Bagworth, Matthew Walker 10k & the Clowne Half Marathon

Jack’s the Lad
On a day when the Club’s runners were in action at three venues, from the perspective of this year’s Derby Runner Cross Country League, it was great news that Jack Leafe was back from university to lead the Club’s runners home in the latest race in the series at Bagworth Heath. Cold & muddy was anticipated & the 29 runners from the Club weren’t disappointed as they faced the challenging 6.5 mile course. With Jack finishing in a superb 13^th place in the men’s race, Chris Pearson making light of the conditions to finish in 16^th and training partner Shane Chapman battling well for 37^th place, three finishers in the first 50 was a good result for the Club. Mark Harriott, who is in excellent form at present, was next in 87^th before Andy Orme & Steve Leafe continued their season long rivalry as they finished in 104^th & 106^th places respectively. The inter-club racing continued as Tom Eyre, Andrew Windle & Christian Glover were virtually inseparable as they gave their all in finishing in 116^th, 117^th & 118^th places. Jon Mayman ran well for 134^th place before Adrian Middleton, who relishes the mud, finished in 170^th. It was great to see Colin Mee back in racing action & he’ll be the better for this run & his 195^th place finish as will Club stalwart, Malcolm Moore as he finished in 205^th. James Cobb & race debutant, Stewart Laing, were close in 213^th & 214^th places before XC debutant Romain Chambard, Paul Glover &, the redoubtable, Ray Udall continued the theme as they finished in 235^th, 236^th & 238^th places respectively. Mark Nixon, another who prefers the country to the tarmac, ran solidly for 277^th place before one of the Club’s most improved runners, Richard Ward, gave his usual 100%, in finishing in 292^nd. It was also good to see Steve Fowler, Tony Phillips & Gary Price back in racing action as they finished in 302^nd, 309^th, & 310^th with the improving Stuart Reeves completing the men’s race finishers in 313^th place.
The Club’s women’s team were also missing a number of regulars but the five who completed the course, Tracey Glover (37^th), Lisa Wright (47^th), Jenny Winter (67^th), Heidi Elliott (118^th) & Inge Moore (163^rd) gave everything to the cause in the energy sapping conditions.
On more firm footing seven of the Club’s runners were in action in the Matthew Walker 10k with Men’s Club Champion designate, Dominic Sharman storming round in a chip time of 36.07 and a superb 10^th place out of 870 who completed the course. James Cassidy, taking advantage of his recent marathon training, recorded a superb PB for the distance as he stopped the clock in 36.59 & 18^th place. There was a really tight battle between Tom Bradley & Louise Insley with Tom edging it in finishing places (38^th & 39^th) but with Louise credited with a chip time of 38.44 to Tom’s 38.45. Chris Gunstone gained his reward for some solid training as he also recorded a PB of 39.30 for an excellent 52^nd place finish. Maria Allen & Stuart Halsey crossed the line together in the very respectable identical time of 55.28.
Andy Hawtin & David Lunn were in challenging half marathon action at Clowne. Andy recorded a superb PB of 1:21.21 for 14^th place with David also running well to finish in 1.54.53, a massive 15 mins quicker than he ran the same course in last year.