Birmingham League Cross Country - 8 November 2014
CLC Striders men put in an excellent display in the first Birmingham cross country League Division 2 fixture of the 2014/15 season. Will Ferguson and Nick Barry were front runners battling it out to see who would lead the club home with Ferguson showing his strength in the last 200m finishing in an excellent 12th place. Barry finished close behind in 14th place, followed by Iain porter who had a fantastic run to claim 25th place. Juan Moreno ran strongly to finish 35th place with James Oram in a solid 49th place and Paul Middlewood having a good run in 57th place following. Middlewood completed the striders mens A team which finished a magnificent 4th place only 3 points behind Bromsgrove in 3rd. Head coach Brendan Ward now believes his team is easing closer to a promotion challenge as the club have proved they can mix with the best Midland Division 2 clubs.
Jon Cooke ran a good race to lead the Striders mens B team home in 96th place. Cooke was followed by Jon Howes in 108th place and Rich Shardlow in 117th. Next for the B team was JJ Willson who finished 157th. after Willson was mens club captain Joel Freeland in 179th place. Final B team scorer was Andrew Paterson in 217th place. The striders mens B team are lying 5th in the B team competition. Other notable performances were had by Rob Bircher in 221st place, Rich Haslam 229th.
Earlier, as the rain bucketed down, the CLC women’s team had lined up on the start line and luckily, as the whistle blew, the sun finally came out along with the supporters!
The race consisted of two laps each containing a sharp hill climb followed by a ditch crossing in which many have fallen in. The ground was also very muddy, making it a tough slog to the finish line. The first Strider home was Jo Wilkie who made an impressive start to the season by finishing in 52nd place. Wilkie was closely followed by recent signing, Katie Truslove in 58th place continuing to show her form. The women’s A team was completed by Liza Barry who continues to improve in 66th place. The ladies team finished in 13th place on the day out of 39 teams.
Other notable performances came from Amelia Mullins who was second scorer in the masters team, Charlotte Sugden who came 157th in her first cross country race and Amanda Pill for her improvement on last year.
The masters team was made up of Jo Wilkie, Amelia Mullins and Amanda Steer who finished 4th masters team on the day.
Full results are now available…