Report from the Wessex League at Lychett Minster by Ian Kennedy
Weather-wise we dodged a bullet at Race 2 of the Wessex League. Thirty miles away and some 24 hours earlier a wind speed of 109.4 mph was recorded at The Needles Coastwatch (IOW). However, on race day we awoke to a still windless morning, and during the course of the meeting we enjoyed quite a bit of sunshine. Last year this course was a challenge because the ground was so hard. With the rainfall of the past week, our runners were presented with a very different kind of a challenge this time around. As is often the case when races are staged during school holidays, numbers competing were down. The sole exception to this was the women’s race where there was an influx of road runners making a foray into cross-country league racing.
We got underway with the under-11s races. All six of our girls had raced in the season’s opener. Evie Fuller was our first girl home in 4th (her best so far this season), the other two point scoring positions were claimed by Lavender West and Esther Brooks. Esther was perhaps our biggest improver in this race. Jenny Charlwood, Isabelle Fazakerley and Ophelia Martin were all building on the experience gained in Race 1. The under-11 boys also had a familiar look with both Alex Koybayashi and Freddy Furber having recorded results in Race 1. James Fleming’s score meant that our under-11 boys were able to record a team result for the first time this season.
U11 girls (31 finishers)
4 – Evie Fuller – 9:20
13 – Lavender West – 9:46
20 – Esther Brooks – 10:27
23 – Jenny Charlwood – 10:41
28 – Isabelle Fazakerley – 11:00
31 – Ophelia Martin – 12:11
U11 boys (33 finishers)
12 – Alex Koybayashi – 8:49
28 – Freddy Furber – 10:25
31 – James Fleming – 10:31
For the second Wessex meeting in a row the under-13 girls were led home by India West, she had great support from Isla O’Connor who ran a gutsy race to be our next red vest home. Claiming the third scoring place was Imogen Rawles, with Ella Fazakerley completing our line up.
U13 girls (37 finishers)
11 – India West – 12:22
16 – Isla O’Connor – 12:41
21 – Imogen Rawles – 13:04
31 – Ella Fazakerley– 14:32
With just three WAC under-13 boys on the start line, we needed all to count. First in for us was Toby Butt showing the form that we saw from him in the Hampshire League race at King’s Park. Toby got support from Josh Fricker, racing cross-country for WAC for the first time this season, and the ever-present Jack Doran.
U13 boys (31 finishers)
9 – Toby Butt – 11:12
23 – Josh Fricker – 13:17
28 – Jack Doran – 14:32
The next start was the combined under-17s (men and women) and senior women’s race. It’s been great to welcome Holly Nixon back to training recently. She was our only under-17 woman on this occasion and claimed a very respectable 4th place. At Lytchett, by far and away our best team result came from our under-17 men. Ben Martin was in fine form to claim 2nd place, with team mates Charlie Davies, Tom Fuller and Seth Lake in 3rd, 4th and 5th. Josh Jack was 8th and looks to be running into some form too. Ollie Rawles is getting over a cold, so this battler wasn’t able to show his full capabilities on this occasion. The team was completed by Jack Moss-Willcox, it was wonderful to welcome this incredibly resilient character back onto the start line. Jack’s had a pretty torrid time of it in the past couple of years trying to manage issues with Osgood-Schlatter disease, he last raced for the club back in March. He’s managed a few training sessions in recent weeks, we were thrilled to see him racing again.
In Race 1 of the Wessex League our women’s team won. We couldn’t repeat that feat here because we weren’t able to field a third runner at Lytchett. The two racers we did have put in excellent performances. Once again Minty Stubbs came 2nd (1st under-20). After Race 1 we suggested that Tara Green may have run her best race yet … well she bettered it here, one place higher in a bigger field.
U17 women (9 finishers)
4 – Holly Nixon – 18:24
U17 men (11 finishers)
2 – Ben Martin – 15:29
3 – Charlie Davies – 15:48
4 – Tom Fuller – 16:02
5 – Seth Lake – 16:17
8 – Josh Jack – 17:06
10 – Ollie Rawles – 18:11
11 – Jack Moss-Willcox – 18:24
Senior women (42 finishers)
2 – Minty Stubbs – 28:09 (1st under-20)
13 – Tara Green – 31:29
Our under-15s were a bit thin on the ground on Sunday … just one girl and three boys. Sarah Graham went one better than her first Wessex 2019 race to claim 4th spot. For the boys, a confident-looking Jay Dunn also improved on his previous Wessex result, while there was a big improvement for Josh Fazakerley since Race 1., the team was completed by George Butcher taking part in his first Wessex League fixture this season.
U15 girls (14 finishers)
4 – Sarah Graham – 14:38
U15 boys (18 finishers)
6 – Jay Dunn – 13:16
11 – Josh Fazakerley – 13:47
14 – George Butcher – 14:05
We had decent numbers for the men’s race. Damian Huntingford was first WAC vest home. His 5th place was his best XC performance for the club so far. There were two other team scoring positions to be claimed and Kerry Mapp, Rob Rawles and Daryl Davies kept each other honest throughout the race before the matter was finally settled. Mike Jurd and Seamus Doran completed our finishers. Brendan Dunn had been our other runner, but he left the start line with one knee strapped up. The heavy conditions played havoc with his problem knee and put paid to his chances of making it to the finish.
Senior men (55 finishers)
5 – Damian Huntingford – 33:32
23 – Kerry Mapp – 36:50
26 – Rob Rawles – 37:04
29 – Daryl Davies – 37:55
32 – Mike Jurd – 39:12
44 – Seamus Doran – 42:43
Wessex League Race 3 is now shown as ‘postponed’ on the Team Dorset website, so it appears that we have only one more fixture in this league, at Canford School on Sunday 15 December. The fixture at Canford also doubles as the Dorset County Championships … see you there.
