Oxford Mail cross country

It was good to see a large number of Banbury runners turning out for the first round of the Oxon Mail Cross Country league at an unusually sunny Ascott-under-Wychwood on Sunday. Although still wet underfoot the abnormally warm conditions turned the hilly course into a real endurance test.

Will Brown was first up in the under-9’s running well to claim 12^th place, followed by Tilly Lainchbury, Eimear Moss and Talitha Eskender in the under-11 girls who came 21^st, 38^th and 57^th respectively. The under-11 boys was very exciting from a Banbury perspective with Henry Pollock taking 5^th place although given the same recorded time as 4^th place and he was closely followed by Ruben Snelson in 6^th and Max Lloyd-Thomas in 8^th. Ethan Aldous ran strongly for 16^th as he moved up to under-11 and Ryan Barnby showed good speed to finish 26^th. Stanley Kay finished 36^th in what was a very encouraging race from a Harrier’s perspective.

The under-13 girl’s race produced good runs from Lizzie Eskender (26^th), Sophie Howie (36^th), Mia Berridge (37^th), Nikola Bishop (38^th) and Laura Berrie (41^st) and then, despite only having 2 runners, the under-13 boys recorded an overall 3^rd place team finish thanks to super runs from Skip Snelson who finished in an excellent 2^nd place and Angus Pollock who finished 6^th.

The under-15 and under-17 girls provided Harrier’s first team victory of the season as strong running in exceptionally tough conditions saw Emily Thompson finish 3^rd (u17), Jenny Hannah finish 5^th but first under-15 and Tia Williams finish 8^th but 3^rd under-15. In the same age group the boys had to settle for 4^th place but there was some really gutsy running from Gregor Kelling (12^th), Blaine Carpenter (15^th), Owen Knox (20^th) and Cameron Baugh (26^th).

There were big fields in both senior races and out of 185 finishers in the woman’s race Michelle Bartlett was an excellent 25^th and 2^nd V2. Next home for Harriers was Becky Pull in 83^rd, followed by Amanda Hallam 89^th, Rebecca Biegel 101^st, Lisa Ansell 121^st and Carol Edginton 126^th. In an even larger field of over 300 runners the men’s race produced an excellent run from Tim Wright who came home in 13^th. Next home for Banbury Harriers was David Hollidge in 61^st, followed by Simon Pritchard 127^th, Pete Newell 178^th, Phil Coy 214^th, Neil Forbes 269^th, Ian Robinson 278^th, Doug Scott 293^rd and Andy Bartlett 293^rd. The men’s team also finished a creditable 6^th place in their division 3.

 Will