Clean sweep at the XC keeps Squirrels on top

Santa Canta 2019 photo by James Walsh

Northampton’s Delapre Park was the venue for the third fixture of this year’s Three Counties Cross-Country League, and the North Herts Road Runners were again victorious! Both the women’s and men’s teams took first place, ensuring that the Squirrels won the combined prize,  as they have in each of the previous races, cementing their position at the top of the league. 

“This is an amazing result that really sets us up for a great last couple of races,” said the club’s XC secretary John Auld. “There's a lot of work still to do in the remaining two events. But we do have the treble in sight.”
 
In total, twenty-four Squirrels took on the unforgiving terrain and strong winds to produce another dominant display. Leading from the front was women’s team captain Katie Harbon, who won the women’s race for the third time this season, heading a scoring team that also included Astrid McKeown (8th), Paula Adams (10th) and Lucy O’Connor (41st). 

The star for the men’s team was young Oliver Brady, who showed great courage to bounce back from a tough first experience of the 3CXC league two weeks earlier. He produced an impressive run and finished strongly in 17th position, taking his place as one of the eight men in the NHRR scoring team, all of whom finished inside the top 20. The other scorers were Ed Price (2nd), Stewart Overton (6th), Mark Vaughan (9th), Wayne Bell (10th), Nathan Pask (11th), John Auld (14th) and John Rayner (19th).
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The cross-country came just a day after the Santa Canta, the special Christmas edition of the NHRR-organised First Saturday of the Month at Letchworth’s Norton Common. Over 320 runners took part, almost all of them in fancy dress, helping to raise money for Garden  House Hospice Care. The first festive finishers were Freedom Tri’s James Parsons (19:11) for the men and Hitchin Running Club’s Anna Bruce (22:38) for the women. North Herts Road Runners’ first finishers were James Dalton (21:09) and Katie Harbon (23:20).

On Sunday, Ali Mottram ran the MK Winter Half in a time of 2:29:27. “It was a really lovely route on footpaths along canals, round fishing lakes and through lovely green spaces,” said Ali. “Though the first mile or so was incredibly busy with little room to manoeuvre.”

The weekend’s parkrun results:

Stevenage parkrun 81 Russell HAGAN 25:39

Wimpole Estate parkrun 67 Naomi PARKINSON 25:14

Hillsborough parkrun 191 Jillian BOYS 28:52

Letchworth parkrun 37 Carl GOODRUM 31:25

Sunny Hill parkrun 15 Chris POOLE 24:49