START FITNESS – HARRIER LEAGUE 3 – WREKENTON 13th FEBRUARY 2010

 

Conditions : Bright but cold – 3 deg C – slight BF3 northerly wind. Plodgy mud

 

Red St. Valentine’s  X

 

NSP RESULTS:

 

Senior Men – 2nd Team on the day; currently joint 2nd overall

 

29        0:39:21     BRACKEN, Guy (V) (Medium pack - 0:36:51)

46        0:39:55     HEMY, Vaughan (V) (Medium pack - 0:37:25)

52        0:40:04     BATY, John (V)

84        0:41:11     YOUNG, Barry (V)

88        0:41:15     LOUGHNEY, Andrew (V)

108      0:41:49     ATWELL, Stephen (V)

133      0:42:39     ROBSON, Gary (V) ( Medium)

188      0:44:40     QUINN, David

213      0:46:24     WHITEHEAD, Chris

241      0:48:52     SMALL, Mark

256      0:50:03     WEBB, Andrew (V)

257      0:50:19     HITCHEN, Thomas (V)

278      0:52:38     ADAMSON, George (V)

 

U15 Boys

 

9          0:13:36     WALLETT, Anthony

 

U13 Boys

 

5          0:13:56     KELLY, Elliot (Fast pack)

29        0:15:18     PRICE, Lewis

42        0:15:57     ROBSON, William

 

U15 Girls

 

14        0:16:28     TANNER, Vicki (Fast pack - 0:14:58)

 

U17 Girls

 

10        0:35:06     WOODS, Sarah

 

Senior Ladies – 5th Team on the day; currently 4th overall

 

13        0:30:29     DANN, Stephanie (Fast pack - 0:27:29)

31        0:31:58     HALL, Louise

36        0:32:35     NEILSON, Karen (V)

52        0:33:26     CLARKE, Jo

61        0:33:56     FOJUT, Rosa

67        0:34:14     PAYNE, Emma (V)

70        0:34:24     ROBINSON, Emma (V)

71        0:34:32     VICKERS, Louise (V)

83        0:36:10     STEPHENSON, Vicki (Fast pack - 0:33:10)

86        0:36:26     JACKSON, Holly

 

A fine way to spend the eve of St. Valentine’s Day – as those  NSP girls sought to catch the eye of one of our many elite male runners with a carefully turned calf – or failing an elite runner then maybe the Capt’s eye as he pondered his Hetton relay squads.

 

The world’s third most reliable source of factual information after Stevie Clark and the Daily Mail – is Wikipedia. Some rather quick research has revealed a general uncertainty over the origins of this saint and his link with everlasting love. Religion flourishes – where facts are uncertain – and it seems the church made the most of this rather feckless monk.

 

 In breach of some local Roman regulations, it seems Valentine conducted a Christian wedding. The reports are none too clear on where the glitch lay - but it’s safe to assume it was probably one of those single sex weddings that always are so controversial but in Roman times it was possible to marry a horse – so who knows. Even today such single sex weddings would offend the DA’s office in places like Kansas City – with the local sheriff heading out to arrest the criminal with a noose slung under his arm.

 

Running the clock on several hundred years and there’s a bigger commercial industry devoted to this saint than almost any other – apart from (appropriately enough) maybe St. Michael. Surveys are great – and are the modern day equivalent of science. In fact, the best ones always put the word ‘scientific’ in front of the word ‘survey’. We can now all be scientists !

 

The latest scientific  survey and just in time for Valentine’s day  ‘reveals’ what you can tell about your lover depending on the colour of flowers he ( she ?) buys. Red means passion; pink means not quite so much passion; yellow means he’s having an affair with someone else who’s getting the red flowers; and green means the flowers haven’t opened yet. That’s the sum of it. What colour did you get?  Read on.

 

The race report would normally start with the senior men’s event.

 

It won’t today.

 

This has to take second or third place to another cracking performance with our under 13s. Elliot Kelly – was best male runner of the day in a red shirt in 5th place (and third fastest) on the tricky mud at Wrekenton.  He was backed up with the other squad members, Lewis and Will. (Callum regrettably out injured).  Will once again out performed his dad.

 

Our Under 13s have had a full team out in every race so far – and we are trying to establish where they stand in the rankings. They must be in with a good chance of a top 3 finish for the team if they can keep up this level of performance/commitment.

 

Great work guys!

 

Anthony Wallett was our only other junior representative finishing in 9th in a big field in the under 15s – and now getting ready for the English cross country champs in 2 weeks’ time.

 

Now to the seniors.  And it was the same 1,2, 3 as at Town Moor – with the Capt again the sandwich filling between Guy Bracken and John Baty. The filling was still fresh enough though!  At least on the figures, the Capt can justifiably claim that he closed the gap on GB from the Town Moor – but that wouldn’t tell the whole story! Out of respect, the fellow team members (with the exception of one runner) offered the Cap the inside fast line – whereas GB as a newcomer was definitely forced to go wide on passing. (i)

 

Andrew Loughney was in for the first time this season and slotted (as almost a direct replacement) into the evergreen Peter Atkinson role.  The Pieman - Mr Reliable, Steve Atwell again scored. Gary – we think for the third time now – was home in 7th . The middle order with Dave, Chris and Mark for sure helped knock back some of the other teams threatening our team placing  as they all improved in rankings on Town Moor. The sprint/hurdle squad had now been reduced to Andrew Webb as the only representative. The sprinters just don’t like the hills – although it is certainly worth thinking on that one if you ever watch Alan Watt training on 100 metre hills! (Alan’s got some great ideas on training routines).

 

It looks like we are now in a 3 way fight for second place – with Crook and Saltwell at this stage. Gateshead – with or without support of our 5th columnist runner look clear – but nothing can be taken for granted. Prudhoe is the Becher’s Brook in the Harrier league.

 

Now over to the girls – whose fragile, delicate hearts had not just to cope with the anticipation of Valentine’s Day – but also those blood pumping summits at Wrekenton. Would it all prove too much for them?

 

Well for the youngsters, another distraction presented itself this time in the shape of half term. Vicki Tanner (U15) and Sarah Woods (U17) turned out as our only female juniors on the day. Vicki kept up her perfect attendance record for all the harrier league meetings this season and Sarah took advantage of the opportunity to get some excellent strength training in as preparation for the summer track season. Well done both!

 

The senior ladies saw ten and a half competitors, as one athlete was too overwhelmed with worry about the colour of her flowers that she dropped out after the first lap. She reports that in the end she didn’t actually receive any, which – without any scientifically reliable interpretation – means she will be returning with hopes for a better performance at South Shields. Stephanie MacLean-Dann once again put in a very strong performance to be the team's first counter and 6th fastest female on the day. Two different counters took over the other two slots after the Town Moor - Louise Hall and Karen Nielsen. It's nice to see the girls sharing the work and the glory!

 

It’s also great to see the likes of Holly Jackson, Emma Robinson, and Rosa Fojut regularly turning out for the team and putting in a series of very reliable performances.

 

Overall, the ladies finished fifth team on the day, putting them into fourth place overall. But with only 4 points between the top five teams – and with most of Wallsend’s (currently joint top) counters being swept up into the fast pack as the season goes on – it really is all still to run for.

 

But back to romance  – and an impromptu survey of NSP males provided  some ‘revealing’ results. What colour or type of flower would you buy today?  Three said I never buy any; two said it depends on what’s left at the petrol station / the price and one said it depends on what it’s for but usually self raising. One said:  ‘Oh God – thanks for reminding me.’

 

Which leads on to a ‘new survey’ to be conducted amongst our very own NSP girls. How does your favourite colour of flower impact on your 10k time? What if your heart says red – but your brain says white – but your blouse is green ? Can conclusions be drawn – or are there other factors that come into play, such as sock colour;  make-up or that third Malteser  ? All hot stuff for the boffins .This has surely got to be THE  survey on flowers to beat all surveys!

 

 With a big enough sample (they have a word for this?)  – who knows,  we may just be able to conclude from the results whether colour does have  a bearing on athletic performance! The results could then make the Club Cpt’s job of selection criteria for relays a good deal easier. It also helps the girls as it’s a whole lot easier to remember colours than befuddling the brain with trivia like race times – times that the Cap often then has to absorb under extreme pressure! For sure, colours are a lot simpler and more romantic than numbers. It’s a win / win situation – with the marriage of colour to the Cpt’s cool strategic skill.

 

The English love a loser – more than anything else and certainly more than flowers. Sadly dim witted Valentine not only failed to study the local law – but didn’t get a survey done. He paid the ultimate sacrifice of having his bad tactical decisions celebrated each year on many an Andrew Brownsword card.

 

Now to South Shields for Saturday – where the distractions of romance can be set aside for another year.

 

But will this see the return of the dashing Karen Loughney (41 ½) ? The critics hope so.

 

(i) The Capt is unlikely ever to read a foot note so he won’t see this   – so it’s safe to mention here that he was the 6th fastest vet on the day. GB was we believe 3rd. These are great performances as virtually all the top vets run at the xc (except for Frosty who is injured). The Capt has never scored in the vet’s league until this season – he has already run 10th fastest at Farringdon but the editors didn’t mention it as we were all sure it was a fluke or a statistical error – and our reports must be accurate. It wasn’t a fluke after all! So this is a terrific achievement. Don’t ask him about it though.