Second Victory for the Harrier Women at Minnis Bay

The Harrier women followed up on their win at Sevenoaks before Christmas with another Kent Fitness League victory at Minnis Bay on 5th January. It was enabled by excellent runs by Faye Roberts, with her best-ever KFL result of second place, Sarah Newman (5th), Jessie Cloughley (6th), Claire Pluckrose (V55; 15th) and Nicky Leatherbarrow (V45; 16th). They were also aided by tremendous support from the non-scoring runners, headed by Kelly Smitherman in 13th on her league debut who did not score due to the age category requirements. Including Kelly, five Harrier non-scorers beat the third scorer (who was 33rd) of second-place Sevenoaks AC, the others being Katie Grover (18th), Joanne Norrington (19th), Faye Jeacocke (23rd) and Barbara Grogan (28th). These runs were all achieved in wet and breezy weather making the running conditions of the Minnis Bay course even more difficult. The Harrier women have now won the last five KFL fixtures at Minnis Bay, going back to the 2019-20 season.

That result means Canterbury Harriers are now tied with Sevenoaks AC on best-three-races score with Sevenoaks just ahead on overall total. The top six are:

Rank	Club	Match				Best 3	Total	TB	Places
		1	2	3	4
1	Sevenoaks AC	18	18	17	17	53	70	—	342
2	Canterbury H	16	17	18	18	53	69	—	277
3	Petts Wood Runners	17	15	16	15	48	63	—	493
4	Dartford H	15	3	14	16	45	48	—	1056
5	NEJ Running Club	12	16	15	13	44	56	—	705
6	Thanet RR	14	14	12	14	42	54	—	837

The men’s team came sixth in their competition, led by Simon Jones in sixth, his 34th top ten finish in the league out of 49 races. Alex Horsley was the club’s second V40 scorer in 18th and the other scorers were Ben Parmar (29th), Roddy McLachlan (33rd), James Pullen (61st), Hugh Gostelow (V60; 92nd), Greg Norman (first V50; 108th) and Colin Kent (second V50; 148th). Matt Newman, Aron Hancock and Paul Pollard finished ahead of the club’s last scorer but did not score due to the age category requirements. Andrew Thorns put in a good league debut run.

That means the men’s team remain eighth in the team standings with the top ten being:

Rank	Club	Match				Best 3	Total	TB	Places
		1	2	3	4
1	Petts Wood Runners	18	16	18	18	54	70	—	1203
2	Medway & Mstn AC	11	18	17	15	50	61	—	1588
3	Sevenoaks AC	16	17	16	14	49	63	—	1483
4	Dartford H	17	15	15	11	47	58	7	1724
5	Paddock Wood AC	15	14	13	16	45	58	5	1693
6	Thanet RR	13	13	14	17	44	57	—	1909
7	Istead & Ifield H	14	12	12	12	38	50	—	2343
8	Canterbury H	12	11	11	13	36	47	—	2398
9	Dartford RR	8	8	10	10	28	36	—	3461
10	NEJ Running Club	10	10	8	7	28	35	—	3521

In the combined team event the club came a season’s best fourth and have risen a place in the standings to fifth. The top seven are:

Rank	Club	Match				Best 3	Total	TB	Places
		1	2	3	4
1	Petts Wood Runners	18	17	17	18	53	70	—	1696
2	Sevenoaks AC	17	18	18	16	53	69	—	1825
3	Paddock Wood AC	15	16	12	14	45	57	6	2777
4	Dartford H	16	11	16	13	45	56	6	2780
5	Canterbury H	14	14	14	15	43	57	6	2675
6	Thanet RR	13	13	13	17	43	56	6	2746
7	Medway & Mstn AC	10	15	15	12	42	52	—	3229

There are photos from the race in the gallery.

44 Canterbury Harriers finished

Ov Pos	Lg Pos	Runner	Age	Time	Score	Rtg	#
6	6	Simon Jones	49	38:23	V40:1	98.34	49
18	18	Alex Horsley	47	39:55	V40:2	94.37	17
29	29	Ben Parmar	29	41:06	M1	90.73	17
33	33	Roddy McLachlan	46	41:33	M2	89.40	21
62	61	James Pullen	23	43:42	M3	80.13	5
65	64	Matt Newman	38	43:55	NSBLS	79.14	13
67	2	Faye Roberts	42	44:05	V35	99.33	18
85	5	Sarah Newman	41	45:15	F1	97.32	5
88	6	Jessie Cloughley	24	45:28	F2	96.64	2
99	92	Hugh Gostelow	67	46:28	V60	69.87	4
117	108	Greg Norman	64	47:12	V50:1	64.57	20
125	113	Aron Hancock	45	47:50	NSBLS	62.91	11
126	13	Kelly Smitherman	32	47:55	NSBLS	91.95	Debut
132	15	Claire Pluckrose	56	48:16	V55	90.60	31
135	16	Nicky Leatherbarrow	57	48:24	V45	89.93	15
138	122	Paul Pollard	48	48:36	NSBLS	59.93	9
148	18	Katie Grover	42	49:00	NS	88.59	3
150	19	Joanne Norrington	41	49:07	NS	87.92	62
158	23	Faye Jeacocke	47	49:31	NS	85.23	4
173	28	Barbara Grogan	52	50:01	NS	81.88	12
176	148	Colin Kent	59	50:04	V50:2	51.32	78
189	158	Peter Ash	55	51:10	NS	48.01	3
200	165	Fiouse Corbeil	52	51:49	NS	45.70	29
227	185	Andrew Thorns	59	53:36	NS	39.07	Debut
236	193	Adam Cowper-Smith	65	54:06	NS	36.42	49
246	46	Kimberley Ash	42	54:23	NS	69.80	3
249	48	Sara Sinnerton	31	54:40	NS	68.46	7
251	202	Gary Robertson	62	54:42	NS	33.44	17
259	207	Paul Moore	60	55:10	NS	31.79	12
273	215	Steve Clark	71	55:59	NS	29.14	143
276	217	Rob Waite	52	56:10	NS	28.48	2
282	222	Joe Hicks	71	56:32	NS	26.82	81
312	241	Marco Keir	63	58:35	NS	20.53	74
315	243	Matthew Northover	56	58:44	NS	19.87	34
317	245	Mike Jefferies-Pottle	56	58:50	NS	19.21	11
319	246	Ben Lowe	46	59:14	NS	18.87	2
342	258	Phil Wyard	62	1:00:42	NS	14.90	37
343	85	Jean Roffe	57	1:00:54	NS	43.62	22
351	262	Jon Vann	68	1:01:28	NS	13.58	46
359	265	Steve Reynolds	66	1:02:24	NS	12.58	113
363	97	Shirley Pullen	60	1:03:03	NS	35.57	47
416	289	Richard Hudson	68	1:11:21	NS	4.64	29
428	298	Andy Phillips	61	1:15:06	NS	1.66	42
431	133	Tina Jones	78	1:16:15	NS	11.41	61

Full results are on the KFL site.

Robin Bell of Plumstead has produced a video of the race. As he says in the introduction, unfortunately there were problems with the audio:

The next race in the league is in a week’s time at Betteshanger Country Park on 12th January.