: James Trollope 9th, Greg Divall 23rd, Peter Whitehouse 54th, Simon O'Meara 153rd.

JUNIOR WOMEN: 12th team.
Scorers: Emma Lines 79th, Roxanne Russell 96th, Sarah Capewell 127th, Holly O'Meara 128th.

SENIOR WOMEN: 11th team.
Scorers: Debbie Walters 32nd, Emma Phillips 78th, Sophie Williams 123rd, Sarah Rudge 132nd.

SENIOR MEN: Incomplete team.

Link to English Cross Country website + Full results

Eddie Cockayne.
Senior Women's Team Manager,
Road & XC