COMPLETE RUNNER CROSS COUNTRY LEAGUE OVER FOR ANOTHER YEAR

SENIOR MEN START THEIR CROSS COUNTRY SEASON OFF IN NUNROYD PARK

 Whilst numerous other events in the north were being postponed or cancelled altogether, due to the snow, the last of 4 COMPLETE RUNNER cross country league fixtures went ahead at Wakefield on December 5th, albeit with some adjustments.  In fact the number of mens finishers exceeded the number at the 3rd Bramley Falls event.

 There were many excellent overall performances but for me the abiding memory of this season will be the manner in which Leeds City dominated the Senior mens races.  As if 6 in 12 was not good enough at the first Nunroyd Park event they put 9 in 12 at Fartown, Huddersfield in the second race; continuing their form with 8 in 13 at Bramley Falls and finished with 6 in 12 on the snowy fields of Thornes Park, Wakefield.  Let's hope the club can maintain this show of strength through to the Yorkshire, Northern and Nationals.

 Individually, ANDREW PEARSON (Longwood) shown here

was the class act winning races 2,3 and 4 but being MV35 the mens individual title went to SIMON DEAKIN (Leeds City) who also missed the first race but was first open in each of the remaining events.

 KATIE WALSHAW (Holmfirth) pictured here showed excellent form in winning races 1,2,3 and must have been disappointed that JULIE BRISCOE (Wakefield) turned out on her home turf to deny her of a clean sweep; but not her Holmfirth team who were undefeated throughout.
 The Holmfirth club won all of the youngest age groups as well.
U/11, boys and girls, U/13, boys and girls. So with the senior ladies the club  won 5 of the 10 age groups overall.   The winning clubs  being U/15s City Of York and Wharfedale;  under 17s Skyrac girls, including COMPLETE RUNNER's DAISY AGAR, and Wakefield.
 Individually, STELLA CROSS (Wetherby) dominated the U/11 with a clean sweep of 4 wins.  CHARLIE  LOWRIE (Wharfedale)   missed the last race but it didn't matter; he'd been first in the first 3.
Not so easy for ELLA EADON (City of York) (U/13 girls,who needed to win the last event and did so to complete a trio of victories.  LEWIS BYRON (Holmfirth) , U/13 boys, was an excellent champion also with three wins and a second.  In the U/15 girls, ANNABELLE MASON (Wakefield) ) had a slender one point overall win with early two victores and a second.  U/15 boys champion MAX WHARTON (Halifax) went the other way coming through  to win the last 2 races after a 2nd and a 3rd.
The under 17s were the relatively weak events with only 13 girls and 23 boys scoring in 3 races;  CAROLINE LAMBERT (Wetherby) overall champion with a 2nd, 3rd and 1st.  MAX KAYE (Holmfirth) won no races but showed best overall form with a 4th and 2 seconds.
  But the least supported category of all, not surprisingly, were the juniors.  Of only 7 who scored in the junior girls, CARLY ROBERTSON (Bingley) had a win and 2 seconds; with MICHAEL WOOD (Leeds City)  overall junior boys champion with two wins and a second.
  Once again, GORDON AGAR,  MIKE SHERMAN, BOB JACKSON and their great team of officials have to be applauded for putting together yet another highly successful season and one we are very proud to be associated with through the efforts of ALISTAIR DAVY, our Marketing manager,  in conjunction with 1000 mile.
 Particularly as the league was my first involvement with Yorkshire athletics when i came over from Lancashire way back in 1969 when I started studies at Trinity & All Saints Colleges in Horsforth.