Harrier Women Supreme at Sevenoaks

An excellent performance by the Canterbury Harriers women’s team saw them take victory over host club, and league leaders, Sevenoaks AC at the third Kent Fitness League race at Knole Park on 1st December. Emily Collins returned with a brilliant third place behind Andrea Berquez of Sevenoaks AC (recording her third victory in three races) and Sarah Brushett of Dartford Harriers. Emily had terrific support from the rest of the women’s team with Faye Roberts (6th; V35) and Sarah Newman (10th) again finishing with impressive top ten performances. The scorers were completed by good runs from Claire Pluckrose (18th; V55) and Nicky Leatherbarrow (26th; V45). Katie Grover followed up on her excellent league debut at Swanley by coming 14th but she did not score due to the age category requirements. Faye, Sarah and Katie were again the top three in the FV40-44 age category. There were also great efforts by the club’s six other non-scoring female runners. In particular, Faye Jeacocke and Barbara Grogan were so far up the field that they finished ahead of our last two scoring male runners.

After three races the Harriers are second, just one point behind Sevenoaks in terms of the best two race total and two points behind in totals over all three races. The top six in the women’s team standings are:

Rank	Club	Match			Best 2	Total	TB	Places
		1	2	3
1	Sevenoaks AC	18	18	17	36	53	—	222
2	Canterbury H	16	17	18	35	51	—	233
3	Petts Wood Runners	17	15	16	33	48	—	344
4	NEJ Running Club	12	16	15	31	43	—	543
5	Dartford H	15	3	14	29	32	5	908
6	Thanet RR	14	14	12	28	40	—	679

The men’s team came eighth, the same as at last week’s race at Oxleas Wood and again being led home by Simon Jones who recorded a great 19th place as the club’s first V40 scorer. The club’s second, third and fourth scorers were also the same as at Oxleas Wood with Michael Farbrace (20th), Ben Parmar (33rd) and Roddy McLachlan (second V40 scorer in 56th) again putting in sterling performances. There was also strong support from Matt Slark (62nd), Hugh Gostelow (123rd; V60), Colin Kent (201st; first V50 scorer) and Gary Robertson (215th; second V50 scorer). Peter Whall, Aron Hancock and Paul Pollard also finished ahead of the club’s last scorer but did not score themselves due to the age category requirements.

That leaves the men in eighth position after three races with the top nine in the men’s team standings being:

Rank	Club	Match			Best 2	Total	TB	Places
		1	2	3
1	Petts Wood Runners	18	16	18	36	52	—	1000
2	Medway & Mstn AC	11	18	17	35	46	—	1234
3	Sevenoaks AC	16	17	16	33	49	—	1076
4	Dartford H	17	15	15	32	47	—	1101
5	Paddock Wood AC	15	14	13	29	42	—	1363
6	Thanet RR	13	13	14	27	40	—	1588
7	Istead & Ifield H	14	12	12	26	38	—	1788
8	Canterbury H	12	11	11	23	34	—	1911
9	NEJ Running Club	10	10	8	20	28	—	2546

The club recorded another fifth place in the combined team result and lie sixth in the combined team standings with the top eight being:

Rank	Club	Match			Best 2	Total	TB	Places
		1	2	3
1	Sevenoaks AC	17	18	18	36	53	—	1298
2	Petts Wood Runners	18	17	17	35	52	—	1344
3	Dartford H	16	11	16	32	43	5	2009
4	Paddock Wood AC	15	16	12	31	43	4	2117
5	Medway & Mstn AC	10	15	15	30	40	—	2385
6	Canterbury H	14	14	14	28	42	—	2144
7	Thanet RR	13	13	13	26	39	—	2267
8	Istead & Ifield H	11	12	11	23	34	—	2998

Lucie Parker has produced this video of the runners walking to the start and has also contributed to the photos of the race in the gallery.

31 Canterbury Harriers finished

Ov Pos	Lg Pos	Runner	Age	Time	Score	Rtg	#
19	19	Simon Jones	49	29:53	V40:1	94.78	48
20	20	Michael Farbrace	26	29:56	M1	94.49	3
33	33	Ben Parmar	29	31:00	M2	90.72	16
58	56	Roddy McLachlan	46	32:03	V40:2	84.06	20
64	3	Emily Collins	30	32:37	F1	98.86	20
65	62	Matt Slark	36	32:43	M3	82.32	26
78	74	Peter Whall	32	33:35	NSBLS	78.84	9
88	6	Faye Roberts	42	34:08	V35	97.14	17
111	10	Sarah Newman	41	35:19	F2	94.86	4
121	14	Katie Grover	42	35:39	NSBLS	92.57	2
137	120	Aron Hancock	45	36:26	NSBLS	65.51	10
138	18	Claire Pluckrose	55	36:27	V55	90.29	30
141	123	Hugh Gostelow	67	36:32	V60	64.64	3
172	26	Nicky Leatherbarrow	57	37:20	V45	85.71	14
181	28	Faye Jeacocke	47	37:35	NS	84.57	3
186	158	Paul Pollard	48	37:51	NSBLS	54.49	8
210	37	Barbara Grogan	52	38:45	NS	79.43	11
248	201	Colin Kent	59	40:14	V50:1	42.03	77
274	215	Gary Robertson	62	41:50	V50:2	37.97	16
323	249	Adam Cowper-Smith	65	43:44	NS	28.12	48
352	270	Mike Jefferies-Pottle	56	44:42	NS	22.03	10
354	83	Kimberley Ash	42	44:55	NS	53.14	2
355	272	Peter Ash	55	44:55	NS	21.45	2
361	276	Matthew Northover	56	45:08	NS	20.29	33
366	278	Jon Vann	68	45:20	NS	19.71	45
369	281	Steve Clark	71	45:39	NS	18.84	142
377	285	Peter Yarlett	72	46:05	NS	17.68	65
391	293	Steve Reynolds	65	46:43	NS	15.36	112
417	113	Jean Roffe	57	48:12	NS	36.00	21
429	120	Shirley Pullen	60	49:07	NS	32.00	46
446	128	Sammy Black	43	50:33	NS	27.43	17

Full results are on the KFL site.

Robin Bell of Plumstead has produced a video of the race:

The next race in the league is at Minnis Bay on 5th January 2025.