Vets Championship at Sparrows Den Saturday 8th December wind & rained lashed southern England and for thefirst time in ages we had one of those good old fashioned cross country's.You know the one where you spend most of the time trying to hold down theteams tent, and we were better off than other clubs.

We had some impressive performances along with a wide ranges of entrantsall doing the club proud, I don't have the records to prove but I'm not aware that we have had an orange shirt in every race at the vets before. Anyway the reports:-

The first race was the 50's men, and here was the best team result, with fine performances by all, Phil Mathieson in 29th was especially on form and finished well up the field, Dave (new boy) Farrell came in like Phil high up in 36th , Ray Medley likewise a good run was 43rd. A very good team performance possibly the best senior men's performance this year.

Then the ladies done us proud in appalling conditions Jane West in Vet35's 28th & the Vets 45's Julie Rose 31st and Breda Goss 32rd. A long time since we have entrants in this event.

The 40's men next, here was the largest entry with six, Richard Long now fully recovered from a long run of injuries, arrived in 37th, hence Kevin Winch 40th, Steve walker 44th, Peter Griffiths 47th, Jon Hunter 50th, PaulGoss 53rd. And another newie for the club, first time in ages we had an entry in both the men's and ladies clubmen's, Martin Jenner in his usual good humour ranv ery well and finished high up in 18th. Juliettle Hoaireau (don't make a drama out of a crisis) vied with Phil for the best performance of the day after missing the start by a couple of minutes finished 11th and even seemed to be enjoying it.

I won't update our grand prix until after this Saturdays forthcomingleague fixture, and then the various championships will scuttle veryquickly round. So watch out for next weeks report. and yes MUD,MUD, Mud (sorry excuse me)

Kevin Winch