Oxfordshire XC League 2016/17: Race 4: Farmoor: Hill End Centre & Wytham Woods

Author: erradmin 12th April 2017

A medley of the Farmoor Event, Race and season’s XC report

SUMMARY

Generally speaking, one can sum the season up by saying that participation, commitment, improvement, and competitive achievement are all healthy in the club’s XC ‘club’, across all the categories and age groups, with many individual and team successes. Great!

FARMOOR FIXTURE

The final XC fixture of the season was our inaugural home fixture, which was a great success on many levels. Having had some time now to reflect, first of all thanks are due to those who made it happen:

the Club Committee for agreeing to co-host the event
David Millin and Nigel Fisher for providing such wonderful venues at the Hill End Centre and Wytham Woods
Mike Shipway, Neil Preddy and the Woodstock Harriers committee for co-hosting and providing so many marshals, and hares and hounds
Dene Stringfellow, Oxon XC League Manager, for his enthusiasm, support, advice and help setting the course up and taking it down.
All the Oxon League officials for their support and advice
ALL of the many ERR, WHAC and other club team leaders and marshals, parking stewards, money collectors and so on, who helped enormously on the day, and also in setting up the trial run and taking signage/tape etc. down
Special thanks to Dave Ferrier for diligently managing the difficult conditions in the main parking field along with his excellent team of helpers, and to Ian Hembrow for overseeing the hardstanding and ancillary car parking areas
Running Imp for turning round the sign order in short order!
Remembering the inspiration of Kate Williamson, Tess Evans and Denise Bridges for starting the whole exploration of routes and venues 2 or 3 years back, and Larry Poole’s more recent rekindling of enthusiasm for it to go ahead in 2017
I also appreciate those who have thanked me for my efforts. I guess I can’t pretend I didn’t do anything, and in actuality I can truly say that I enjoyed the preparation, course design, the build-up to the day itself, and the day itself (mostly).

RACE INTRO

There was another fine turnout from the club, with the Men yet again fielding more than three complete teams (24 runners) and the Ladies committing four complete teams (12). Unfortunately the Ladies were without five of their top runners on the day, but we welcomed Marie Chuilon back to the fold, and Katherine Bates showed us how it’s done by taking the VL55 title on the day and also for the season.

LADIES’ SUMMARY

In the Oxon League Ladies competition, much promise was in evidence this season with some notable performances, both individual and in a team context, winning various medals at the County Championships in January, and all sorts of individual merit achieved there too, especially the emergence of Liz McAllister as a natural cross-countrier (is that a real word?).

The Farmoor day began with Eynsham A in second place in Division 2, and actually they were sitting as third-best team of all the Divisions, thus primed for a well-deserved promotion to Division 1. However, as we all by now know, you’ve got to be ‘in it to win it’ or ‘in it to gain promotion’. However, In the absence of each one of arguably our quickest five runners, promotion under the new system was going to be a tough ask! And sadly so it proved, with an on-the-day score of 126 meaning a 4th place finish in Div. 2 and no promotion.

Unfortunately, the League adopted a ‘2 up-2 down’ rule for this season, which I have to say I think should be challenged at the League AGM later this month.

The Ladies season-end score of 287 would, nonetheless, have been good enough to sneak into Div. 1 under the old system. So surely next season will see them crack into Div. 1 at last, after much promise over recent years.

MEN’S SUMMARY

In the Men’s event, Dan ‘David’ Lewis continued his superb form by finishing 3rd in the race, but actually 1st Senior Man on the day, two places ahead of the overall Senior Men’s title winner for the season, Newbury’s James Craggs. As he heads into the V40 category for next season, it will be an interesting battle with the likes of James Bolton, Paul Fernandez and Tegs Jones.

In my enforced absence from the race, Mark Baker captained the team well on the day, and having warmed up by helping push about 70 cars through the mud in the main car park, he finished an excellent 15th! Tom and Keith Baker, Nick Hardwick and Jonnie Hancox also all ran after pushing numerous 4x4s through the mud, from what I can gather, as several drivers didn’t know how to engage their 4-wheel drive!

Jon Cox was close behind Mark, in 18th, with another fine run, and the remainder of the A team ‘enthusiasts’ (Dafydd, Sean and Graham) delivered a storming effort to finish 1st team in Div. 2 on the day, but again narrowly missing out on the Div. 2 title, and again to Witney! This was largely due to real bad luck with injuries, illness and other absences in the previous race at Harwell. We also happily saw Nick Hardwick break into the A team on the day, after a strong run.

All these efforts meant that ERR A is promoted back into Division 1, which is deserved.

It has been great to welcome many new faces to the club this season, of varying paces, but to counter those who may say we rely too heavily on the ‘Satellite Quicks’, it is worth noting that 16 club members featured in the League A or County Champs A teams this season. Congrats to all on contributing and being part of the ‘promoted squad’.

Mark Baker	Dave Ferrier	Benedict Pollard
Tom Baker	Pete Green	Matt Ray
Ben Breaker	Nick Hardwick	Mark Schofield
Graham Bridges	Henry Hart	Dafydd Warburton
Jon Cox	Dan Lewis
Sean Duvall	Kerry Papps

ENGAGE THE NEXT GEAR, CHAPS

So, please hear the call to push on, as the A team has the potential to be Top 3 in Div. 1, whilst also fostering a solid commitment and competition within and amongst ourselves too. It all looks healthy, with the team Captain, Henry Hart and Matt Ray hopefully being more available next season. We also look forward to welcoming new member Tom Norris to the fold at some stage next season, amid rumours of one or two others making a comeback … attendance is key!

B TEAM PROGRESSION

The momentum of the B team runners is palpable, with Nick H, Ewan MacDonald and Kerry Papps hunting in a pack at Farmoor, in good finishing positions, with Pete Green, Jonnie Hancox and others close behind, and a few other B/A team runners otherwise unavailable. This is what it’s all about: seeing improvement and dedication in B team runners, challenging for places in the A team, to keep us all honest. Some of the B team scores this season were close to ‘best-evers’.

THE COMMITTED ONES!

Whilst this was all going on, there was also a quieter but just as determined battle going on amongst the ERR ‘C and D teams’, hunting the Club Men’s Championship title, with notable commitment from several runners, borne out by the fact that this season witnessed a record 21 runners overall (Juniors, Men & Women) who ran all 4 races, entitling them to the ‘increasingly coveted’ ‘100% commitment’ medal.

100%: well done the 21 ERRs who ran all four races:

Including both Max and Reuben Coppuck in the Junior races, and the following Seniors:

Anna Mackin

John Bishop

Martin Johnson

Bruce Coppuck

Katherine Bates

Howard Humphris

Pete Green

Nick Hardwick

Ewan MacDonald

Colin Hancox

Graham Bridges

Mark Baker

Jane Garton

Rebecca Evins

Tom Baker

Nicola Coppuck

Jacky Pinnock

Rain Newton-Smith

Tara Lawfull

I hope that you all derive satisfaction and added motivation from being there, even in cold wintry weather, competing for your own reasons, whilst also representing the club so consistently … long may that trend continue. The medals are being designed presently … updates to follow on the presentation date.

ERR XC CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP

The title, in this the third season of the ERR XC Champs, had already been wrapped up superbly by Anna Mackin prior to the home fixture, an effort of which she can be rightly proud of.

However the Men’s title had apparently not yet been decided, and a very tough hilly course, meant we thought there was still a chance of the leader, John Bishop, being caught. On closer inspection, however, we realised that John actually had won the Men’s title already (!), and on account of being able to drop a race, it meant that despite Martin Johnson and Bruce Coppuck both outscoring John over the four races, when the weakest race was omitted, John took the prize. Stats and scores will be posted separately.

Howard Humphris deserves mention for a top run at Farmoor, actually the second best performance on the day, after Anna.

So, onto the …

RESULTS

Runners in bold receive the ‘100% commitment medal’

U11 Boys (44 finishers)
37	Max Coppuck	8:40

U13 Boys (35 finishers)
30	Reuben Coppuck	12:41
31	Alexander Bishop	12:41

Women (c. 4 miles) (128 finishers)
26	Katherine Bates	34:19	1st LV55 (Day & Season)
41	Marie Chuilon	36:34
59	Tess Evans	37:49
64	Anna Mackin	38:25
75	Jane Garton	39:08
76	Jacky Pinnock	39:12	5th LV55 (Season)
77	Cecilia Dahlsjo	39:18
80	Rebecca Evins	39:36
92	Rain Newton-Smith	40:42
96	Tara Lawfull	41:14
107	Alison Craggs	43:26
113	Nicola Coppuck	45:19

Note: not running at Farmoor, but worthy of special mention: Hannah Hale finished as 2nd Senior Lady for the season, and Liz McAllister 4th VL35 for the season. Unfortunately for Liz, a niggle meant she was unable to compete on the day, but did an excellent mud-splattered role marshalling at the first stream crossing! She also was selected as Oxfordshire’s Number 2 for the Inter-Counties at Loughborough and ran well there. Congrats to both, for such fine seasons.

Men (c. 4.9 miles) (230 finishers)
3	Daniel Lewis	30:56	1st SM (Day) 4th SM (Season)
15	Mark Baker	32:43	6th SM (Season)
18	Jon Cox	33:22
48	Dafydd Warburton	35:32
61	Sean Duvall	36:11
83	Graham Bridges	37:46	5th VM50 (Season)
103	Nick Hardwick	39:18
104	Ewan MacDonald	39:18
107	Kerry Papps	39:23
115	Peter Green	39:46
121	Jonathan Hancox	40:06
129	Tom Baker	40:18
134	Richard Hume	40:37
145	Mark Schofield	41:21
160	Mark Creasey	42:47
170	Justin Byworth	43:50
177	Bruce Coppuck	44:19
180	Howard Humphris	44:36
192	Colin Hancox	46:18
203	Tony Whitlock	48:37
204	Martin Johnson	48:50
216	Keith Baker	52:28
219	John Bishop	53:00
221	Paul Creasey	53:21

FEEDBACK

It was a tough ‘old school’ XC course that someone (I wonder who that might have been) designed for you, so ‘good on you’ to all who braved it and accepted the hills, mud, ditches – a real challenge. Jacky seemed to enjoy the ditch more than others!

Some quotes:

“today’s race … which was really the only proper XC we have had this season” (Abingdon)

“Proper XC!” (Several people from various clubs)

“Really excellent venue at Hill End near Farmoor. Toughest but the best course of the season. Really hope it’s back in the calendar next year. Have loved the XC season this year. It’s bloody tough, but an amazing team event. Such fun!” (Hook Norton)

“From a competitors point of view, all our athletes really enjoyed the course, there were no adverse comments at all, it was all positive … the most comments were ‘hope we are doing this next year’.” (Witney)

I have heard other club runners say it was the hardest XC they’d ever done, but enjoyed it nonetheless.

Well, here’s me signing off after another very commendable XC season from all of you. I hope you enjoyed it, that you can see the momentum building throughout the club, and if you feel so motivated and inclined, then perhaps set an intention to build on that and keep it flowing strongly – both in your own running, and within the club.

Have a great spring and summer and do make efforts to enter races that are part of the wider team competitions too, including:

Oxfordshire Road Race Grand Prix
- http://oxfordshireathletics.org.uk/road-running (15 road races through the year, which started with the Banbury 15 and White Horse Half Marathon)
County Road Relays, Abingdon (April 30th) – about a week left to sign up for that
Ridgeway Relay (June 18th) – Graham oversees this fabulous event

2017/2018 XC: likely dates: DIARISE NOW, then forget about it until October!
- Sunday November 5th
- Sunday December 3rd
- Sunday January 7th (or possibly the 14th)
- Sunday February 4th
- Sunday March 4th