Return of The Warrior!
After a seven year absence Mandy Dawson (known in the Mud household as ‘The Warrior’) made a triumphant return to the HL today by powering round the tough course to be first Strider home in the Senior Women’s race – well done Mandy!! Parking problems meant race starts were slightly delayed but the new challenging course made the wait worthwhile. The Striderettes numbered 18 today and the evergreen Fiona Shenton came in not far behind Mandy to finish second counter with Rachel T clawing her way through from the medium pack to be third home.
Joanne Porter also made a welcome return today with a brave performance. Katy W had a fine run on her Medium pack debut and Rachael Bullock, fresh from her cold bath on Weds, had her best run of the season so far. But well done to all the women – that was a challenging course and you all performed brilliantly! We were slightly down on our Jarrow finishing position but still avoided the relegation zone – just!
After a chilly wait the men finally got going and Rob Everson was the man to lead the 19 strong team home – for the first time I think – so well done Rob! Will ‘done good’ today passing a big chunk of the field from the medium pack and finishing second Strider. Youth (Tom S) and experience (James G, Mudman & Gibbo) made up the other counters with the rest of the Striders’ team spread liberally throughout the field.
As in the women’s race there were some brave performances among the Strider ranks – none more so than debutant Alex Cole. Well done Alex! I can’t say it ever gets any easier but I can guarantee that, with a bit of hard work, you can expect to finish in a quicker time. A solid team performance but we slipped back to 8th place on the day.
The HL takes a bit of a break now with the next fixture at Wrekenton not until 8th Feb. However, in the meantime we’ve got the NE x/c Champs on 14th Dec & the Northerns on 25th Jan – more on those v.soon!
Results
Men
| Pos | Name | Club | Cat | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cameron Boyek | Shildon AC | 34:45 | |
| 92 | Rob Everson | 43:20 | ||
| 107 | Will Horsley | 43:39 *M | ||
| 134 | Tom Spurling | 44:12 | ||
| 145 | James Garland | 44:23 | ||
| 163 | Geoff Davis | 44:44 | ||
| 202 | David Gibson | 45:24 | ||
| 204 | Graeme Walton | 45:30 | ||
| 238 | Dave Halligan | 46:20 | ||
| 250 | Tom Reeves | 46:43 *M | ||
| 272 | Mike Bennett | 47:14 | ||
| 285 | Shaun Roberts | 47:52 | ||
| 290 | Michael Tait | 48:00 | ||
| 299 | Jon Steed | 48:27 | ||
| 342 | Alister Robson | 50:27 | ||
| 350 | Matthew Crow | 50:32 | ||
| 432 | Brian Ford | 55:15 | ||
| 446 | Mark Dunseith | 56:29 | ||
| 451 | Mark Preston | 57:10 | ||
| 458 | John Hutchinson | 58:07 | ||
| 463 | Innes Hodgson | 60:03 | ||
| 472 | Alex Cole | 65:05 |
*M Medium pack – 2m30s handicap.
*F Fast pack – 5m handicap.
476 finishers. Men’s team finished 7th of 11 in Division 2.
Women
| Pos | Name | Club | Cat | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alyson Dixon | Sunderland Strollers | 30:10 *F | |
| 47 | Mandy Dawson | 33:31 | ||
| 53 | Fiona Shenton | 33:39 | ||
| 66 | Rachel Terry | 33:59 *M | ||
| 75 | Katy Walton | 34:13 *M | ||
| 85 | Rachael Bullock | 34:27 | ||
| 96 | Susan Davis | 34:49 | ||
| 103 | Fiona Jones | 35:00 | ||
| 113 | Roz Layton | 35:18 | ||
| 116 | Lydia Bertrand-Hutchinson | 35:28 | ||
| 120 | Sarah Davies | 35:44 | ||
| 134 | Claire Readey | 36:54 | ||
| 150 | Jan Young | 37:31 | ||
| 169 | Kirsty Anderson | 38:22 | ||
| 171 | Jacquie Robson | 38:30 | ||
| 202 | Katherine Preston | 40:48 | ||
| 213 | Barbara Dick | 41:42 | ||
| 221 | Victoria Downes | 42:35 | ||
| 231 | Joanne Porter | 43:30 | ||
| 232 | Joanne Richardson | 43:31 | ||
| 253 | Anita Dunseith | 53:49 |
*M Medium pack – 2m handicap.
253 finishers. Women’s team finished 8th of 10 in Division 1.