Denbigh Harriers Dinbych

Saturday saw the last fixture of the of the North Wales Cross Country season in Oswestry on a good varied course comprising of hills, fences to climb over, boggy sections and the occasional stream to cross. In the Women’s race over 5.4kCeri Diss ran exceptionally well to finish in 14th place and as the first W50. Next saw the welcome return of Ceri Belshaw in 27th place and behind her there was an good battle between Tracey Williams and Victoria Whitehead returning from Injury and illness respectively. Victoria won on the day finishing in 33rd place one place ahead of Tracey. Tracey had another victory on the day by winning the W50 category for the season. The ladies team finished in 4th place in league one a handful of points for the season behind the bronze position.

In the Men’s race over 10k the first Denbigh Harrier home was Joe Welch in an impressive 36th place but due to eligibility issues his result was recorded for Nanatglyn as was Gerwyn Lloyd’s 117th place. Glen Price had a good run to finish well up the field in 57th place with Tony Wood running into a strong 63rd place. Club rivalry was renewed between David Baugh and Tom Jones next with Tom sprinting to a 74th place two ahead of David. Owen Conry in the midst of marathon training came in 90th place with Llyr Jones completing the team placings with t a strong finish. The men finished third in division two with a score that would have had them well ahead of many teams in division one providing a potential good season next year.

14th Ceri Diss 25-07, 27th Ceri Belshaw 26-16, 33rd Victoria Whitehead 27-10, 34th Tracy Williams 27-13, 56th Katy Baugh 29-50, 58th Elen Baugh 30-05 ,75th Menai Baugh 32-24, 90th Nicola Field 38-57

36th Joe Welch (Nantglyn) 41-29, 57th Glen Price 43-20, 63rd Tony Wood 43-55, 74th Tom Jones 44-37, 76th David Baugh 44-52, 90th Owen Conry 45-44, 117th Gerwyn Lloyd (Nantglyn) 50-04, 127th Llyr Jones 52-34

Probably the nicest weather for the last race of a cross country season for a very long time. The ground was pretty dry despite recent rain (recent years have seen varying degrees of quagmire) except for the occasional patch of mud. There was sun and not that much wind so altogether the racing was disconcertingly fast considering that this course is the longest we do at 6 miles for the men and rather more than 3.5 for the women. That is my excuse for dropping out after only half a mile but even by then it was clear that Llyr would do a better job of completing the rather depleted Men’s team. A factor in that depletion was the referee’s decision to disallow our new recruits Joe W and Gerwyn who originally began the season running for “Nantglyn”, although that club never officially existed! However, I predict that they will make an impact next year.

Of the official team, in the absence of Shaun – who had been forced down the salt-mines for the day by the exploitative capitalist system (i.e. he was at work) – we had Glen looking very cool in his sunglasses but still just about able to fumble his way over the fence ahead of the totally extravagant style of a leaping Tony W (see facebook pics). The two were up there with quite a bunch all the way round and Tony (63rd) needed to save his energy a bit for that final kick in which Glen (57th) kept him, and the others, at bay. Another duo getting used to being pretty close throughout races was that of Tom (74th) and David (76th). David pushed very hard all the way but couldn’t quite get right up with Tom to be able to sit-in comfortably because every time he got close Tom put in that little extra again. In comparison, Owen (90th) ploughed a lonely furrow, a little further back from these two than he had been at Baschurch, but he still managed to move up steadily after a sensible start. Which left Llyr (127th) to run his best race yet as 6th counter and bring the team home in 3rd place on the day in Division 2, and 3rd overall for the series. The first two clubs gain promotion so we ought to be looking to win this Division next year.

At the start of the day the women were hoping to get into bronze medal position in the series, needing to beat Buckley by just 6 points to accomplish this. It didn’t quite happen despite a great effort by Ceri D (14th) who handled the early pace well enough to be the one hunting down those in front rather than having to hang on grimly. Namesake Ceri B (27th) looked very focused (sometimes I suggest that her concentration drifts) and that was certainly needed because her final half mile was all about hanging on – resulting in a photo finish with the girl in front. Neither Victoria (33rd) nor Tracey (34th) have had the best of health in the last few weeks so their cautious starts in about 50th were understandable in the circumstances. Last year they were more usually starting around 30th and moving up to the teens or early 20s, which is partly an indication of the improvement in standard which seems to be taking place in the women’s event but does show that they haven’t been quite so lucky with illness this season. Normally Katy (56th) might have been able to take advantage of them being below par but she has done a lot of racing this year and looked tired – clearly struggling to stay ahead of her sister Elen (58th) who should take a lot of confidence from getting so close. Menai (75th) was only 2 minutes further back which is a considerable achievement remembering how fast Katy and Elen are over shorter distances, both probably able to get a gap of 2 minutes in just 1 mile, let alone 3.5 miles. On her first outing over the country was Nicola (90th) who looked happy enough but obviously found that shortish cross country is more of a cardio-respiratory challenge than the half-marathons she has done before. If she keeps up this effort I predict that Nicola will see a lot of improvement both on road and country in the next few months.