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The penultimate round of the East Yorkshire Cross Country
League, held at Welton last Sunday, saw the Viking Striders men’s team
resigned to a satisfactory fourth place overall, although they can still snatch
third at the final race if Beverley AC suffer a monumental collapse in form.
Underfoot conditions at Welton were awful, with recent rain turning parts
of the course into a mud bath, but everybody had to run the same route so no
potential excuses there for a bad run.
As usual Simon Griffin, Giles Harris and Martin Midgley
were the Striders’ front runners, all three inside the first 14 places but
Simon doing particularly well with fourth overall.
David Byas had another stormer to snatch the sixth scoring position for
the club, while Dave Ryan’s improvement suggests he might be challenging for
that honour sooner rather than later.
Rob Oldridge battled through the mud to good effect, never
troubling the scorers but always with a smile on his face, which means he either
loves his running or is still drunk
from the night before. Richard
Bramham continued his impressive comeback to running, although a disconcerting
habit of throwing mud at race marshals needs to be ironed out if his times are
to improve.
The Striders’ ladies, meanwhile, struggled through only
having two runners in their team. Julie
Masterman and Kay Ryan both had excellent runs, but unless they get more support
the team is ever likely to languish in the lower reaches of the table.
To be fair Karen Bexon’s long term absence through injury has been a
massive factor in the team’s decline.
Striders’ times
and places:
Men: 4th Simon Griffin 35.34, 11th Giles Harris 37.02,
14th Martin Midgley 38.19, 24th Dave Hanney 39.15, 36th
Alan Bexon 41.28, 44th David Byas 42.23, 50th Neil Bentley
42.49, 53rd Mark Thompson 43.01, 61st Dave Ryan 44.25, 82nd
Richard Bramham 47.48, 90th Ray Smith 48.26, 98th Rob
Oldridge 54.22.
Ladies: 6th
Julie Masterman 43.02, 15th Kay Ryan 48.36.
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