Best season yet for Stratford AC's men
STRATFORD AC were celebrating after securing their best ever finish in the Birmingham Cross Country League on Saturday.
The final division two fixture of the season took Stratford to a new venue in Cheltenham and a decent cross country course over rolling Gloucestershire countryside awaited.
Josh Newman (9th, 37.44) has been in excellent form over the winter and another top ten finish was due reward for his efforts.
Neil Wicks (48th, 39.59) is also in good form and he was pleased with his run and his top 50 finish.
The next three runners were all in close contention throughout the race and it was only in the latter stages that Olly Senior 89th (42.11) finally pulled clear of Drew Sambridge 94th (42.24) whilst Rob Minton 101st (42.51) couldn’t quite finish off the race as he would have wished.
Both Senior and Sambridge are new to the club this season and are proving real assets with both achieving their second consecutive placing in the A team.
The next four runners also had a terrific battle with the strength of Wayne Vickers 123rd (43.53) showing in the closing stages as he secured the final place in the A team.
Despite a lack of training Danny Tolhurst 128th (44.15) continues to show glimpses of his undoubted talent and he was followed by co-team manager Malcolm Bowyer 133rd (44.29) with a season’s best performance who was chased all the way to the line by James Cusack 134th (44.33).
Despite having moved out of the area, all credit to Martyn Helliker 196th (48.41) who continues to make the effort to represent the club.
He was followed by the determined Mike Sheppard 211th (51.06) and the reliable Ben Twyman 218th (52.03) was the final scorer for the B team.
Completing the SAC running contingent were James Deacon 239th (55.10) and Phil Marshal 251st (59.09).
The A team scored 464 points and were 12th team on the day. This was a solid return bearing in mind that the first five runners home from the first race were unavailable for a variety of reasons.
The team finished the season in eighth, which was an excellent reward for the efforts of Tolhurst and Bowyer for organising the teams over the winter.
The B team scored 1,020 points, finishing ninth on the day and seventh overall.
Meanwhile, the Stratford AC women’s team travelled to Aldersley Stadium in Wolverhampton to compete in the Midland Women’s League.
The team had the fewest runners of the season due to a number of injuries and other absences but the seven athletes who ran gave 100 per cent for their club to ensure a good final result.
Leading the Stratford team from start to finish was Rachel Pearce, who seemed to enjoy the mud and always looked comfortable finishing in 35th place (10th in the masters race) in a time of 25.24.
Sheila Lammas continues to improve through the season and was pleased with a solid run in 54th (20th master, 26.33).
Close behind in her best run of the season by some way was Alison Bagnall (62nd, 24th master, 26.55), who started conservatively but showed her strength as the race went on.
Emma Vickers (91st, 42nd master, 28.09) and Hannah Osborne (97th, 28.34) were always close throughout the race, both running well, but Emma held off Hannah at the end. Suzi Graham (118th, 59th master, 30.25) is stepping up her training which is paying off as she continues to improve.
Completing the Stratford team, Rebecca Pridham (143rd, 77th master, 32.14) continued her comeback from injury.
After being disappointed with her last race as the lack of training took its toll, this was a much better performance and she should be optimistic for the spring and summer season.
Team manager, Paul Hawkins, said: “We’ve been really unlucky with injuries and there’s been lots of runners missing all season which has hit us hard but every one of the team who have run have been magnificent, you couldn’t ask for any more from them.”
The team were 13th which left them in tenth place in the final table, comfortably mid-table.
The masters’ team were sixth on the day but held onto fourth place, just missing out on third.
