Hants XC, Poole - 10th February 2007
THE HAMPSHIRE Cross Country League season came to a soggy climax at Canford Park in Dorset.
Despite a rallying call from Muddy Boots Simpson, Stubbington struggled to find runners who were fit and able to compete.
The ladies race was won by Amy Campbell of Southampton Running Club. The Stubbington ladies were led home by Penny Forse coming home 34th overall and 15th vet. Next was Margaret Pritchard 64th and 35th vet overall, who is continuing to improve after her Thursday night speed sessions.
The ladies' captain, Chris Haskell brought the team home with 74th overall and 43rd vet. She also managed to slip through everybody's radar at the finish and we were still looking for after the last lady came in! Sorry, Chris you were too quick for us all at the finish. The ladies' senior team was 13th on the day with the vets coming home in 8th place, so well done ladies.
The men's teams were battling to avoid relegation in senior division and chasing a slim chance of runners up spot in vet's league.
After some desperate ringing around to confirm numbers we got two teams out. The senior men were level on points with Overton but in the relegation zone on aggregate positions.
It was always going to be tough and after the 1km Overton had four of their runner's ahead of our second place runner with five to score. Sadly that's how it remained and their 5th runner completed an easy victory for Overton on the day finishing 7th to our 9th position which means we are relegated to division 2 for next season.
The senior men were led home by Mr Reliable, Mark Le Gassick 12th, next was Barry Hards 59th, Andy Simpson 67th, Chris Hall 89th, Chris Vernon 96th.
All the team gave 110% and special thanks go to guys who have turned up for 4 or more races, Richard, Nick and Gordon (all races). Every cloud has a silver lining which means we stand a good chance of winning division 2 and going straight back up next year!!
The vet team were hoping that Aldershot had a bad race and they could slip in to the runners up spot. They were led home by Barry 15th, Chris H 32nd and Chris V 39th for 5th spot on the day and finished 3rd overall behind the winners Reading AC and Aldershot in 2nd.
Men
12 Mark Le Gassick 30.55
59 Barry Hards 34.31 (mv 15th)
67 Andy Simpson 34.53
89 Chris Hall 36.28 (mv 32nd)
96 Chris Vernon 36.46 (mv 39th)
129 Gordon Westley 39.35
146 Richard Simms 41.19 (mv 74th)
153 Nick Crane 41.57 (mv 81st )
Women
34 Penny Forse 26.40 (fv 15th)
64 Margaret Pritchard 30.30 (fv 35th)
74 Chris Haskell 34.18 (fv 43rd)
Below are the final overall standings for runners who have completed in 4 races or more, well done guys. Penny has completed in every ladies race for the club so a big thank you Penny. I will try and find out your overall position since the ladies don't list final standings of all the individuals.
42 Andy Simpson
84 Nick Crane
85 Gordon Westley
96 Richard Simms