Birmingham & District Invitation Cross Country League
2024-2025 Season Race 3
11/01/2025
Top Barn, Worcester.
Report – Malcolm Bowyer
Nine Stratford runners braved the wintery conditions to compete in this the penultimate fixture of the league season. The course was four fairly flat laps but the cold conditions made it very slippery under foot, especially at the finishing funnel where unfortunately a few runners lost their footing sprinting over the Finish line.
There were a total of 215 runners. First runner back was Ian Allen [Spa Striders] in a time of 30.45.
Ned Campbell who led his Stratford team mates over the four laps finished in 28th place in a time of 33.52.
The next three Stratford runners were chasing Ned down over the four laps. Henry Wheeler 34.39. Sam Wilks, 34.53 and Tom Southall, 34.55 all raced to the finish line neck and neck in 44th, 45th and 46th place. Henry ran magnificently to finish as 2nd junior on the day just 11 seconds off the first placed junior
James Lake, 35.04 in 52nd place is now truly part of the team and ran a solid race over the four laps, picking off several runners on the last lap.
Huw Crossweller 36.16 in 76th place is also a valuable member of the team and he finished very strongly to make up the six runners in our A team.
Unfortunately we didn’t have enough runners to make up the six required for a B team, but the final three Stratford runners were determined to do their club proud.
Mike Sheppard 39.37 in 134th place never misses a race and once again he showed his usual fighting spirit running a strong race. Wayne Vickers 40.46 in 156th place is a veteran of many cross country seasons and was his usual reliable self, overtaking runners on the last two laps.
It was nice to have a new Stratford runner making his debut, Jack Miness 48.17 in 204th place. He ran a very sensible race, working his way up the field over the four laps.
The A team were 8th out of 14 teams in the league with everything to race for in the final race of the season at Wolverhampton next month, where we will be joined by the women’s team who will be competing in their final fixture of this season’s Midland Women’s League Division 1.
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