Birmingham & District cross-country League

Only Junior, Senior and veteran men race in this League, with 6 runners to count in each of 4 race meetings over the season.

The Club team finished 5th out of 16 completing teams in Division 3 (bottom division) last winter (2009/10) and were 8th from 13 completing teams in Division 4 the previous year. Our ladies did not compete in the Midland Women's CC League.

PLEASE WATCH THIS SPACE BELOW for details of up-coming races and let your team captain know if you will be able to run or not.

2011/2012 SEASON

FINAL FIXTURE Stafford Common

We had 15 Harriers out for the final run of the season and finished in our highest positon a creditable fifth place. Overall we finished in 13th spot.

It was great to see Steve Vaughan back after injury and he was first Harrier home in 14th spot with debutant Henry Mtonga (33rd) just ahead of Mark Bridgwater (40).

Here are the full positions.



HINCKLEY 2nd FIXTURE

Nuneaton put this fixture on at Burbage Common and its well know for its mud and lying water on the course. So it was somewhat of a surprise to find it almost mud free. We only managed to field a team of seven for this race and we now stand in 13th place in the league.

Provisional Results below.



LEAMINGTON 1st FIXTURE

13/11/11

Report form Joe Atherton.

The race is a 3 lap course with a long run-in / run-out. Despite a lot of rain the day before the course was fairly dry, with even the ditch a third of the way round not presenting too much of a challenge. Off-roaders were easily adequate, and I’d argue probably better suited to the terrain than spikes. We started off running round a field in order to disperse the runners somewhat, but we still ended up in a fairly substantial bottleneck in order to exit the field on to the path. The only challenging hill was about 2/3rds of the way round, where we ascended round a grassy mound then dropped down the other side. The course was well marshalled and marked, and support was adequate.

Facilities-wise, there were changing and showers, and the usual cake and tea stall.

It was the first time that I have done this venue, and I’d definitely do it again despite it being 60 miles away from Stafford.







For the first time in a while we managed to get an A team and a B team out. The provisional results show we are 11th at the moment in the A league and 8th in the B league.

Provisional results below.

2010 / 2011 SEASON

The 2010 / 2011 Season's Fixtures

30 October  -   All 3 Divisions at Leamington
4 December -   Nuneaton
15 January   -  Sphinx (Coventry)
12 February  -  Stafford Common

FOURTH RACE - STAFFORD COMMON 12/02/11

It was Harriers as hosts for the final league race of the season. On a very pleasant , sunny afternoon Harriers fielded eleven runners and scored their best score of the season with 270 points. This gave us 7th team on the day and 8th team overall out of the 18 teams who started the season.

Mention should be made of Dave Marsden who was the only Harrier to be a counter in all four races of the season.

The full results are below.

THIRD RACE - SPHINX (COVENTRY) 15/01/11

This was the longest trip we have had for some time going down to Heneley Green in Coventry for the third league race of the season. The team were depleated for various reasons including work, illness and injury but we still managed to field a team of nine.

The course was an interesting one consistining of one short lap and three large laps. Although not very well marked out it did prove a good challenge. We think that they had the same number of stakes out on the whole course as we put in a finishing funnel.

James Perkins made his debut for the Harriers, in fact it was his first Cross Country, ever. He bought some spikes in the morning and then went on to finish second in the race just 8 seconds behind the winner. He was gutted and has promised to do better.

The rest of the team backed up well but in on a very competitive day we ended up in ninth place in the league. Next race is the last of the series and is on our home course so lets have a big turnout to finish the season.

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2nd Race NUNEATON 404/12/10

Only eight Harriers this time finishing 8th on the day and now in 8th place.

1st League race  -  Leamington

For the first race of the 2010/11 season Ten Harriers made their way to Leamington. This is a venue change from previous years when all three divisions used to run at Sennelleys Park. They all performed well and finished 6th team out of the 18 that started the race. This is the best start to a season we have had and bodes well for the rest of the season if we can get runners out in numbers. Harriers positions were as follows.

2009 / 2010 SEASON

Overall the season the Club finished 5th out of 16 teams - our best position for some years:

4th League Race - West Bromwich
The last fixture in the Birmingham League was at a new course organised by West Bromwich Harriers at the Aston University Recreation grounds. Although it was a course winding its way around football pitches and rugby pitches it did have some muddy sections, interesting climbs and a tight section through some woods.
The Harriers went into the fixture in 5th place of 16 teams, hoping to finish in their highest position in the league for many years. When we found that four of the usual counters in the team were missing with injuries and other commitments, things did not seem to bode well. In past seasons with four runners missing we would not even have had a full team turn out.
However this year has showed just what the spirit in the Harriers team has been. We had ten runners turn out and each one gave their all to help the team. The end result being that we held on to that 5th place.
First in for the Harriers was Tom Hobbins in 22nd place with evergreen Paul Douglas next in 50th place. Each and every Harrier played their part in a great team effort and were saying at the end, ‘Is that it till October?'
Harrier's heroes on the day were,
22nd Tom Hobbins
50th Paul Douglas
66th Keith Skelton
73rd Pete Sarson
79th Mark Bentley
98th Chris Owen
103rd Dave Marsden
115th Bernard Wilkes
132nd Steve Turner
139th Eddie Smith
Well done to all and to all the other Harriers that have helped during the season. This has been our best season for some time.

3rd League Race - Nuneaton

Report from Mark Bentley:  Ten Harriers made the trip down the A5 for the third fixture at Burbage Common. Why this fixture is labelled as ‘Nuneaton', I don't know, as Burbage Common is actually across the A5 from Nuneaton, over the county boundary in the middle of Hinckley, Leicestershire. Conditions were wet underfoot on this flat course, with patches of ice to contend with and very muddy stretches in the woods. A 2-foot deep pool of icy water also had to be negotiated three times.
The Harriers gave a good account of themselves on this dismal, foggy afternoon, Tom Hobbins being first counter, followed by Steve Vaughan and George Mafu. The other counters were Chris Ross, Keith Skelton, and Paul Douglas. We were sixth team on the day with 278 points, our overall position so far being fifth with 741 points. Unfortunately we didn't have enough counters for a ‘B'-team. Steve Turner did a sterling job of driving the minibus there and back, whilst Mark Bentley collected all the finishing discs afterwards.
Full Harrier times and positions given below:-

19th Tom Hobbins 40:18
24th Steve Vaughan 41:33
39th George Mafu 43:34
55th Chris Ross 45:30
62nd Keith Skelton 45:47
84th Paul Douglas 47:41
87th Dave Marsden 47:46
104th Mark Bentley 49:26
123rd Steve Turner 51:57
126th Bernard Wilkes 52:36

2nd League race - Leamington
Stafford Harriers caused something of a stir at the second Birmingham League race at Leamington Spa. In eighth place of sixteen teams after the first race at Sennelley's Park there were a few murmurs when they came home in third place and pulled themselves up to fourth in the league with a superb team effort.
Russell Barron came home in 4th place and became the joint leader in the league. Next was a there was a great battle between Tom Hobbins and new boy Steve Vaughan. It was settled in the final run in with Tom 19th and Steve 20th. Not far behind was the next tussle between Dave Clarke (29th) and George Mafu (31st).
Then can anyone remember a battle for sixth counter between Chris Ross and Paul Douglas? Chris managed to get the sixth place finishing in 43rd place ahead of Paul's 46th but it was much closer than that. Then the team really helped out with six more finishing close together pushing other teams back. The race of the day was between Steve Turner and Dave Marsden who tried to kill each other in the run in, but took out about half a dozen other runners from the other clubs at the same time. Let's hope that this is a sign of things to come.

4th Russell Barron
19th Tom Hobbins
20th Steve Vaughan
29th Dave Clarke
31st George Mafu
43rd Chris Ross
46th Paul Douglas
102nd Mark Bentley
110th Steve Turner
111th Dave Marsden
131st Ed Smith
147th Mick Jones

1st League race - Sennellys Park, Birmingham
The first race sees all teams from all Divisions of the Birmingham League meet together.
Great run by Russell Barron, finishing 2nd of the Third Division runners.

. Ed & Tracy going through and out of the muddy stream.