Malvern Cross Country - 1 November 2014
The Striders ladies, who have dominated the league for several years, had three A team runners in the top 10 which made their total points tally 18, 23 points ahead of the second placed team Bromsgrove and Redditch, and 34 points ahead of Gloucester AC. Jo Wilkie ran an excellent race to finish 4th, Liza Barry put in a strong performance to finish 5th, while the final A team scorer was ladies captain Rachel Vines who ran well to finish in 9th spot. The Striders ladies are in good shape to win the county league for the 5th time in six years, which will be a record achievement. Other notable performances were had by Vicky Veness who finished 15th leading the Striders B team to 5th placed team overall on the day. Amelia Mullins ran well to finish in 17th place, with final B team scorer Beckie Boulton, who had her best ever finish in this very competitive league, coming home in 40th place. Meanwhile the Striders ladies masters team won their team battles on the day to take the win from Cheltenham Harriers, who will also be aiming for a county league title at the end of the season.
Striders men also had a fantastic day taking second placed team to Cheltenham Harriers. This was a great performance by the men and gives the team confidence ahead of next week’s Birmingham League Division 2 fixture at Leamington. Will Ferguson led the team home in 6th place running a strong race finishing just 10 seconds off 3rd place. Nick Barry, who is recovering from a recent marathon, ran well to clinch 9th place with James Oram followed in a solid 25th place and Juan Moreno following Oram in 27th place. Paul Middlewood who was making his cross country debut finished in 45th place. Final A team scorer was Jon Cooke in 53rd place. CLC Striders mens B team also did very well to finish 10th team overall. Neil Broadbent, who was also making his cross country debut, led the team home in 65th place. Rich Shardlow followed in 69th, Jon Howes was 72nd, Mark Teague 100th, JJ Willson 109th, and final B team scorer was club stalwart Dave Billingham in 118th place. The masters team also put in a great performance to finish 3rd team on the day.
Full results are available here