Harrison takes road form into the country

First off was the ladies’ race, which took in two laps of the Comyn including the notorious Beacon Hill and a disappointingly dry ditch.

Sue Harrison led Leamington C&AC home in an excellent 14th (29:48), with Monica Williamson’s 30th (30:48) and Helen Howells’ 112th (35:21) putting the host club 11th out of 28 teams.

All three ladies also made up the third-placed masters’ team.

The trio were backed up by Susie Tawney (114th, 35:28), Jenny Jeeves (157th, 38:03) and Carol Blower (196th, 40:44).

Kenilworth’s ladies’ team was led home by Nardia Poole, who finished 89th in 34:11. She was followed by Sara Stein (142nd, 37:07) and Sally Hicks (144th, 37:10).

Tina Butler, Ros Matthews, Mandy Crust, Pauline Dable and Joan Mason completed the Kenilworth finishers.

The race was won by Sara Treacy of Birchfield Harriers in 27min 27sec.

In the men’s event, all three divisions of the Birmingham League came together in one race, which took in three ascents of Beacon Hill.

Kenilworth Runners made an excellent start to their third-ever top-flight campaign, finishing 11th of 16 teams.

Richard Simkiss (38:10) led them home in 47th place closely followed by Connor Carson (52nd, 38:18) and captain Phil Gould (59th, 38:46).

With six to score, Stuart Hopkins (93rd, 40:16), Mike Johnson (95th, 40:22) and Pete Bryan (132nd, 42:42) completed the team.

Others: 143, Graham Birch (43.19); 145, Andrew Holbrook (43.34); 164, James Griffiths (44.35); 166, Roger Homes (44.37); 170, Phil Mc Corquodale (44.41); 177, Liam Chappel (45.08); 178, Phil Fusi (45.11); 179, Pete Matthews (45.12); 191, Mick Williams (46.19); 195, Richard Green (46.45); 200, Richard Steel (46.59); 231, Stan Alexander (50.08); 237, Mark Hall (50.51); 245, Fred Rex (51.47); 249, Clive Pearce (52.53); 258, Mike Crust (55.26); 259, Tom Dable (55.59); 264, Stef Shillington (58.43); 267, Stuart Batchelor (62.32); 270, Colin Bricher (66.33).

In Division Two, pride of place went to Leamington C&AC’s Richard Harper, who led from the gun to win in 36:44.

Chris Bull came in sixth (38:04), with Tom Foulerton (15th, 39:16), Eoin O’Flynn (67th), Will Kirk-Wilson (97th) and Dave Ashworth (98th) completing the Leamington scorers to put them eighth in the 18-team division.

Other Leamington finishers: 106, Craig Bower; 115, Steve Cornfield; 140, Steve Roberts; 145, Mike Denney; 147, John Leatham; 154, Pete Taylor; 172, Brian Miller; 211, Adrian Mawby 212, Bert Payne; 230, Jonathan Wilkinson; 245, Graham Roberts).

The previous week, Leamington had a successful trip to Gloucester for the second round of the Gloucestershire Cross Country League.

In-form Harper gained a comfortable win in the men’s race, with Ashworth and O’Flynn next home in 28th and 29th.

Kirk-Wilson, Mike Denney, and Steve Roberts completed the scoring six to leave Leamington second in the table with two races remaining.

Sue Harrison led the ladies’ team home in third, with Monica Williamson in fourth. Helen Howells battled well to finish 46th, with Carol Blower and Janet Mee completing the team which is in fourth place in the table and second in the veterans’ competition.

Greg West (14th), Alex Ibbs (16th), Tim Virr (18th), Kieran Chahal (22nd) and Barnaby Winser (34th) all ran well in the juniors’ event, with Rebecca Lord the 12th under-13 girl.

Kenilworth Runners’ Andrew Siggers dominated the Rutland Marathon, finishing six minutes clear of the second-placed runner.

Siggers completed the course in 2hr 39min 36sec to record his second marathon victory of the year.