The results are on this link: http://www.race-results.co.uk/results/2014/lancs14.htm

There were some excellent perfomances for the Club

Richard Taylor reports as follows:

I’d like to start with the support that we had at the event yesterday. I’ve been involved now for around 11 years and that was by far and away the easiest Cross Country event for me.The thanks for that go to the volunteer marshalls, course builders and officials and BBH had them out in good numbers yesterday. For the first time I can remember, I didn’t go home mashed.It also benefited the athletes, many who commented that the support on course was excellent and spurred them on.

Grace HandleyI’m going to start with the u15 girls with Grace Handley running  up to her best form and taking the County Title with a great run. She’s worked her socks off through the autumn, followed the plan to ease off over Xmas and yesterday it seemed to come together well. A great example of an athlete training and planning to get a result. Elizabeth Greenwood is a similar hard-working athlete but she’d missed some training pre Xmas and then was hit with a bug this week but she battled round for 4th place for the team  earning her place for the County team and great credit for that.

Megan Clarkson came 6th. An automatic Lancashire slot and first Lancashire vest. Many won’t realise, but Megan is bottom of the age group and it’s only last season that she finished last in the Mid Lancs at Townley. What Megan achieved yesterday was the reward for a great 12 months hard work. Finally multi eventer Esme Pearse – she hasn’t raced a cross country this season but what a great effort by Esme to get around probably the most testing course she’s raced on and bring the u15 Girls Team home with a silver medal.

The u11 Boys started the day and Jamie Teare led our team home in 8th with Edward Lee, Rory Teare and James Corrigan completing to give the lads a very creditable 4th place.

Amy Davies-1Amy Davies was one of our individual stars on the day taking the u11 girls gold medal by a good margin. Amy Dowsing was 7th and Eleanor Allsop, Alayna Irvine and Scarlett Webb completed to win a fantastic Silver medal with 3 x 8 year olds taking part.

Ben Dowsing in the U15s was making his debut after only 2 or 3 sessions with us, so well done to Ben. It was a terrific debut run.

The U13 Girls had Natalya Irvine lead the girls home with a strong run for 7th and close to a County Lancs vest with that. Maddie Elliott will be on the reserve list with her excellent 10th place and Hannah Cookson, Emily Warren and Nicole Edwards (in her first race for the Harriers) completed the team to finish 4th.

The U17 Women really have a team ethic. Not for me, not for the club, but for each other and that’s to their credit. Katie Buckingham ran without doubt her best cross country race ever. She’s improved with each race this season and she is another shining example to anyone else at the club what hard work can achieve. If you look back at some of her results from her U13 days, you’ll see what I mean and now with her 3rd place, her first podium in a County XC and some new scalps as well.

petePhoebe Howe showed great courage to get round 2 laps of Witton – well out of her comfort zone and her 8th place following a sprint finish may get her close to a county vest. Rhiannon Wickham perhaps the only one of the 3 who actually enjoys cross country (usually) has been struggling with a back problem, but turned out for her mates. They were rewarded with a well earned team Silver.

Joe Monks led the evenly matched squad u17 men’s squad home in 11th, just in front of Rob Buckley, Joe Campbell, Joseph Howe and Morgan Phillips with only a minute separating the lads. They just missed out on a team medal. They were missing Jack Hindle and Rob Wong through illness / injury.

Helen Leigh was our first senior woman  home in 5th and has a County Vest for sure. Beckie Taylor 12th (3rd U20) and Sarah Toms 13th got the Club a team silver. Laura Hesketh, Jackie Taylor, Charlotte Atkinson, Kaylie Panaro and Carol Cookson made up the ladies squad of eight for the day the most I can recall and a fantastic effort.

On the senior men’s front first mention to Tom Cornthwaite. He may not run for BBH on the Cross Country at the moment, but he is still with us on the track. This was Tom’s first County Cross Country title and you could see what it meant to him as he ran down the finishing straight. Well done Tom and also to Gary Priestley in 2nd, another BBH runner on the track. Pete Matthews was our first runner home in 3rd place – perhaps his best cross country run to date. He was selected along with Gary to run for the North as a result of this performance in Cardiff.

Behind Pete we had Paul Guinan (V), Tom Blaney, Brian Fogarty, Shaun Livesey, Matt Nuttall(V) – these six were our counters for the well deserved gold medal backed by Chris Davies, Zac Howe, Chris Barnes, Gary Pearse(V), Michael Toms(V), Chris Balderson(V), Mark Irving, Andrew Heys, Mark Almond(V), Allan Hartley, John Cookson and Ian Clarkson(V).18 Senior men – a great turnout. We had Paul Guinan 1st VET and we won the VET team title with Paul Matt and Gary.