Reports and Results
Cross-Country
2001/02 Season

Final XC League Matches of the Season:
Women Finish Second. Men Relegated, Alas!

2 February 2002

Holland Sports' women took pride of place on a busy weekend of cross country fixtures. At Farthing Downs on Saturday, in Division Two of the Surrey Cross Country League, they only narrowly lost to the league champions Belgrave Harriers.

Holland's second place meant that they finished fourth overall in the league. If it had not been for injuries then Holland might well have been promoted.

Tracy Mustoe once again led the team home with a fine fourth place (19^th in the combined division 1 & 2 fixture) in 24mins 1 sec. Maggie Statham finished 13^th (52^nd overall) in 26:18, closely followed by Paula Bongers, 15^th (55^th overall) in 26:33, with Joan Wingfield 24^th (76^th overall) in 27:35.

The bravest competitor was Emily Tawse, who had rushed from her job in her lunch hour to then suffer a nosebleed. This did not deter her from running and she finished a plucky 49^th (165^th overall) in 30:11.

Holland Sports' men did not fare so well. Despite putting on a good performance at Oxshott it was not enough to stop them from being relegated to Division 4 of the Surrey League, finishing eighth out of the nine teams.

Andy Dunstan again led the team home in 20^th in 25:37, with Steve Bishop, in his first race of the season and still suffering from lack of fitness and injury, 27^th in 26:13. Rob Hall was 39^th in 26:57, followed by Mike Chappell, 45^th in 27:20.

Paul Bowen was 64^th in 28:48, Paul Byrne 71^st in 29:08, Graham Pullen 87^th in 30:58, Martin Berry 89^th in 31:21, Nigel Bongers 95^th in 32:16 and debutant Graham Bond 105^th in 38:17.

Most disappointing was the absence of the Boys/Youths team (all from Moor House School), most of whom were ill, which meant that the team did not pick up the trophy again which they richly deserved.

Medals for Holland Athletes at Veterans' Champs

12 January 2002

In the cross country championships of Britain's leading veteran's club, Vets AC, run on Wimbledon Common over the usual challenging three lap, 5.8 mile course, two of the four Holland Sports athletes taking part came away with medals.

Paula Bongers was third female overall and won the silver medal in the W50's in a time of 40mins 57, missing out on gold by just 11 seconds. Maggie Statham won the W45 age category in 42mins 31 secs. Graham Pullen who was 32^nd overall ran 40mins 34 secs, and Nigel Bongers, slowly improving after a series of persistent injury problems, came 41^st in 43mins 7 secs.

Surrey XC Champs, Lloyd Park

5 January 2002

At the Surrey cross-country championships at Lloyd Park, Croydon, Holland Sports' women did well - although finishing in seventh place the team was only a few points behind fourth and were missing their fifth placed runner from last year.

Tracy Mustoe did well on the muddy five-mile course as she was not wearing spikes and came a fine 20^th in 38:36. Maggie Statham, though still struggling with injury, had her best run of the season in coming 26^th in 39:50. Paula Bongers was next in 35^th in 42:02, closely followed by Joan Wingfield in 37^th in 42:14, while Emily Tawse had a good run on her debut in the champs finishing 56^th in 46:14.

The Holland men's team came 13^th overall in the 7 ¹/₂ mile race. Rob Hall led the team home in 86^th in 53:38, Michael Chappell was 93^rd in 54:26, Paul Bowen 137^th in 60:14, Les Huitson 144^th in 61:28, Graham Pullen bravely ran after being badly bitten by a dog the previous weekend and finished 149^th in 63:39, and bringing up the rear Nigel Bongers was 153^rd in 65:26.

In the boys' under 17, 6.5km race Danny Coster came 18^th out of 31 in 30:10 and John Patrick-Laide 25^th in 32:57. In her first cross country race Rose Fenton came 26^th out of 37 in the U13 girls' 3.25km race, and said on finishing that she was not tired - a good sign for the future.

A busy day for Holland athletes

17 November 2001

A busy day for Holland Sports with both the men and women competing in the Surrey cross-country leagues at different venues.

The women were first off in fine weather conditions at Tilford - a beautiful sandy and hilly course amongst pine woods - in their division two fixture and finished fourth, only four points behind the third placed team.

This leaves Holland in fourth place overall. First in was Sara Stodart in 20^th, an improvement on her first outing. An unfit Maggie Statham, still struggling from running injuries which have dogged her for the last year, finished as second scorer.

Joan Wingfield and Paula Bongers had a tussle all the way round with Joan just prevailing and there was a welcome return by Emily Tawse who finished strongly.

In the men's division three fixture at Epsom Downs, despite having a full team, Holland finished - as in the first fixture - eighth out of nine teams.

Andy Dunstan had a fine run finishing 14^th in 33 mins 32 secs. Phil Kavanagh, after a long lay off through injury, did well to finish 45^th in 36:02. Rob Hall was next in 48^th, followed closely by Michael Chappell in 49^th, 36:11.

Dave Drummie came in 62^nd (36:59), Tony O'Brien 67^th (38:00), Paul Bowen 70^th (38:06), debutant Les Huitson 85^th (39:44), Graham Pullen 87^th (39:50), and final scorer Richard Timmis in 94^th (40:56).

Non scorers were Martin Berry, in his first race since February, 97^th (41:41), Keith Bailey 103^rd (42:53), Nigel Bongers 105^th (43:44) and Andy Thornley 109^th (47:30).

The men's team is now firmly stuck in the second of the two relegation positions in the league, with a substantial gap between them and the next club, Elmbridge.

The club received better news in the boys/youth race as Holland were victors again. Individual results: Danny Coster 3^rd (17:24), John Patrick-Laide 5^th, Tom Soane 8^th (18:49), Manlok Chin 9^th (19:23), Leslie Scott 10^th (20:00). Non-scorers: Ryan Hawkins 13^th (20:58), Jimmy Rule 14^th (21:40).

Holland athletes show their mettle at first XC fixture of the season

13 October 2001

On a sweltering hot 13^th October day there were a number of shining performances by Holland Sports athletes at the first Surrey Cross Country League fixture at Wimbledon Common.

In the women's race, making her Holland debut, Tracy Mustoe had a great run leading the team home in Division 2 in 11^thplace (28^th in the First and Second Division combined) in a time of 25 minutes 25 seconds.

Next in 13^th place suffering with lack of fitness was Sara Stodart in 26 minutes dead. Also performing well were Paula Bongers 22^nd in 27 minutes 28 and Joan Wingfield 28^th in 28 minutes 3 seconds. Considering they were one short of a team they did amazingly well to finish fourth.

In the under 13's girls' race Susie Everest still only ten years old did well to finish 39^th in 19 minutes 59 seconds.

Holland's boys/youth team, all students at Moorhouse School, carried on with their winning ways. Danny Coster had a brilliant race to finish second in 13 minutes 34 seconds, followed by John Patrick-Laide in 6^th in 15 minutes 21 seconds, Yoni Levy-Galloway 8^th in 16 minutes 31, Leslie Scott 9^th in 16 minutes 36 and Ryan Hawkins 10^th in 17 minutes 27.

In the men's race Holland suffered from a poor turnout, only fielding five runners when ten are needed to score (injuries, holidays etc should mean that next time Holland have a team). Holland might have only had four if David Millen, secretary of our sister club, Oxted Runners, had not turned up to spectate - he bravely volunteered to run after he had been found some shorts and then proceeded to run well - welcome back after 5 years David!

The positions for Holland were 16^th Andy Dunstan, 89^th Graham Pullen 36 minutes 30, 95^th David Millen 37 minutes 16, 108^th Nigel Bongers 41 minutes 21 and 111^th Barry Halsall. The team finished eighth out of nine.