Race report - Rob Bright

The first visit of our league to the Medway Towns produced a traditional cross country meeting with ground conditions favoured by the mudlarks.  With the competing attraction of the Tunbridge Wells Half Marathon on the same day, a much reduced field of 230 runners made it to the start line.  Amongst those missing were the already-crowned champions Andrew Pickett and Annabelle Stearns – leaving the lesser mortals to enjoy the final spoils of battle.  Despite the wet conditions, the event produced blistering races for both the leading men and the women.

The men’s competition became a two-horse race with Clayton Barrett and Andrew Green locked together throughout the undulating 6.2 mile course.  On entering the finishing straight, Barrett turned on the power, pulled away and celebrated his first league win with a headlong dive through the finish line across the sodden turf.  Green followed him home seven seconds later, the David Hall came through ahead of Mike Baron to win the battle of the over 40’s.

Also appearing within the top 10 were seasoned campaigners Steve Roberts(6^th) and Ray Pearce (10^th), along with younger talent in the shape of Chris Wyles (5^th) and Chris Holms (9^th).

The women’s race was led in the early stages by Zoe Harris.  By the halfway point, Nicola Susans had taken the lead, closely tracked by Elaine Murty and Emma Harraden.  Harraden took the lead within the last half mile and was first across the line, Murty coming through in second place just ahead of Susans.  Sarah Kenyon was the first over 35 veteran in 6^th place and the rapidly-improving Barbara Wenman in 7^th was the leading o45 lady.

As far as the combined team competition was concerned – Medway and Maidstonemerely extended their lead to 9 points at the top of the table to retain the title for another year.  Larkfield AC were satisfied with second place – their best ever performance, while Invicta’s challenge tailed off at the end of the season to finish third.  The ladies–only competition was won by Canterbury Harriers who performed consistently throughout the season despite never winning a race – they had a massive lead of 14 points over Dartford Road Runners who get the verdict over Larkfield for the runners-up spot on head-to-head results.

Thanks to Medway and Maidstone – in particular Chris Newman and Stuart Nice – for their efforts on the day.  The hot sausage rolls were a welcome bonus !  It seems that there were some lessons to be learnt about signposting the walking route from the lower car park to the start and finish area as some of the late arrivals got lost in the woods.