South Essex Cross Country League 2016/17 – 3rd Round – One Tree Hill

Freezing conditions did not deter the Red and White army turning up at strength to the 3rd Round of the SEXC at One Tree Hill. The BRC ladies team was headed up by Jacqui Watson who finished 12th with an impressive time of 37:39:00. Next for the ladies and 14th was Catherine Stunt closely followed by the ever improving Nikki Leigh (39:05:00). Jayne Stacey battled well to secure 19th place putting in a tremendous effort in the last series of energy sapping hills. Making a great comeback to Cross Country came 23rd placed Sarah Grabooski (40:51:00) the final BRC points scorer came Kelly McClenaghan (45:23:00).

A Benfleet triple came next with Sue Fuller (52nd,  45:40:00), Mandy Cooper (53rd, 45:44:00) and Sarah Norton (54th 45:57:00).

With a massive effort to the end for all runners the BRC ladies finalised with Liane Connors (47:16:00), Catherine Hughes (47:49:00), Annette Johnson (49:05:00) and Laura Williams (50:12:00).

The men’s team was led out by 5th placed Andy Low in an amazing 30:33:00 continuing to show his great form. Paul Ruffy, 12th was next to finish in 32:07:00. Cross Country stalwart Graham Booty put in a tremendous effort to seal 14th place in 32:12:00. Terry Spooner managed to keep ahead of BRC’s Dan Carter who finished in 20th place in spite of falling twice in the icy conditions (32:43:00 and 32:47:00 respectively).

BRC closely packed in Callum Liasi (33:41:00), Alan Clark (33:50:00), Ross Hollands (34:07:00), Dexter Goward (34:09:00), Pete Stalley (34:11:00), Richard Jones (34:20:00) and Nick Rankin (34:31:00) within a minute of each other.

Solid efforts were made by the rest of the Red and White contingent; Brian Venton (35:27:00), Chris Jones (35:45:00), Ian Pike (37:30:00), Kevin Connors (39:08:00), Graham Douglass (40:50:00), Kevin Judge (43:53:00) and Martin Swain (48:18:00).

The championship league table shows that with a big push the title is still in reach with the final two rounds.