Harriers Survive the Storm at Oxleas Wood

Despite the gale force winds of Storm Bert, 36 Canterbury Harriers finished the race on what is probably the Kent Fitness League’s toughest course at Oxleas Wood on 24th November. The stormy conditions in the morning gave rise to concerns that the race would be called off and the total number of finishers was slightly down, 535 as against 545, compared to last year’s corresponding fixture. At the time of the race start there were wind gusts of 50mph.

The Harrier women managed a particularly remarkable result, coming second to Sevenoaks AC despite missing a number of runners, including Emily Collins and Lucie Parker. Faye Roberts was first finisher for the club in fourth, which made her the FV35 scorer, and she was followed by Sarah Newman in 8th. Those were also the first two finishers in the FV40-44 age group. Behind them were excellent performances by the other scorers: Claire Pluckrose (FV55) was 12th, Faye Jeacocke (FV45) was 22nd and Barbara Grogan was 30th. There were also strong performances by the four non-scorers, Liz Coult, Jean Roffe, Shirley Pullen and Sammy Black. The top six in the women’s team race were:

Pos	Club	fv55	fv45	fv35	f	f	Total
1	Sevenoaks AC	16	17	1	7	24	65
2	Canterbury H	12	22	4	8	30	76
3	NEJ Running Club	21	42	26	10	40	139
4	Petts Wood Runners	72	13	32	5	28	150
5	Thanet RR	39	70	35	6	14	164
6	Paddock Wood AC	3	54	41	11	57	166

The women are also second in the team standings behind Sevenoaks after two races.

The men finished eighth in their team race, led by Simon Jones who came 13th and was the club’s first MV40 scorer. He was followed by Michael Farbrace (29th), Ben Parmar (34th), Roddy McLachlan (36th; second V40 scorer), Alex Horsley (43rd), Greg Norman (112th; V60), Hugh Gostelow (146th; first V50 scorer) and Fiouse Corbeil (174th; second V50 scorer). Additionally, Matt Slark, Peter Whall and Aron Hancock did not score due to the age category requirements but finished ahead of the club’s last scorer. Well done also to Ben Lowe who made his league debut. The top ten in the men’s team race were:

Pos	Club	mv60	mv50:1	mv50:2	mv40:1	mv40:2	m	m	m	Total
1	Medway & Mstn AC	113	35	57	12	24	4	10	21	276
2	Sevenoaks AC	76	52	55	11	30	16	26	60	326
3	Petts Wood Runners	156	54	69	7	14	5	19	22	346
4	Dartford H	165	38	101	18	27	1	2	8	360
5	Paddock Wood AC	98	45	99	9	40	15	28	46	380
6	Thanet RR	212	49	66	25	37	17	48	79	533
7	Istead & Ifield H	123	100	120	3	44	33	61	63	547
8	Canterbury H	112	146	174	13	36	29	34	43	587
9	NEJ Running Club	181	91	141	85	86	41	74	114	813
10	Maidstone H	197	122	130	103	134	56	64	94	900

The men are also eighth in the league after two races.

In the combined team event the club came fifth with the top six being as follows:

Pos	Club	M	F	Total	Scrs	Last
1	Sevenoaks AC	326	65	391	13	188
2	Petts Wood Runners	346	150	496	13	329
3	Paddock Wood AC	380	166	546	13	301
4	Medway & Mstn AC	276	300	576	13	476
5	Canterbury H	587	76	663	13	212
6	Thanet RR	533	164	697	13	321

The club are fourth in the combined team standings after two races, seven points behind joint leaders Sevenoaks AC and Petts Wood Runners.

There are photos from the race in the gallery.

36 Canterbury Harriers finished

Ov Pos	Lg Pos	Runner	Age	Time	Score	Rtg	#
13	13	Simon Jones	49	31:54	V40:1	96.59	47
29	29	Michael Farbrace	26	33:21	M1	92.05	2
34	34	Ben Parmar	29	33:50	M2	90.62	15
37	36	Roddy McLachlan	46	34:01	V40:2	90.06	19
44	43	Alex Horsley	47	34:25	M3	88.07	16
77	75	Matt Slark	36	36:40	NSBLS	78.98	25
83	4	Faye Roberts	42	37:01	V35	98.36	16
84	80	Peter Whall	32	37:04	NSBLS	77.56	8
117	8	Sarah Newman	41	38:43	F1	96.17	3
120	112	Greg Norman	63	38:56	V60	68.47	19
130	12	Claire Pluckrose	55	39:20	V55	93.99	29
139	125	Aron Hancock	45	40:07	NSBLS	64.77	9
163	146	Hugh Gostelow	67	40:47	V50:1	58.81	2
182	22	Faye Jeacocke	47	41:33	V45	88.52	2
201	174	Fiouse Corbeil	52	42:13	V50:2	50.85	28
203	176	Paul Pollard	48	42:18	NS	50.28	7
212	30	Barbara Grogan	52	42:47	F2	84.15	10
224	190	Colin Kent	59	43:38	NS	46.31	76
267	43	Elizabeth Coult	43	45:38	NS	77.05	2
270	227	Adam Cowper-Smith	65	45:42	NS	35.80	47
271	228	Gary Robertson	62	45:44	NS	35.51	15
324	254	Steve Clark	71	47:59	NS	28.12	141
352	271	Ben Lowe	46	49:14	NS	23.30	Debut
359	276	Joe Hicks	71	49:35	NS	21.88	80
378	282	Peter Yarlett	72	50:27	NS	20.17	64
392	291	Mike Jefferies-Pottle	56	50:50	NS	17.61	9
414	300	Marco Keir	63	51:29	NS	15.06	73
418	302	John Cooper	65	51:49	NS	14.49	43
428	123	Jean Roffe	57	52:20	NS	33.33	20
449	314	Phil Wyard	62	54:02	NS	11.08	36
453	316	Steve Reynolds	65	54:19	NS	10.51	111
454	138	Shirley Pullen	60	54:26	NS	25.14	45
464	143	Sammy Black	43	55:01	NS	22.40	16
479	329	Geoff Burston	75	56:24	NS	6.82	31
527	347	Roy Gooderson	67	1:09:04	NS	1.70	89
530	349	Andy Farrant	68	1:10:18	NS	1.14	86

Full results are on the KFL site.

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

The next league race is in a week’s time on 1st December at Knole Park, Sevenoaks, starting at the earlier time of 9am.