Cross country report

Banbury Harriers got their Oxford Mail cross-country league campaign off to a good start on a very wet course at Ascott-under-Wychwood on Sunday.

In the under-9’s mixed race Ethan Aldous and Ruben Snelson set the tone finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively while in the under-11 boys race Chris Charles ran strongly for a 5^th place finish supported by Ben Knox in 11^th , Jasper Bell in 15^th, Ryan Barnby in 21^st and Alex Phipps in 49^th. Tilly Eskender was the first Banbury girl home in 47^th. In the girls event Nikola Bishop was first home for Banbury in 34^th closely followed by Sophie Howie in 37^th, Felicity Jones in 38^th and Jess Knox in 50^th.

In the under-13 boys Skip Snelson continued his strong start to the season finishing 2^nd despite being in the lower year of the category and with Owen Knox in 6^th and Angus Pollock in 20^th the team completed a creditable 3^rd place finish with Stan Bull also running very well in his first under-13 year to finish 30th. Lizzie Eskender was first Harriers girl in 28^th followed by Laura berry in 49^th.

In the under-15 and under-17 girls race Emily Thompson again ran well for 4^th place and with Jenny Hannah 8^th and Rosie Weston 12^th this brought the team home in 3^rd place as well. There was strength in depth for Harriers in this category with the “B” team finishing 5^th overall after good running from  Tia Williams in 15^th, Rose Lord in 16^th , Zoe Pollock in 20^th and Lucy Scruton 23^rd. In the same age group the boys also finished in 3^rd place with Luke Sherlock leading then home in 6^th followed by Gregor Kelling in 13^th and Blaine Carpenter in 30^th.

In the woman’s event Harriers finished 4^th in their division 2 encounter, Ros Kelling in 12^th, Michelle Bartlett in 23^rd , Becky Pull in 77^th and Lisa Ansell in 137^th  all ran well whilst in the Men’s event Tim Wright was again first home for Harriers finishing 11^th. The Men’s team finished 17^th overall in their division 3 event with Wright excellently supported by vets Peter Grieveson in 189^th,  Phil Coy in 209^th, Geoff Smith in 259^th, Neil Frape in 262^nd and Andy Bartlett in 276^th.

It was a particularly wet start to the season so a very well done to all who turned out to represent the club and compete. Although each event is a separate race in its own right please note that one score from the five race series can be discarded at the end of the season and therefore athletes who missed Sunday’s race are still eligible for the overall series competition if they complete the remaining four events. 

Will Knox