Cross Country

Farley Mount country park is just off the Clarendon Way, to the west of Winchester.
An excellent cross country course of mostly undulating grassland paths and about one third woodland paths where most of the uphill bits were hiding.
A warm hazy day and although the ground is starting to get soft, I think we all managed to stay mostly clean and upright.
The ladies were running with a little less blood than usual in their alcohol stream after Amanda's party, but a little run is always a good cure!

The ladies had a team on their arrival, but Graham Foden and I were a man down until Mark hay joined us close to the start to complete the team. More Saturday cross country runners always wanted please - next Sat XC Goodwood 13. Nov
Clint

Results
Victory Ladies:
80   Claire Hall
87   Amanda Godfrey
100  Belinda Harding
106  Marilyn Crocker

Victory Men:
172  Clint Clements
214  Mark Hay
218  Graham Foden

A big welcome to several newcomers running their first cross-country in Victory colours: David Howard, Damian Hamilton, Ann Panting and Simon Lee.
A good turnout of five women (three needed for a full team) - matched by just five men (five needed for a full team!). Where was everyone else? We'd hoped for about double that number to turn out for the first event in this popular league! All five men had to finish if we were to have a complete team. Fortunately everyone did finish without mishap. And they all seemed to enjoy the event - or at least the social afterwards when the exertion had finished The undulating course of 5 miles was a challenging run - but conditions were far better than the two previous seasons when the event was in January. Congratulations to Tim Fowler (ex VAC and our one-time cross-country captain) for a very well-organised event.

Individual Results

Men
David Howard   12
Colin O'Donnell   59
Damian Hamilton   113
Martin Coles   119
Simon Lee   121
Team score: 424

Women
Amanda Godfrey   28
Belinda Harding   56
Anita McReynolds   61
Team score: 145
Ann Panting   67
Marilyn Crocker   72

Men's Team (Positions of first five men added for team points)
14th Victory AC 424 Points
Women's Team (Positions of first three women added for team points)
9th Victory AC 145 Points
(beating much bigger local club, Pompey Joggers, by 2 points - well done girls!)

Overall (Positions of Men's and Women's teams added for overall score)

• 1 Basingstoke & Mid Hants AC  3
• 2 Hart Road Runners  6
• 3 Farnham Runners  7
• 4= Fleet & Crookham AC  8
• 4= Stubbington Green Runners  8
• 6 Liss Runners  12
• 7 Midhurst Milers  15
• 8 Portsmouth Joggers  20
• 9= Gosport Road Runners  23
• 9= Victory AC  23 (14+9)
• 11 Fareham Crusaders RC  23(missing 1 runner)
• 12 Denmead Striders  24 (missing 1 runner)
• 13= Alton Runners  27 (missing 1 runner)
• 13= Farnham Triathlon Club  27 (missing 1 runner)
• 15 Havant AC  22 (missing 2 runners)
• 16 Haslemere Border AC  24 (missing 3 runners)
• 17 Portsmouth Triathlon Club  34 (missing 6 runners)

So the trend of last season where the women were generally letting down the men was reversed! We're throwing down the gauntlet to challenge you guys to do better than the girls next time - Remembrance Sunday 14 November at Queen Elizabeth Country Park.
Anyone for a warm-up at the Hants League Cross-Country at Goodwood Country Park on the preceding day, Saturday 13 November?
Cross-country is excellent training!

************************************

A damp Remembrance Sunday saw the second fixture (of six) in the Today's Runner Winter League (TRWL).

Hosted by Pompey Joggers, this is the most local event for us.

The Victory guys rose to the challenge with a magnificent turnout of 16 - far better than the first event where we barely scraped a men's team.

The girls managed 7 finishers - again an improvement on Pamber Forest. And that was without those absent at Remembrance Sunday services/parades and Belinda who turned up but didn't start as she was feeling below par.

Neil Tolfrey would also have run but for taking a tumble at the Hants League cross-country at Goodwood the day before - where he embedded a sizeable flint into his knee - ouch! He did a DIY job of digging out the offending stone (thereby drawing more blood!) and had it on display on Sunday as a souvenir! Hope his anti-tetanus is up-to-date!

At Goodwood it was 'Big Flint meant Clint led Victory in'! (Neil was 1st VAC before he fell.)

It was good to see some new members trying cross-country for the first time over the weekend - Kate Parks on Saturday; Tim Cooper and Martin Lawrenson on Sunday. David Howard, Simon Lee, Damian Hamilton and Ann Panting made their XC debut at Pamber Forest - and David, Damian and Ann came back for more at QE Park. There were also a few other faces that we've not seen on XC courses for a while.

Apologies to Tim and Martin L for failing to provide them with a spare vest. As they were not running in club colours, they were not given finishing position numbers. Unfortunately, I'd left our spare vests in my van - and skulked there too long in the dry beforehand to have time to go back for them!

Thanks to Graham for putting up one of the small VAC tents to keep our kit bags dry while we ran. After leaving the spare kit behind, we scrambled up the hill to the start and huddled for the pre-race announcements and one minute's silence. Then we were off - and soon warmed up.

The course was well-marked and marshalled, so everyone did the full distance this year! Though it was challenging and slippery in places, all our team completed the course without mishap.

Many thanks to Pete Daly and Neil who stood out in the rain to record our finishing positions. John Marsh (short cut this way - what a joker!) and John Huddlestone were also out on the course in support.

Pompey Joggers were pleased with the numbers who stayed for refreshments afterwards in spite of the weather. The £1 a head helps offset the cost of putting on the event.

Results
Men
Posn    Name
 42  Neil Tolfrey
 51  Colin O'Donnell
 79  Jim Clow
 95  Max Harding
116  Damian Hamilton
383 Total for first five men
133  Peter Harding
136  Martin Coles
140  Peter Harding
148  Graham Foden
156  Malcolm Hagan
181  John Marsh
184  Nick Bailey

Women
Posn    Name
 58  Anita McReynolds
 62  *Ann Panting
 75  *Marilyn Crocker
195 Total for first three women

* = Also ran at the SEAA Masters XC Championships in Bedfordshire the day before.
We are currently 8th overall in the league
Marilyn