Cross Country Section
English Schools Cross Country Championship
Heaton Park, Manchester: March 20 th
Four athletes from Holmfirth Harriers AC were representing West Yorkshire Schools at the English Schools Cross Country Championship held at Heaton Park, Manchester on Saturday March 20 th. The course was made up of fast parkland with the occasional very muddy woodland section.
Star performers were the experienced Holmfirth High duo of Thomas Traviss-Pollard and Max Kaye, who were in action in the Intermediate Boy’s event run over a distance of 5.5k. Thomas finished in 27 th place in 19m 58secs whilst Max was 30 th in 20m 5secs. They were the first and fourth counters for West Yorkshire who took the bronze medals in the team competition behind Kent and Hampshire & Vectis. The race was won by Harvey Dickson in 18m 46secs and 324 athletes completed the course.
Rebecca Addy was making her debut for the county in the Intermediate Girls race over 4k and finished in 304 th place. In the Junior Girls race over 3k, Ruby Sykes was also running in her first county schools vest and she went on to finish 182 nd.
UK Inter-Counties Championships
Five members of Holmfirth Harriers A.C. represented Yorkshire in the UK Inter-Counties Cross Country Championships which were held at Crofton Park, Birmingham on Saturday. Only the top 8 runners from each of the 42 UK Counties were eligible to run. Full report here.
Thrilling Finale - Harriers Best in the West
The West Yorkshire Cross Country League for 2009 raced to a thrilling finale at Nunroyd Park in Guisley Sunday 6 th December. The venue, notorious for muddy conditions, was true to form and the athletes were faced with waterlogged ground from the start which deteriorated as the day proceeded. Holmfirth athletes continued their run of fantastic form and confirmed themselves as one of the leading clubs for Cross Country in West Yorkshire with their largest trophy haul for many years.
Four teams struck gold, one silver, two junior individual age group winners and four senior, six additional individual medal winners the final trophy tally for Holmfirth.
U11s take Silver and Gold
In the first race of the day it was business as usual for Bradley Bedford as he stamped his authority on the U11 boy’s race. Over a longer course than in the previous 3 races Bradley lead from the first corner and won the race in style with a 10 seconds winning margin. With ten harriers in the field the team victory never seemed in doubt Thomas Dickens, with his best placing of the league so far returned second for the team in 5 th place, Ben Dickinson in a sprint for the line in 8 th, Aaron Gill finishing of the team in 12 th. Also running well but missing out on the team this time were Andrew and Nicky Farquhar in 14 th and 19 th, Finn and Shea Kerry in 20 th and 27 th and Tiras Waterman in 26 th. in the league overall Bradley was presented with the trophy for first place and the team won overall gold.
The girls, who in the last race had just managed to snatch first place from Ilkley gave it their best shot but had to be content with second place and silver medals in the league overall. Lucy Byram, finding the conditions heavy going was first home in 10 th position which was enough to win her a medal in the league for 5 th place overall. Lucy was followed home by sister Erica in 12 th, and Jessica Hirst in 21 st who ran well to complete the team. Daisy-Mae Hinchcliffe just missed out on the team placing this time in 25 th.
U13s Top of Team in West Yorkshire
With both the boys and girls finishing in first place in all 4 fixtures of the league the league title were never in doubt. Both teams have real strength in depth and this was demonstrated in the girl’s race on Sunday where the girl’s team of Lucy Farquhar, Sophie Spencer and Olivia Sykes took first place even with 3 members of the squad missing. The boy’s race was a thrilling duel between Holmfirth Lewis Byram and Michael Adlard of Hull. Adlard who had missed the first 2 league fixtures had just beaten Lewis in the third race. Lewis bided his time running on the shoulder of Adlard for much of the 2 lap course. In the final lap Lewis managed to get the better of the Hull runner and stormed to a 12 second victory Adlard actually fading to third place. In a battle for the other Holmfirth team placings Aaron Arthur in 6 th got the better of Aaron Kettlewell 8 th, Seth Waterman 9 th and William England 10 th the later 3 separated by only 6 seconds. Cousins Eddie Hinchcliffe and Joe Williams ran well in 25 th and 38 th place. In the girl’s race Lucy Farquhar, with her best run so far in the league, ran strongly in the mud for 7 th place. Sophie Spencer has steadily improved throughout the league from 35 th place in the first race, 21 st and 20 th in the 2 nd and 3 rd and finished an excellent 9 th position in this, showing her potential for the future. Olivia Sykes finished off the team for the girls in 17 th place with Sophie Williams not enjoying the mud at all in 50 th. Both boys and girls teams were presented with gold medals for winning the league outright. Lewis received the trophy for individual winner of the league, Aaron Arthur a trophy for third and Aaron Kettlewell for fourth place.
Great Junior Performances
Ruby Sykes, always a mudlark, actually enjoyed the conditions once again ran well in the U15 race to secure 7 th place which was also her final league placing, just missing out on a medal. Only 8 seconds behind Ruby, Rebecca Addy ran well in her first league race of the season to finish an excellent 10 th. The U15 boys battled hard in the mud and finished a very respectable 29 th and 35 th respectively for Robert Hinchcliffe and Michael Booth. U17 Max Kaye third in the last race ran well to finish 4 th which was enough to win 2 nd place in the league overall, Thomas Travis-Pollard just behind Max in Sunday’s race in 5 th place both excellent performances.
A Golden Day for Seniors
Race 1- A great day at the Races - Harriers take on the best in the West
Race 2 - Holmfirth Harriers in action in the West Yorks Cross Country League
Race 3 - Happy Hunting for Harriers
X-C secretary
