We are top of the league !!

Tessa Parkin and Annie Silvers striding out at the start of the U11 girls race. Lois Ford and Marijke Tear-Verweij are also in the photo. Despite lots of doughty and resilient performances on the punishing Welcombe Hills at the weekend, where 40 of our finest competed on a proper XC course, doing themselves and the club proud, pride of place this week must surely go to our superlative junior XC team, 60 of who were competing at Perry Park, Birmingham, in the latest West Midlands Young Athletes' Cross Country League fixture. This league is recognised as the strongest XC league in the UK for younger age groups. There are 21 teams competing, including many from the so called 'bigger clubs'. These include Birchfield Harriers, Wolverhampton & Bilston, Rugby & Northampton, Royal Sutton Coldfield, Bromsgrove & Redditch etc. Guess what, at the end of the day and with two more fixtures to go, we are TOP OF THE LEAGUE, which is unprecedented for our club. However, it is by the narrowest of margins, just 67 points with only 265 points separating the top 4 teams. Stratford 12475 points Royal Sutton Coldfield 12408 Wolverhampton & Bilston 12363 Rugby & Northampton 12210 What this fixture really emphasised was how vitally important it is to be able to field a full team in all of the 8 races and also that every one of our team members' contribution is vital. Nothing illustrated this better than the U15 girls race. It was the 8th and final race of the day and the 16th race of the season. Wolverhampton and Bilston, who were league leaders at the start of the day, were only able to field 3 athletes. The scores of 5 athletes count. This cost them between 250 and 300 points. They ended the day 265 points off the top. We, however, were able to field a full team as we had done in all of the races, this was due in no small part to the endeavours of team manager Paul Hawkins. Our 5th finisher in that final race, Georgia Pridham, dug really really deep to finish and in so doing gained us an invaluable 126 points, without which we would not be top of the league but in 3rd place. The next and penultimate fixture of the season is on 12th January at Nuneaton. Bring it on. Also in this week's newsletter you can read about Rich Shephard's superb run in the Bedford half marathon, where his time of 1:13.46 was just 5 seconds off his joint club record. 7 mudlarks 'enjoyed' themselves in the Coombe 8, while James Coy and Ryan Bakewell, who is in the form of his life, competed in the Keyworth Turkey Trot half marathon. In the Telford 10k, Yvonne Gajny and Phil Brennan were competing and Phil's run earned him yet another England international call up. Georgie Campbell at the start of the U17 women's race. Alex Adams approaches the final ascent, to win his 16th successive WMYACC…