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Reports and Results
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Joan Wingfield and Karen Farnham waiting for the start! |
Maggie Statham approaching the finish carrying her left shoe. |
Karen Farnham, Joan Wingfield and Maggie Statham were the representatives for Holland women's cross-country team at a new venue for the Surrey League, at Newlands Corner, off the A25 near Guildford. Hosted by Guildford & Godalming AC, the race was run over a two-lap, 5.6KM course over a windy but spectacular Merrow Downs.
The three team members all ran well, and despite being short of a scoring team, the club finished in 11th position on the day.
First home was Maggie Statham, who finished minus a shoe, which was accidentally trodden off by one of her rivals for the veterans' medals in Division Two. Maggie lost positions and time as a result, finishing 6th in Division Two and third vet in a time of 22:52.
Joan, in the middle of marathon training, was second finisher for the club in 36th position in 26:51, followed by Karen Farnham, 58th in 28:49.
Click here for the full Division Two individual results (PDF format).
Click here for the Division Two team results (PDF format).
Surrey Men's Cross Country League, Division Three: Fixture 3: Epsom Downs
14 January 2006
Unbelievably, following a terrific performance at a wind-swept Epsom Downs, the men's team could stay up in Division Three if everyone turns up at the final fixture at Wimbledon Common on 4th February!
Holland remain in last, eighth position in Division Three, with 1741 points, but the club is now only 4 points adrift of Tadworth on 1736 and not far from Haslemere Border on 1703 points. The results show just what a difference it makes if we achieve a good turn out of runners in these league fixtures. If we can field at least a full scoring team of ten runners at Wimbledon Common in three weeks' time, but more especially if we field all our best runners, we will have a good chance of staying in Division Three.
The team at Epsom Downs was led home by Steve Bishop, who despite lack of fitness finished in a fantastic 4th position in a time of 32:14. He was followed by marathon-training Rob Hall, 15th in 33:51; junior Jack Arnold, 23rd in 34:55; Matt Readwin, 27th in 35:13; second junior, and racing for the first time in Holland colours, Piers Holden, 35th in 36:07; Tony O'Brien surprised himself with a good run despite injury problems, finishing 54th in a time of 37:48; Gary Spring was 74th in 39:12; Ben Curson, 82nd in 40:06; Chris Silvani, 90th in 41:17; and last of the scorers was Martin Berry, 91st in 41:19. Non-scorers, but nonetheless welcome runners for Holland, were Gerry Simpson, 98th in 42:29, and Richard Timmis, 106th in 44:57.
Click here for the full results (PDF format).
Surrey Cross Country Championships, Lloyd Park
7 January 2006
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Maggie Statham before the start at Lloyd Park. |
Holland Sports' sole female representative, Maggie Statham, had a great run in the Surrey championships held over a five mile course at a muddy Lloyd Park, finishing in 22nd position in a time of 36:45. There were only two men running for Holland in the following 7.5 mile men's event, with Mick Chappell finishing in 143rd position in a time of 56:36 and Richard Timmis, arriving virtually as the gun was going off, finishing 198th in a time of 69:34.
Click here for the full women's results (PDF format).
Click here for the full men's results (PDF format).
Further results are available from the Surrey County Athletic Association website.
Surrey Ladies' Cross Country League, Division Two: Fixture 2: Priory Park, Reigate
19 November 2005
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Joan Wingfield (left photo) and Karen Farnham (right photo) |
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The second ladies' cross country fixture was held at a frozen Priory Park. This is always an attractive venue, but particularly so in the crisp weather conditions, cold with clear blue skies, that we enjoyed on Saturday. We had six women running for the club team, a really good turn out. All ran well with the result that the team finished in 5th position out of 23 in Division Two! This moved the team after two fixtures to 7th position in Division Two of the league. Great result!
The members who did so well were Maggie Statham (7th in 21.13), Joan Wingfield (22nd in 23:27), Hannah Bongers - who had only been told she was running that morning by her father (25th in 23:37), Maria Adaway (55th in 26:03), Karen Farnham (63rd in 26:33), and Jane Scotchbrook (71st in 27:23).
Click here for Ladies' Division 2 results.
Click here for Division 2 team positions.
Click here for Division 1 results.
Surrey Men's Cross Country League, Division Three: Fixture 2: Lightwater Country Park
19 November 2005
By contrast with the women's team, Holland were able only to field a six man team for the second Division 3 fixture at Lightwater Country Park, four short of a scoring team. The team included Nigel Bongers who ran despite his physiotherapist's advice and finished in penultimate position! While Tony O'Brien turned his ankle badly during the race, causing him to finish well down the field. Well done to those six valiant runners who did turn out: Rob Hall (19th in 31:57), Matt Readwin (29th in 33:05), Paul Bowen (60th in 35:48), Tony O'Brien (72nd in 37:52), Chris Silvani (75th in 39:58), and Nigel Bongers (76th in 44:50).
Surrey Cross Country League: Fixture 1: Wimbledon Common
8 October 2005
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Holland Ladies XC team at Wimbledon Common: Barbara Towers, Karen Farnham, Joan Wingield, Maggie Statham, with Catherine |
Men's team before the race: Steve Bishop, Matt Readwin, Dave Millen, Nigel Bongers, Graham Pullen, Tony O'Brien, Martin Berry. |
The first fixture of the Surrey cross country league's 2005-06 season took place at Wimbledon Common for both the men's Division 3 and 4, and for the two ladies' divisions, with the Holland women's team racing at 12.30pm and the men's team running at 3pm. The venue was as ever a delight, with the common enjoying unseasonally warm and sunny weather.
Holland men fielded a depleted team, and with eight members running when ten were needed to score, it was not surprising that the team finished effectively last in Division Three (ignoring Box Hill Racers, who didn't field a team at all and have a problematic future in the league). Having been promoted last season into Division 3 of the Surrey League, this is certainly going to be a challenging environment for Holland to compete in.
Special mentions must go to David Millen, who donned a Holland shirt and ran at the last minute in order to bolster the team, and in spite of injury made it through to the finish, and Nigel Bongers, who turned his weak right ankle during the race and, like David, in spite of the pain, made it to the finish.
All the detailed results that follow are presented in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.
Click here for Division 3 results.
Holland's women's team was a one runner short of a full scoring team in their Division 2 race, but everyone did very well, with the team finishing in 10th position out of 23 in Division 2 and Maggie Statham coming in as second veteran woman.
Maggie Statham breaks course record at Ardingly cross country
16 October 2005
Maggie Statham, competing in the senior women's event at the 30th edition of the open cross-country meeting at Ardingly College, Sussex, broke her own over 50 course record over this challenging 5,750 metre multi-terrain course which starts in the college grounds and skirts Ardingly reservoir.
Already the holder of both the over 45 course record (which is actually quicker than the over 40 record) and the over 50 record, she beat her 2003 o50 mark of 24:34 by three seconds.
As the announcer from the event organisers, Haywards Heath Harriers, said when Maggie stepped up to receive her medal, the "vets star from Holland Sports" keeps coming back each year to record faster and faster times!