Hampshire Cross Country League
STUBBIES took a short trip to Ashe Meadows, Overton at the weekend for the latest round of the Hampshire Cross Country League where they picked the best of the weekend to race; Sunday's racing at the Victory 5 was a very windy affair (too many egg sandwiches was not the problem!).
Because of the race in Portsmouth, we had a limited number of runners with one lady and eight men representing the club over a dry and mud-free course!
Penny Forse was the only lady to run in Stubby colours and she improved on her previous outings in the league this year to finish 39th and 18th vet in 25min 19sec.
The men were missing a good half dozen the quicker guys who were at Victory, Duck Pond Waddle or injured.
So it was down Barry Hards and Ray Gunner to set a blazing pace through the field and finish as the first two Stubbies with Barry just getting the better of Ray to finish 45th in 31.16 and 7th Vet home. Ray was 53rd in 31.42, followed by Andy Simpson with 105th in 34.45, Tim Crumpton who placed 118th in 35.16 and Phil May was the final scoring man in the team in 151st position in 37.59.
The men's team were 9th on the day to stay 8th overall, but they will need to get good results from the last two races as it is looking like the bottom three clubs are fighting for 8th place and survival in the top flight.
The vets had another good day in the field and came away with 4th to remain 3rd overall. They were led home by Barry, Ray and Tim. Two good results from the last two fixtures could see them snatch 2nd place in the league.
Good news on the individual standings sees Barry 8th overall in the vets, with Ray just behind him in 10th.
Other runners - 157th Richard Simms 38.50, 159th Nick Crane 38.53 and 170th Gordon Westley 40.04.
The next Hants XC league fixture is at Reading on Saturday, January 13th, so anybody who is not doing the Stubbington 10K, can you please sign up for this race. Give Andy Simpson an email or a phone call.