Herefordshire X-C – race 3 – Ufton Court

Race Reports

Just as elderly balding men sweep their hair over in  an ineffectual attempt to cover evidence of the ageing process, so Croft men fielded an elderly team with 3 over 70s (and a shortage of younger men), uselessly hoping to deceive the youthful opposition.

Gemma starred in the women’s race, coming in a fantastic second (50.34), behind Ludlow Runners’ Heulwen Gilbert, who repeated her Croft victory. Steph also ran extremely well in the sticky muddy conditions, maintaining her pace to finish 9th (54.09), while poor Liz found the going (and the running) tough and faded to 13th (55.31). Sam again ran a gutsy race (17th, 57.09), helping the team to 2nd place, and one point overall behind Wye Valley. Rosie hasn’t been put off by the demands of winter cross country and came home a valiant 43rd, in 68.51.

Tim Davies was again too good for home grown opposition (Eliot), completing the race in 39.15. Sam made up ground well as the race wore on, and finished eventually 9th (42.57), with Dave G 13th a minute behind. Glyn (45.56) and Greg (46.21) had a close tussle in 27th and 28th, then came a strong B team (no  sign of sweep-over!) of Ashley R, Ben, Ashley C and Ian. The C team (not enough hair for sweep-over?) consisted of Neil, me, Tom and brother Brian (who managed by a short stride to sprint ahead of Peter on the line).

With luck Mike will have some photos posted soon in the gallery – perhaps a few runners amongst pictures of the splendid rainbow?

1 thought on “Herefordshire X-C – race 3 – Ufton Court

  1. I did attempt to capture shots of the runners with the spectacular arc of the rainbow as a background, but the driving rain was splashing on the camera lens. I re-positioned myself but the background of the towering pylon hardly rivals the rainbow aesthetically. Unfortunately, the camera was again malfunctioning so most of the later photos were too blurred. I have contacted Santa re a possible replacement but, apparently, I should have been a good boy over the last 12 months. I have managed to salvage some shots at about the 2 mile stage – they should be posted on the Gallery soon. Excellent runs from the depleted Croft teams, with Gemma and Sam the Man featuring strongly. Spirited sprint finish from Dave George,
    too.

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