START FITNESS – DAVISON SHIELD/SHERMAN CUP  24 OCT 2009

TEMPLE PARK – SOUTH SHIELDS

 

CONDITIONS : BF 6/7 SOUTH /SSW – DRIVING RAIN – HEAVIER DURING LADIES’ RACE. SOFT CONDITIONS.

 

There had been a kerfuffle in South Shields on the Friday as an eagle eyed twitcher spotted Britain’s first Eastern Crowned Warbler (Phylloscopus coronatus). This inhabitant of lush, warm, tropical forest had swapped its home in the Far East for a cold wet quarry in the north east. While there are plenty of thick birds (and this could be a controversial subject) both wild and domesticated, it seemed that the excuse given for this one, was that its navigation system had somehow failed. It is not clear from reports whether it was  a male or female version of the bird, but I guess you can draw your own conclusions.

 

On the back of this rather speculative and improbable story, some 600 twitchers descended on Trow Quarry to spend a weekend camping out in the rain, adding to the traffic and exhausting local supplies of Trill. These are dedicated people, needless to say their quarry had somehow moved …….

 

Meantime a few kilometres away, the traditional start of the cross country season got going with several hundred dedicated people, but this time with a proper purpose.  Previous years had seen glorious weather at South Shields with a course as hard as hickory and marshals in tee shirts and shades.

 

It was a really good day for the Club, with Michael Priestley comfortably winning in the U17 mens and in the team event top honours to the girls as they cruised easily to a third place .

 

In the juniors the Club fielded a complete team in the U13 boys for the first time in many years, with Lewis Price, Ben Thompson and Sam Rees performing well. Anthony Wallett had a steady run in the U15 boys competing against many older competitors. A great effort from the juniors.

 

In the senior men/vets it was Guy Bracken who led the team in, beating the Club Captain by about a mile as the crow flies. Vaughan just barely managed to hold off the Club’s posse, led in by triathlete Dave Stevens. Fastest finisher of the day had to go to Richard Baker, whose 400 metre finishing sprint in under 60 secs was not enough to pass anyone on his cruise in.

 

The big story was the huge field the Poly put out in the seniors’ girls event. We had 14 runners and had the biggest representation of any Club by some measure. It was a ‘first’ for many of the participants who did not let the adverse conditions put them off, (cross country is as much a mental battle as physical one). The team was easily third, beating Morpeth comfortably, with classy Lucy Robinson first lady back with Katherine Davis and Wendy Pawsey close behind. Karen Loughney again surprised the critics with her run.

 

The middle of the field was packed out with red shirts. If the same turn out can be repeated when the league gets going proper at Farringdon, we should be assured of a strong placing. It was a great credit to coach, gritty Ron Stewart, who left the event with the broadest smile of anyone at South Shields.

 

Maybe the widest smile Ron but not the biggest laugh, which must have gone to the observer of the green bird from Indonesia.

 

PS. Conditions were so bad that it wasn’t possible to provide any photos, so sorry.

 

However, having done a bit of research, here is a photo from wikipedia of the eastern crowned warbler, whose plumage is described as ‘green and cream’. In these colours its got a good chance of competing for either Blyth or Wallsend.

 

If anyone spotted this bird, and you mustn’t have been concentrating on the race if you did, get in touch with Bill Oddy.

 

 

Phylloscopus coronatus

 

 

 

Now for the results……………

 

SHERMAN CUP: NSP RESULTS

 

U 13 BOYS

32  0:14:08 PRICE, Lewis

35  0:14:26 THOMPSON, Ben

45  0:15:45 REES, Sam

 

U 15 BOYS

19   0:12:07 WALLETT, Anthony

 

U 17 BOYS

1  0:20:17 PRIESTLEY, Michael

 

SENIOR MEN

30  0:33:55 BRACKEN, Guy

33  0:34:26 HEMY (V), Vaughan

84  0:36:58 STEVENS, David

86  0:37:04 ATWELL, Stephen

87  0:37:06 YOUNG, Barry

145  0:40:24 HUGHES, Paul

147  0:40:28 REES, Philip

170  0:41:51 WEBB, Andrew

176  0:42:10 MORRIS, David

185  0:42:59 RICHARDSON, Ian

190  0:43:17 JOHNSON (V), David

209  0:45:29 BAKER, Richard

216  0:47:07 HITCHEN, Thomas

218  0:47:16 SMALL, Mark

 

NSP TEAM POSITIONS : 15; 34;53; 61

 

 

DAVISON SHIELD: NSP RESULTS

 

U 17 GIRLS

16  0:28:31 WALLETT, Gemma

 

SENIOR GIRLS

12  0:26:35 ROBINSON, Lucy

15  0:27:22 DAVIS, Katherine

16  0:27:23 PAWSEY, Wendy

22  0:28:21 LOUGHNEY (V), Karen

24  0:28:25 HALL, Louise

28  0:28:41 NEILSON, Karen

29  0:28:45 CUMMINGS, Alison

33  0:29:12 DAVISON, Leah

36  0:29:18 REVELEY, Nina

43  0:29:59 POTTER, Sue

44  0:30:06 ROBINSON, Emma

49  0:30:34 FUGIT, Rosa

64  0:33:15 JACKSON, Holly

66  0:33:25 ROBERTSON, Christine

 

NSP – TEAM POSITION 3RD