ESSEX CROSS COUNTRY LEAGUE.
Well that’s another cross country season almost over, just the National Champs at Parliament Hill Fields, Hampstead Heath next Saturday and after recent weather that will be a mud bath, bring it on! Here’s a summary of our Essex Cross Country League season after Saturday’s 5th and final race at Writtle. Twenty seven clubs were involved this season and although the standard is really high with many of the very best runners in Essex taking part, it’s still a competition for all ages and abilities, with Billericay Striders Ernie Easterby who recently turned 80 no finer example. We had 5 runners out for this race and all of them ran again the following day at Hadleigh in the NESS League sponsored by Eyes Right. Wendy Carter placed 62nd out of 105 finishers in the 6k women’s senior race with Lauren Ripton finishing in 95th. With the best 4 finish positions to count, Wendy won the 3rd place trophy in the V55 category and Lauren placed 12th in the under 40 age group. It was always going to be a big ask to retain their 1st Division status after promotion last year and despite a couple of 9th place finishes, Halstead’s women had to accept 12th place overall which means a return to Division 2 next season. In the men’s 8k senior race Gavin Ripton continued his excellent season placing 106th out of the 183 finishers, followed by Bob Langley in 121st and Andy Carter 152nd. Bob’s performances secured him a trophy as 2nd V65 and Andy placed 5th in V60 category. After a promising start with two 3rd place scores Halstead’s men could only finish 4th in Division 2, missing out on promotion as the top 3 teams go up. Well done all those who took part and for those who didn’t, why not give it a try next season?
Race report credit to Andy Carter.
Fantastic overall result for Wendy Carter, coming 3rd in V55 and for Bob Langley, coming 2nd in V65. Trophies well
