The 13 January had been shown in the
cross-country race calendar as venue ‘to be advised’ since the start of
the season. WAC and Dorchester AC were amongst the clubs who had been
attempting to put on an event. Between us we had considered and
approached a number of venues without success. Leading up to the
Christmas break we still had nothing to show for our efforts – so on 2
January we had one last possibility.
We approached Bournemouth Borough
Council about using Kings Park - they couldn’t have been more obliging.
I spoke with them shortly after 9am, by 11.30 Jill and I were in Kings
Park, with a course map provided by the council, walking the route and
doing our risk assessment. It was game on!
Joe Mower, of the South of England
Athletics Association, was the next to deliver for us. Despite being up
to his neck in paperwork for the ‘Nationals’ he turned around our
application for a race permit in double-quick time.
While this was going on we launched
our appeal for marshals and officials. There was a problem here as the
club was involved in two other events that day; a Dorset Road Race
League event – the ‘Milborne 10’, and Sportshall at the Osprey Centre in
Portland. Many WACers were already committed to these.
We just about covered all the
stewarding jobs on the day. A big thank you to all of you who helped. We
had marshals who could do the early shift being relieved by those who
could only do the later one (as they returned from the morning race at
Milborne). The marshalling was a superb team effort, thanks.
Phil Burgess had taken on the role of
race starter and ensured that our race timetable kept to schedule at the
cross-country events we hosted a few years ago at Ferndown – and once
again he came forward to take on that big responsibility.
I needed some experienced officials as
timekeepers, and Chris Potter of Christchurch Runners and Ken Ballam
looked after this side of things for us. Amongst those who assisted were
John Rhoden of Poole Runners and Nigel Harding of Poole AC who also made
big contributions to the smooth running on the day. It is great to have
this support from other local club members.
We had good support from Ian Humphreys
of Mendip AC who runs the Wessex League, and he sorted out the first aid
cover for us – and we had Neil Hopkinson who was marshalling also
available as first aid back-up (but thankfully we wasn’t required).
The course itself winds it way through
the scrub and around the football pitches at Kings Park. Our first
priority was to ensure that the event went off safely; our second
consideration was to try and get some of our own runners out in the
races. This was particularly important for WAC’s senior women’s team as
they had missed a race earlier in the season. A number of our marshals
who worked the early races were able to run when they were swapped up
for ‘the cavalry’ as they arrived from Milborne.
The full results for WACers follow
below, but special mention should be made of Julie Mead and Claire Newby
who had both run in the Milborne 10 in the morning and then turned out
again for WAC in the afternoon. Their commitment ensures that we are
still in the hunt for a team trophy at the end of the season. Well done.
Ian K
Under 13 Boys
11th –
Callum Kennedy – 11.47
Under-15 Girls
6th –
Laura Harvey – 16.15
Under-17 Women
10th –
Maddy Vaughan-Johncey – 19.42
Senior Women
(1st team)
8th –
Kim Jolliffe – 21.24
9th –
Nicki Roe – 22.04
10th –
Julie Mead – 24.09
11th –
Claire Newby – 25.16
Senior Men
(7th team)
13th –
Daryl Davies – 32.26
18th –
Tim Harris – 35.42
27th –
Phil Burgess – 38.49
