North Herts tame the Royston ‘fells’

Ian Sutcliffe and Brian Bailey

Andrew Leach was the standout performer for North Herts Road Runners as the Letchworth-based club won an impressive clutch of medals at the Hertfordshire county veterans cross-country championships on Sunday.

‘It was fell running comes to Hertfordshire’ said Leach after dominating the 9km race on the demanding slopes of Royston Heath and taking the county 50+ age-group title.

The NHRR team of Linda Aird, Karen Dodsworth and Miranda Morgan were also crowned county champions as they took the team prize in the 55-plus category.

NHRR celebrated a series of further successes, with ‘supervet’ athletes Brian Bailey and Ian Sutcliffe taking silver and bronze respectively in the 70-plus age-group and Sheila Leavy winning the bronze medal in the 65-plus category.

Earlier in the weekend North Herts took four of the first eight places at the Great Denham Parkrun. Adam Bowller was first finisher in a new Parkrun personal best of 16.35 and John Auld dipped under 17 minutes for the first time with a superb 16.51 for third place. Stewart Overton was fifth in another PB of 17.09 and Darren Matussa completed the quartet with 18.40 and eighth.

Matt Sayers was another Squirrel clocking an impressive new 5k best time as he sliced an impressive 31 seconds off his previous mark with 16.54 at the Serpentine ‘Last Friday’ 5k in Hyde Park.

Several Squirrels were clocking up the miles in final preparations for the London Marathon, with Adrian Sherwood taking first place in the 50+ category at the Dorney Lake 20-mile run. Sherwood clocked 2.17.53 while John Auld said he took ‘a massive confidence boost for London’ after finishing in 2.08.35. Darren Matussa ran the 16-mile option in 1.49.03

North Herts had three representatives at the Bedford 20-mile race, with Jen Naisbitt well on track for London with a new best time of 3.44. Chris Poole and Helen Govey finished in 2.57 and 3.27 respectively.

Jim McConnell enjoyed the Lanzarote sunshine but not the windy conditions as he won the Club La Santa half-marathon in 1.18.20. McConnell reported ‘a decent test of the brain to keep on top of the pace’ as he tackled an uninspiring 3-lap out-and-back course.
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Jo Summers competed the ‘Daffodil Dawdle’ off-road marathon in Suffolk in 4.37

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