City of Salisbury Athletics and Running Club

City of Salisbury’s men’s cross country team brought their Hampshire League season to an excellent finish by winning the division two title at Dibden in the New Forest, to earn promotion to the top level.

Against classy opposition, Sean Byrne led the way in 20th place chased by Michael Beckett 22nd, Richard Davidson 40th, Reece Ingram 77th, Andy Holme 81st and Jonathan Croom 86th. Many other Salisbury runners followed in hot pursuit, comprising part of the club’s biggest-ever turnout of 69 finishers.

For the women’s team, Sian Thomas was tenth to take second vet award and she was followed by good runs from Emma Clarke 34th, Charlotte Ingram 42nd, Jill Coles 84th, Ellen Tilley 90th and Linda Robson 92nd.

 

The club’s younger competitors’ record numbers enabled strong performances to support Bea Wood’s routinely outstanding win in the under 15’s. Alicia Finnis was seventh and Jadey Griscti 33rd, with Lukas Bailey 45th in the boys’ event.

Isaac Routledge took second spot in the under 11’s with Jacob Earl 13th and Toby Hasley 15th, with Daisy Cobham, Neve Cousins and Sophie Hawakawa 18th, 20th and 24th.

In the under 13’s Sophie Nicholls was eighth, Oliver Glover 33rd and Lottie Fotheringham 45th and for the boys Charlie Coles was 16th, Caleb Etheridge 19th and Rory Glover 33rd.

Poppy Langdon-Down clocked a sparkling 87min 04sec personal best in the Worthing half marathon, with Joe Cunningham ten minutes back in 97.06, and in the 50mile Attrition race in Cornwall, James Mills finished in 11hours 15mins for a commendable tenth place.

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Stuart Holloway led the City of Salisbury charge at the Ryde 10mile on the Isle of Wight, taking third place overall and leading the club’s six teams to more good performances under cloudless skies in the Hampshire road race league.

His time of 55min 49sec was little more than a minute behind the winner, and set the pace for other good runs by Richard Larcombe 72.07, Nick Hudson 73.17 and James Ballard 75.52.

Ruth Thom defied the hills with a notable 69.00 for sixth spot in the women’s individual race, that with Anna Patrickson’s 80.20 and Vicky Robinson’s 81.42 earned a fine fourth team place overall.

The men’s B team quartet comprised Jon Kershaw 76.09, Steve Mitchell 76.23, Joe Cornwall 78.23 and Stuart Robertson 78.38, and the C team was made up of Marc Hankins 79.16, James Patrickson 84.34, Kevin O’Leary 85.35 and Mel Holloway 96.40.

Heather Hitchins was third in her age group with 84.56 and she was supported by Alison Scott 86.37 and Liz Roberts 88.42 to complete the women’s B team, with Jane Whiteley 91.19, Linda Robson 92.11 and Melenie Murphy 92.12 completing the C team.

Then came Anne Norman 104.15, Denise von Roretz 106.32, Helen Carlton 106.33, Fi Thatcher 111.02, Phil Perry 111.48, Colin Martin 113.05, Janine Kemm 114.01 and Lesley Brown 117.45.
Next fixture in the 12 match series is the Fleet half marathon on March 17th.
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City of Salisbury’s young running prodigy Bea Wood added further to her credentials at the South of England cross country championships by taking yet another emphatic win.

Over the windswept grassland of Parliament Hill Fields in London she quickly asserted her authority at the front and by the finish 4k later had shattered the hundreds-strong competition to take the under-15’s title by 13 seconds from Emily Shaw of Wimborne.

More cross country success was earned by Richard Davidson at the South Western veteran championships where he took a good first place for the 40plus age title.

Close behind him in fourth spot overall was Eddie O’Gorman who in the process won his 45plus age group to complete an excellent weekend hat-trick of victories for the club.

On the road, Nick Hudson made an early start to the half marathon season at Farnborough where he clocked a steady 93min 02sec, and in warmer conditions Craig Weatherburn clocked 4.33.53 in the Gran Canaria marathon.

This Sunday [3rd] the club continues its strong challenge for Hampshire road race league honours with a big contingent crossing the Solent for the testing Ryde 10mile on the Isle of Wight.
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Salisbury athlete and good friend of the club Verity Ockenden took a brilliant fifth place for the GB team in the Stirling international cross country against teams from Europe and the U.S. after speeding past four other girls in the final stretch. This weekend [19th Jan] she will don an England vest at another high quality multi-national cross country event in Seville.

Meanwhile at club level, the surge in local interest in running is having tangible effect by driving upwards the standard of our racing results through ever greater competition for team places.
A record number of 55 City of Salisbury runners crossed the finishing line at the Stubbington 10k in the Hampshire road race league where the men’s C team were the club’s top performers, all four men setting new marks for the distance despite breezy conditions on exposed parts of the course.
Iain Webber led the way with 39min 52sec with Ian Lawrence 40.48, Richard Larcombe 42.04 and Chris Maple 42.13 in close order.

For the A team, the dependably-quick Stuart Holloway clocked 33.39 for eighth place behind Winchester AC’s George King. Richard Davidson was next team counter with a good pb of 36.00, then came Mike Brewster 36.45 and James Hassan 37.05.

The B team comprised Lee Syrett whose 37.31 shaved off seven seconds from his pb, followed by Reece Ingram 37.46, James Mills 37.50 and Jonathan Croom 39.42.

The women’s teams were depleted by injury but, like the men, still maintained their strong challenge in the league tables.

Charlotte Ingram was leader of the A’s with 42.50 supported by Sarah Brewster 46.07 and a new mark from Alison Scott in 50.18.

The B trio was made up of Marie Perry 50.29, Melanie Murphy 51.12 and Linda Robson 51.20, with the C team comprising Rebecca Lockwood 51.32, Liz Roberts 51.49 and Lisa Milner a pb 52.15.

Others in the massed ranks of CoSarc finishers were:
James Ballard 42.21, Phil Perry 43.56, Steve Mitchell 44.10, Nick Hudson 44.12, Joe Cornwall 44.20, Stuart Robertson 44.21, Matthew Harris 44.29, Jon Kershaw 44.43, Marc Hankins 45.24, Mike White 45.41, Craig Murphy 46.13, Derek Wood 46.40, Terry Brown 46.53, Barry Vincent 49.33, Nick Willetts 50.13, Richard Williams 50.28, Kevin O’Leary 50.48, Kieran McManus 51.20, Mel Holloway 52.43, Lucy Orchard 53.08, Jane Whiteley 53.48, Richard Bidmead 54.43, Jackie Hassan 55.58, Jackie Cheblowski 59.32, Carol Cheblowski 59.45, Duncan Watkinson 61.02, Fi Thatcher 61.26, Anne Norman 61.43, Colin Martin 62.42, Denise von Roretz 63.49, Helen Carlton 66.17, Lesley Brown 67.16, Mary Clements 67.27, Vasen Moodley time not known at time of writing.

More good results came from the Hampshire cross country league fixture at Reading.
All three of our under 11’s (Daisy Cobham, Neve Cousins and Sophie Hayawaki, 4th, 9th and 10th) finished in the top ten, and in the same age group Isaac Routledge took second spot while in the under 13’s Charlie Coles was 16th and in the under 15’s Alicia Finnis was 15th.

Among the senior women Sian Thomas was a good tenth, followed by Jill Coles 85th, Ali Sloane 96th, Grace Cousins 106th and Ellen Tilley 109th.

The men’s results were led by Sean Byrne 31st, then came Steve Herring 34th, Richard Davidson 59th, Andy Holme 72nd, and Mark Glanville 113rd.
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