After they were cancelled due to waterlogging last year, the North of England Cross Country Relays were back on at Graves Park in Sheffield last weekend and, for the first time for many years, we had Senior Men’s teams entered as well as Women’s, 2 of each in fact. The drive down was dreary and wet, but by the time the Senior races started the sun was out and the rain was long gone, but the going was still soft and very slippery in places.
The women went first, but sadly their 2 teams had already become 1.33 earlier that morning with Trisha going down with Covid and Hayley finding she had a puncture. Stephanie had a dodgy Hamstring so decided she should be the incomplete team runner and thus was on the start line for the first leg. When the gun went however it was just her, as Rubie had not realised the start was imminent and had to rush across in order to start (by my watch) 37 seconds late. After the downhill section Rubie had nearly caught Stephanie, but the never ending uphill saw Stephanie pull clear again and by the finish the gap was nearly a minute with Stephanie in about 27th and Rubie just outside the top 30. Emma took over from Rubie and ran comfortably our fastest leg of the day, gaining several places, an excellent performance. Suzy was our final runner and ran a sterling leg to help the team to finish in 22nd position, and as the gap to the 21st team was over 2 minutes the misfortune at the start turned out not to make any difference.
Unlike the women, the men managed to get all 8 of our runners to the venue, fit (or maybe not in my case) and ready to run. Jamie and Connor started sensibly, saving plenty of energy for the big hill, and near the top both were going well. Jamie had a particularly good 2nd half and handed over to Greg in the top 30. I was expecting Connor to come in not too far behind but sadly that wasn’t to be. About 3 minutes after all the other 2nd legs had started I saw him limping down the final straight holding his leg, hamstring gone. Bravely he finished and I started my hopeless chase of the other teams, which in fact was more a case of trying to be lapped by as few of the leading 3rd leg runners as possible! Anyway, Greg had a strong run and handed on to Nick, while I eventually dragged myself round and handed on to Andrew. Nick ran an excellent leg, only about 20s slower than Greg and handed on to the team’s youngster, Joseph. Meanwhile Andy, despite having had as much time off injured as me, managed a significantly better run and left Stephen with the unenviable task of being the last runner on the course. Joseph finished soon after Stephen started, bringing the team home in a decent 32nd position, while Stephen continued the pattern of each B team leg being faster than the one before to finish 43rd.
Results as follows:
Women’s North of England Cross Country Relays, Graves Park, 3 × 2 miles:
1st Trafford AC 37m 53s
2nd Birtley AC 38m 13s
3rd City of York 38m 23s
22nd Bingley Harriers 47m 59s (Rubie Coulton 16m 31s, Emma Green 14m 21s,
Suzy Noon 17m 06s)
39th Bingley Harriers B incomplete (Stephanie Robson 15m 38s)
Men’s North of England Cross Country Relays, Graves Park, 4 × 2 miles:
1st Hallamshire Harriers 41m 21s
2nd Salford Harriers 42m 43s
3rd Sunderland Harriers 43m 05s
32nd Bingley Harriers 54m 43s (Jamie Noon 12m 36s, Greg Hull 13m 15s,
Nick Chapman 13m 37s, Joseph Howgego 15m 14s)
43rd Bingley Harriers B 66m 29s (Connor Dlugosz 19m 00s, Paul Lemmon 16m
31s, Andrew Coulton 15m 40s, Stephen Fry 15m 17s)

Want to know more about cross country then contact your Cross Country Team Managers or Committee Representative (SF)
Paul Lemmon
Stephanie Robson
Stephen Fry