20 senior and 6 junior Denbigh Harriers traveled to Oswestry on Saturday 8th February for the final fixture of the North Wales cross country. The last fixture can see some tight battles for medals, prizes and relegation settled. With teams from Shropshire, Cheshire, Mid Wales and North Wales taking part the competition can be fierce. The Oswestry course offered everything: fast flat fields, bumpy farmland, streams to jump, mud to skip (wade) through and some good sized hills.
The Juniors ran a variety of courses over the same terrain with distances ranging from 2.5k to 4k. They picked up two team prizes: 2nd U11 Boys and 3rd U13 Boys, plus a 2nd individual prize in the U13 Boys. They also picked up 7 participation medals for completing 3 of the fixtures. Well done to all of them.
In the Women’s race Denbigh Harriers started the day in 2nd place in Division 1 with Deeside and Shrewsbury close behind. The race of just under 5k had a big field with Jo Henderson leading the way for the Harriers in close contention for the lead until the closing stages when she had to settle for a brilliant 2nd. Jo was 3rd overall in the championships and won her F45 category by a huge margin. Katy Baugh who has improved all season came in next in an excellent 14th place followed by Victoria Whitehead in 28th who also has stepped up her performance since the start of the season in October. Elen Baugh completed the team in 32nd place with a great run and fast finish. Emma Collins was in 36th picking up the F60 title as well as the coveted Arthur Bebbington Trophy in special recognition of having won or been second in her category every year since 2009 when she first competed in the league. Lee Evans was the next to come in a few seconds behind Emma in 37th. Mel Morris, getting over a cold, was 41st with Charlotte Dobson, a new member, enjoying her first North Wales cross country coming in 58th. Menai Baugh improving her time on last year, came in 97th place and was 3rd F65 on the day. These excellent results meant that the women’s team was 2nd overall and the women’s master team was also 2nd.
In the M65 race Simon Nixon led the team home in 10th with Duncan Jones on home territory having a good run to finish in 12th. Dave Passe completed the team in 22nd and also picked up the 3rd M70 prize. The team finished a creditable 4th overall.
In the Senior Men’s race Denbigh Harriers was standing just above the relegation zone at the beginning on the day with only a few points between them and Eryri below. Staying up in division 1 depended on getting a good team or 6 counters out . Gwion Schiovane the first Harrier in, in 13th place, winning 2nd M35 prize for his efforts. An under the weather Tony Wood battled hard to finish in 45th winning the 3rd M35 prize. He was followed by an improving Huw Williams in 54th and Glyn Rees running the course for the first time in 58th. John Davies in his second season of cross country took around 7 minutes off his previous time on this course showing real progress to finish in 66th. In his debut for the club Jason Walsh-Mcdonald seemed unfazed by the conditions to finish in 78th as the last and vital counter. David Baugh in 100th finished just ahead of Tony Benton in 104th reversing their positions in the last fixture. These results meant that the men’s team ended up 6th in the league keeping them in Division 1.
Sunday 9th February saw 4 Denbigh Harriers taking part in the Nick Beer Memorial 10k, a tough but scenic circuit of the Great Orme in Llandudno. Always a popular road race this year there was 744 participants. First Denbigh Harrier across the finish line was Abdul Pasha with a PB of 42:24 in 91st place. First female Harrier home on the back of the previous days cross country was Mel Morris in 48:38, taking the 2nd F50 medal! Next in for the Harriers was Mike Hobday in 50:01 (229th) followed by Charlotte Dobson in 1:06 (614th) also competing on the back of cross country the previous day.
