Hampshire Cross Country League
A bitter day saw the close of Hants XC league with the last race of the season at Wimborne. Stubbington men lay 2nd in div 2 and Vet men were 9th facing relegation.
Missing our star runners due to injury and the Meon Valley Plod the next day, seven guys stood tall and were given their marching orders to beat Fleet & Crookham & Farnham Runners.
At the front of the Green Platoon was Andy Simpson, chasing a Fleet runner but losing the battle; Farnham had good numbers to swell their ranks.
Andy crossed the line in a season’s best position of 40th, he back tracked down the course to shout instructions to the troops to beat the guy in front.
Next to finish for the team was Gordon Westley in 118th in 37.28, (please note Gordon was early for this race!!). It was not looking good for Stubbie senior men at this point with Fleet’s first four runners inside our 2nd man home and all Farnham’s team had finished in front of Gordon.
The Green army then packed extremely well with John 126th, Steve 135th, Phil 138th and Nick 147th and last scorer.
A special mention goes to Private Ashley Lovell in his first Hants XC race, he doggedly tracked a Winchester runner for a good half a lap and was spurred on by his Sergeant to pass his man.
Private Lovell left it to a sprint finish and showed us how good he is over 200m as he left his man for dead and raced as if the landlord had rung last orders at the bar to come home in 161st.
The team then had a nervous wait to find out whether they had done enough to gain promotion back to the top flight. It took till the day after to confirm the following. The men had finished 5th was it enough…. Farnham had beaten them on the day in 2nd and Fleet & Crookham had…blown it they failed to get a scoring team which meant they were given last. In the end the men brought home the bacon and got themselves promoted. A special thanks goes to those seven magnificent men who against all the odds did their club proud, well done boys you deserve a heroes welcome.
The Vet men had a tall order to avoid relegation and with the big hitters of the team resting for the Meon Valley Plod it was left to guys who had the made the backbone of the team this year to battle against the odds. First home for the Vets was John, then Steve and finally Phil. They finished 8th on the day which left them cruelly relegated on count-back.
The ladies saw 3 consistent runners turning out for them and it was the on form Penny who came home first in 23rd in 24.53, closely followed by Susie in 30th in 25.32 and Margie was 43rd in 27.29. The ladies finished a good 8th place but same 3 ladies as a vet team finished an awesome 4th place which when looking at the scores saw them just 5 places off finishing 2nd team on the day!!
Penny and Margie competed in every race for Stubbington. Penny finished 8th Vet overall and Susie came in with 10th Vet. So well done ladies, we look forward to another good season next year from our thriving ladies section.
In the under-17s race, Georgie Gair, who won the Today's Runner event for Stubbington last weekend, was victorious in Dorset. Representing City of Portsmouth, she led virtually from start to finish to win by a good 11 seconds to finish second overall in the age group behind Winchester's Sarah Burgin.
Positions
Men
40 Andy Simpson 32.29
118 Gordon Westley 37.28
126 John Gueran 38.10
135 Steve Martin 38.59
138 Phil May 39.04
147 Nick Crane 40.11
161 Ashley Lovell 41.45
Ladies
23 Penny Forse 24.53
30 Susie MacGregor 25.32
43 Margie Pritchard 27.29
Ladies under 17
1 Georgie Gair