Fixture Five in this years Mid Lancs Cross Country League was held at Rossall School in Cleveleys and was about as different from a Witton Park cross country race as you can imagine – almost pan flat. But the good thing was that there was no rain and mountains of mud, scenario’s that have been in force at all cross country races this year.
It was a good day for the Harriers too with individual wins in the U13 Boys, U13 Girls and U17 Women and a Team win in the U13 Boys and Runner up in the U11 Boys.
Full Results HERE
Series Standings after 5 Fixtures HERE
Tim Raynes had his best run of the Mid Lancs season pulling through from the start to finish 3rd in a time of 37.33 and followed in by Chris Davies in 18th place (39.35) who commented after the Race that “ I wasn’t going to run today and was going to concentrate on a good long run on the Sunday but decided to run last minute. Proved to be a good decision and had a good run which is my last XC for this season. The course was a bit long and monotonous but for running on was probably the best we have had on which has been probably one of the hardest and toughest XC seasons I’ve run in since starting up running. Well done to Tim Raynes who had another excellent run, Mark Chippingdale who seems to be running better every race and the same with Paul Guinan. Well done to all the other Senior Men and all the other Harrier runners on the day. Enjoy the rest of the XC season, what is left of it anyway and hope the rest of your season goes well. Well done everybody”.
V45 Mark Chippendale who is also having a good cross country season placed 19th (39.49) with Paul Guinan (V40) next home in 27th (40.36), followed by Allan Hartley (V40) coming in 106th out of the 234 finishers (46.00), another V40 John Cookson in 126th (47.38) and Michael Sharp (201st) with a time of 54.27 – all of which left the Harriers 6th Team on the day out of 25. and 5th Team in the V40’s counting four runners with Mark Chippendale leading Paul Guinan, Allan Hartley and John Cookson in. Just two women out in the Senior Women’s Race on the day which saw V35 Lorna Sharp finish 70th (33.56) out of 125 finishers and V40 Lindsay Davies 91st in 36.49.
Going back to the younger Age Categories, three of the youngsters ran in the U11 Girls Race with Kate Cookson leading them home in 20th position with a time of 8.29 followed by an excellent run from young Isabelle Hartley in 23rd (8.32) which was her highest finish in the League so far and Alayna Irvine in 41st in a time of 9.56.
The U11 Boys led home by Edward Lee finished 2nd Team on the day with Edward finishing strongly in 8th spot (7.17), Kyle Taylor-Pomfret in 11th (7.22), Rory Teare 17th in 7.35, Saul Sharp who was recovering from a bad chest in 27th (8.04) and Oliver Gill (37th ) in a time of 8.41.
It was a double win for the Harriers in the U13’s with Matt Ramsden winning the Boys Race and the Series as did Amy Davies in the Girls. To add to that, the U13 Boys also won the Team on the day which was a great performance by them.
Amy took the U13 girls race in a winning time of 8.34 from Erin Moffatt in 2nd place with Eleesha Charnley in 10th spot (9.25). Matt won the U13 Boys Race in 9.32 some 15 seconds clear of Rhys Ashton in 2nd. Jamie Teare had his highest finish of the series so far in finishing an excellent 3rd in 9.43 whilst Leon Thomas continued his consistent run of form in the league placing 9th in 10.10. Backing them up came Luke Ingleson in 15th spot (10.47) and Ethan Barbarewicz in 17th (11.25).
The U15 Girls just missed out on winning the Team on the day by one point to Blackpool. Hannah Cookson who is lying 5th in the Series overall had her highest finish of the Series with a 4th placed 11.02 to lead Natalya Irvine (9th) in 11.33 and Chloe Bleeks in 12th (12.01) to the runner up Team position.
Liz Greenwood who won the Lancashire Schools and took Bronze in the Northern Championships recently, showed her good form with a comprehensive win in the U17 Womens Race by over a minute.
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Village Bakery Half-Marathon
Eight hundred and eight finishers at this Half-Marathon run on Sunday February 14th with Blackburn Harrier Andy Buttery among them.
Full Results HERE
Andy had a great run finishing 14th in 74.53, a run which puts him 15th in the National Rankings for the V45 Age Category and just three seconds behind current Club Record holder – Evan Cook (74.50). He was very pleased with his Race and told the Club that “I did the Village Bakery Half today in Wrexham finishing 14th. My target was to get back under 75mins and I just managed it clocking 74.53. I felt strong pacing it well – my last mile was my fastest split on the day pushing to get under 75, which is probably a first for me in a half! I didn’t realise until I just looked on the club website that I was 3secs short of the club v45 record so I must try another half soon!”
Another Blackburn Harrier out in a Half-Marathon was the recently joined Carol Butterworth. Her training and been going well and she was targeting a PB for this course. She had run 1.47.36 in the race the year before and she certainly deliver, knocking a huge 6 minutes off that time.
Carol was really pleased with her performance telling the Club that it “wasn’t a pb for a half – I did that 2 weeks ago at the flood relief race in Lancaster. Today was a massive pb for that half marathon course though. It’s a hilly course but It’s one I enjoy, looks like the track work could be paying off”.
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Other Results from the Weekend
Other results from last weekend saw David Morris run the Valentines Weekend 10K where he finished 55th out of the 83 runners in the Race with a time of 56.41. Full Results HERE
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U13 Charlotte Corrigan ran in the Burnley Park Run which featured 292 finishers. Charlotte placed an impressive 36th in a time of 22.45 and was first Junior Female home. Full Results HERE
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Tom Blaney had a run out at the Cuerden Valley Park Run which was his first time and won it in a time of 18.29. 15yr old Freya Black also had a run here coming in 1st Junior Female and setting a new PB of 25.45 in 39th place out of 156 runners. Full Results HERE
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At the Blackburn Park Run – Witton Park – there were three Harriers out among the 81 runners in this one with Andy Heyes having a run for the first time in this kind of format, taking 3rd place in 20.55. He was followed by new member Leo Gebbie in 8th spot (21.42) and David Billington (32nd) in 28.35. Full Results HERE
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