National Cross-Country Relay Results

Despite the showery start to the day by the time the senior races started the sun was out and conditions were actually quite pleasant (at least compared to last years wet and windy torture). Frances Maxwell was glad to be joined by Mary Goldsmith in the senior ladies team. Still not a complete team but getting there. The better conditions were partly responsible for everyone improving their times this year but even so, Mary is just getting back from her recent marathon and so her improved time of 21:27 was an impressive result. Frances took the second leg in a time of 19:12, well over a minute faster than last year.

In the senior men's race we fielded 3 and a quarter teams, our best turnout so far this season. Alan Cullie took the first leg for the A team this week and confirmed his strength in the "country" with a time of 16:19, more than 3 minutes faster than last year, handing over in 69th position to Eddie Reid. Eddie pulled back 6 places finishing in 16:26, exactly 2 minutes faster than last year. Martin Duthie made his first appearance on this course for a few years and pulled back a stack of places bringing us up to 51st in 15:18, our fastest time of the day. Finally Alan Derrick clawed a few more places back to bring us into the top half of the field of 100 complete teams, finishing in 46th position in a time of 15:34, almost 2 minutes faster than last year. This put the club 10th in the masters' championship.

There was the expected cliff hanger in the B team as Jim Holmes and Andy Henderson were on 1st and 3rd leg duties and yet still managed to record identical times on their own watches for the second week in a row. This time the official results fell in Jim's favour, giving him a time of 17:39 (exactly 2 minutes faster than last year) versus Andy's 17:43. David Wardrope ran the second leg, his first cross country for the club and this was a tough introduction, finishing in 19:28. The last leg saw the welcome return of Colin Freeman to the short, sharp stuff. Colin had a smooth run through, pulling back 9 positions and finishing in the excellent time of 16:37, some ten and a half hours quicker than his last race!

The C team was a trial for all concerned! David Herbertson was first up, still not particularly well but there anyway. Despite this, David ran his best ever time on this course, finishing in a time of 18:06. A crisis ensued while Chas Steven was out on the second leg as we somehow lost 3rd leg runner Ian Rae's race number, the 3rd leg number being the only specially coloured one in each team. The day's first visit to the very accommodating race referee gave us dispensation to field Ian with the wrong colour of number. With this crisis over and Ian still smiling we relaxed for a minute only to see a distraught Chas walking off the course, calf muscle injured. Chas was devastated to let his team down but could not continue. Fortunately trip two to the referee, this time by Russell Couper, was also fruitful and Ian and Colin Banks were allowed to set off on a lap together to record their own times for the purpose of our Grand Prix. Ian finished in 18:25 (2 and a half minutes faster than last year) and Colin recorded a time of 19:27 (1 and a half minutes faster than last year).

Russell Couper was the quarter team, all on his own this week. However, Russell had a solid run, finishing in 23:50, just over a minute faster than last year, so encouraging progress there.

Well done to all. This result gives Eddie a slim lead in both the Grand Prix and Scratch Championship, closely followed by Alan Cullie in both cases but with David Wardrope and Russell Couper still in strong positions holding multiple jokers. Frances has a substantial lead in both women's competitions but now Mary is back in action and starting the chase.

Alan