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Page last updated:
23 February, 2010 9:31 PM

Latest XC news

REPORTS

new Yorkshire County Cross Country Championships 20th Feb 2010

The re-arranged Yorkshire and Humberside cross country championships were held in bright sunny conditions at Thornes Park Wakefield with the conditions ideal on a demanding course.

The first race u/13 girls featured Isobel Mastrolonardo running in her first county event and she was not overawed finishing in 55th place

The second race u/13 boys over the same distance gave us our first success of the day with Shane Hicks showing his potential with a great run to finish in 2nd place, with 200m to go Shane was on the shoulder of the leader and lost out only in the final sprint.

In the u/15 girls race Dani Braithwaite finished in 8th place (6th place for Yorkshire) with a solid run and Shannon Parkin continued her good form to finish in 18th place.

Grace Rodgers in the u/17 race worked hard throughout the race to finish in 5th place with the first 6 qualifying for the Yorkshire team, she joined Shane and Dani who will now race in the inter county event at Birmingham in March.

Nathan Parkin showed he had the confidence and ability to go with the leading group in the u/17 race , he suffered a little on the 2nd lap but finished strongly in 14th place.

Dave Parkin was our only senior athlete and he was well pleased to finish in 49th spot.

In addition to their selection for Yorkshire Shane ,Dani and Grace have all been selected to run for N.Yorks in the English schools Championships at Manchester on the 13th March.

They will be joined by Nathan and Shannon who will represent Cleveland schools at the same event.

Congratulations to all five.

Tony

 

Report from Whitby NYSD XC January 2010

With the weather relenting Loftus & Whitby were able to host the 5th fixture of the NYSD at Caedmon School where the underfoot conditions were testing in places but the weather perfect for running and spectators.

As in previous years the club put on races for Junior Schools years 3 & 4 and years 5 & 6, both over 1200m.  Over the last few years the numbers taking part have been very good with the local schools supporting the event.  This year, for some unknown reason, we didn’t get the support from the schools so the numbers were significantly reduced.

The first race for years 3 & 4 saw a battle for 1st place between Jasmine Kent and Taylor Arnott from Beverley with Taylor just securing victory in the last few strides.  The second boy was Archie Hunt from Richmond and third Christopher Portwine from Ruswarp. Second girl went to Ellis Price from Ruswarp with Charlotte Paterson from NMH, third. 
The second race for years 5 & 6 had a field of 27; this was mainly made up of young athletes from the league clubs.  NMH filled the first two places with Adam McMillan and Elliot Metcalfe with third going to Oliver Cockerill from Beverley.  Maddie Mastrolonardo, Sleights, fifth overall was first girl, Natasha Kent, Airy Hill 6th overall and second girl and Morgan Dennis, Beverley 11th overall and third girl.  The School Team prize this year went to Ruswarp.

The league fixture started with the U13 boys and we had 2 boys making their debut in the league.  As they left the field for the railway line, Shane Hicks was on the shoulder of Ben Spencer from Middlesbrough AC and these two had a significant lead.  The Middlesbrough athlete is the current NE champ and towards the end he moved away from Shane who battled on to finish in 2nd place.  Ben Mead was 13th and Cameron Price 25th.

In the U13 girls race Charlie Rodgers finished in 15th place and Isobel Mastrolonardo was a further 4 places behind in 19th.

The lack of recent races saw a number of good athletes taking the opportunity to get in a race before the Northern Championships.  In the U15 girls race Katie Wood from York went straight into the lead from the gun, Dani Braithwaite stayed with her initially but by the end Katie had opened up a big gap.  Dani, with a good performance also had a big lead over Shannon Parkin who finished in 3rd place. 

Nathan Parkin ran the 1500m at the indoor Northern Champs on Saturday where he just missed out on a medal finishing in 4th place in a time of 4-22.85 knocking 19 seconds from his pb.  This obviously had no effect on him as he ran a great race finishing in 3rd place in the U17 boys race.

The Women’s team, who have dominated this season, came up against a strong Scarborough team but even though Julie Mastrolonardo was struggling with injury they still managed 1st place beating Scarborough by 1 point.  In this race international athlete, Kate Avery, showed her undoubted class to win by nearly 2 minutes.  Angharad Owen was first home for the club in fifth place; Grace Rodgers 8th, Nicola Kent 9th, and Julie Mastrolonardo 13th were the team counters.

The men’s race saw Dave Parkin continue with his good form finishing in 8th place, the other scoring counters were Tom Herbert 24th, Chris Ellis 35th, Rob Williamson 36th, Neil Duffield 39th and Steve Hardy 40th.  With a team score of 182 they finished in 4th place.

Apart from the athletes the event requires a considerable input from the members and once again they turned out in force to help mark out the course, provide refreshments and make the event a success. 

 

Cross Country season to Date  Dec 2009

After 4 events in the NYSD our fortunes have been very mixed. The women have dominated each race and have scored a max of 40pts. they have a lead of 19pts over Scarborough.
The men’s team have been very erratic, when they have fielded a strong team they have won easily as happened at Scarborough, but on many occasions they have been lacking their top runners. Unfortunately Lewis will be missing for the rest of the season and the team find themselves in 5th place. R&Z are the leaders with 51pts and then there are 3 teams on 44pts Marsh House, NY Moors and HBR. we have 43 pts so the position is very tight and if we can field a strong team over the next 3 fixtures there is still a chance of retaining the title for the 4th year running.
Individually we have the following in contention for individual honours

Shannon Parkin 2nd 30pts (4 events)
Dani Braithwaite    5th 17 2
Nathan Parkin   3rd 25 4
Grace Rodgers Joint 2nd 26 3
Carol Palin 2nd 22 4
Angharad Owen 3rd 19 2
Dave Parkin 5th 22 3
John Hunter 7th 10 1
Nicola Kent 1st 32 4
Julie Mastrolonardo 3rd 27 3
Chris Ellis 3rd 26 3
Alan Howard 3rd 30 3

Next event is ours at Caedmon so we look forward to getting a full compliment of runners in each race, incidentally there is a lot of work to do to prepare the course so if you can spare a couple of hours please get in touch with me

Tony                                                                                                                                                

Cross Country Croft Sunday 11th October 2009

Here we are again at the start of another X/C season. It was a mild but blustery day and very dry underfoot.

The U15 girls started off the season in fine style with Dani Braithwaite 3rd, Shannon Parkin 6th and Catherine Urban 14th. This gave them a victory over Scarborough in the team event.

The women’s team won the team trophy last season and again they started with a clear victory. Angharad Owen had a brilliant run finishing in 3rd place and she was closely followed by Julie Mastrolonardo 5th and Nicky Kent 6th. Carol Palin having her first ever NYSD cross country race did very well to finish in 27th place to give the team a winning total of 41 points.

Nathan Parkin has now moved up to the U17 age group and he enjoyed the experience of starting in the senior race. His start was a little optimistic but he hung on well and still had enough left to sprint into the finish in 6th place.

The men’s team were also winners of the team event last season, but for the first fixture this season they were under strength and had to settle for 3rd place. Lewis Rodgers showed that he is now becoming a very good senior athlete finishing in 3rd place in a very good race. Dave Parkin returning after injury and lacking race fitness was the 2nd counter in 17th place, Chris Ellis, also on his way back after injury had his best ever finish in 32nd place and he was closely followed by Tom Herbert 34th, Rob Williamson 36th and Dace Collett 47th. Unfortunately Neil Duffield and Mally Peggs both had to pull up with injuries. To win top spot again the men’s team will have to get their top runners competing in forthcoming league fixtures starting at Scarborough on the 25th October. Other finishers in the men’s event were Paul Smith, running in his first NYSD cross country race and finishing in 58th position, Robert Howard 71st, Jimmy O’Brian 79th and Alan Bottomley 83rd.

Tony - Oct. 15th

new English National Cross Country Relays (Mansfield) 31st Oct
I intend to enter a team or teams for this event before the 10th Oct if you are interested please let me know.

English National Cross Country Relays (Mansfield) 31st Oct
I intend to enter a team or teams for this event before the 10th Oct if you are interested please let me know.

Last year over 150 teams finished the Senior Mens race with a big spread of ability from very fast at the front to ‘normal’.The race is 4 legs of 5k each all cross country. This link will give more information. There has already been some interest so I am hopeful of entering two teams.

Adele is also gauging the interest of entering Ladies teams - this will be 3 legs of 3k.

Contact me if you would like a run - Neil
[email protected]

 

new Final results and medal positions for 2008 NYSD XC season

The final standings for the x/c season can be found on the New Marske website. The medal winners from our club are:

 
u/13 girls        3rd Shannon Parkin
u/15girls        1st Grace Rodgers
sen women    2nd Angharad Owen
v1 women      2nd Julie Mastrolonardo
v1 women      3rd Nicola Kent
 
u/20 men       1st Lewis Rodgers
sen Men        3rd Dave Parkin
v3 men          1st Alan Howard
 
Teams
 
u/13 girls        2nd
sen women    1st
sen men        1st

Reports

Yorkshire Vets XC Championships here
Yorkshire Veterans Road Relay Championships here
Flatts Lane NYSD Nov 16th here
Yorkshire Cross Country Championships here
Whitby NYSD here

Results 08 - 09

Croft NYSD word doc here
Flatts Lane word doc here

Yorkshire Cross Country Championships 09

Yorkshire Vets XC Champs 2009 Report

Loftus and Whitby Athletics Club had a fantastic day at the Yorkshire Veterans Cross Country Championships in York recently when they had runners entered in both the male and female races. The course was as expected, a very wet, muddy and slippery experience which for the women entailed a 5k 2 lap course and for the men a distance of 10k saw them endure 4 laps amongst sloping woodland, open fields and part of the York racecourse. Weather conditions were icy cold but dry and were therefore near perfect for the ardent lover of Cross Country events. The ladies had an excellent team comprising Julie Mastrolonardo, Nicola Kent and Jo Braithwaite, and when all runners had crossed the line it was with great cheer that we found they had come first taking a win by just one point over Ilkley runners who, it should be noted, were last year’s National Champions. Individually, Julie won 1st Lady Vet medal in her age category and was second in the race. Nicola won 3rd place medal in her age category and fifth overall while Jo was just out of the medals being 7th in her age category, so all in all it was a superb day for the ladies. The men had a strong team of good runners from the club, and whilst taking home any medals, Dave Parkin ran extremely well to come 5th in a very competitive race and 4th in his age group just missing out on a medal. Other notable high positions went to John Hunter and Kevin Pattinson coming 5th and 11th in their categories, respectively. Altogether it was a great day for the Club particularly with the women scooping such a prestigious title making it all the more rewarding. Photos of the event can be seen in the gallery .

Adele

Whitby NYSD 2009 Report

It was an early start to the day but fortunately the weather looked good considering the gales and rain on Saturday night. Our regular team of Dave, Norman, Neil, Mally, Brenda, Freddy and I quickly had the course marked out and we were ready for action at 11.30 am with the car park filling up and plenty of primary school children warming up. Trevor was there as usual but was obviously in a lot of pain after a fall on Saturday evening; a stern lecture from Brenda sent him off to the hospital where he was found to have badly bruised ribs.

The Primary races were well attended with 41 boys and girls in the Yrs 3 & 4 race. Alice Hoggarth was 2nd finisher with Maddie Mastrolonardo close behind in 3rd place. In 6th place was Natasha Kent but with 4 girls in the first 6 she was just outside the medals.

The second race for years 5 & 6 had 33 runners. In first place was Josh McMillan from New Marske, his younger brother Adam, being 1st in the previous race. Isabelle Mastrolonardo finished in 19th place. The team trophy was won by Lythe School with Ruswarp 2nd and Lealholm 3rd.

It only takes a little more effort to include these races in the league fixture and I feel it is well worth the effort to encourage and offer some competition for them.

With the primary races completed the league fixture commenced at 1pm and in the second race we had our first winner of the day. Shannon Parkin was a very confident and convincing winner, this being her first victory in the league. Unfortunately we had Charley, Maria and Georgina missing due to a hockey tournament but Catherine Urban in 25th place and Megan Trowsdale in 26th place both did very well to give us a team score.

After a great run at the Cleveland Counties where he finished 2nd, Nathan Parkin was a little bit below par to finish in 10th place in the U15 boys. The U15 Girls’ race saw Grace and Dani taking part, Grace finished in 3rd place and showed she was well on her way to recovery after illness, but unfortunately Dani suffered a re-occurrence of an injury and had to drop out when she was in a very good position.

The women’s team were a bit depleted due to illness and a fixture clash. Angharad was 4th, Julie 5th, and Julia 17th all running well in a field which was smaller than normal.

After his success at the Yorkshire Champs, Alec Duffield continued his fine form with a great run to win easily from Rob Cole, Lewis Rodgers finished in 5th place with Dan Middlemas returning to form with 8th place. Our other league scorers were Dave Collett 18th , which was his best finish of the season, Paul Wildmore 24th , and Steve Hardy 28th . After spending all morning preparing the course Neil Duffield, Dave Horness and Mally Peggs changed to spikes to finish their races in 37th, 55th, and 58th respectively. Other club positions were Mark Walker 31st, Allan Howard 52nd, Chris Ellis 54th, Jimmy O’Brian 74th, Alan Bottomley 61st, and Mike Clarke 64th. With a score of 84 points we were convincing winners of the team event and with 2 events left both the men and women are in 1st place.

I would like to thank everyone who played their part in a successful day for the club including Sandra, Sian and Elaine who spent their time in the youth centre providing refreshments and Andy for stepping into the role of starter.

Tony

Yorkshire Cross Country Championships 2009

There was a reasonable turn-out of L&W runners for the 2009 Yorkshires held on an excellent new course at Winter Hill, Rotherham. The course was aptly named on the day as the temperature was sub-zero and the fields coverered with frost. Underfoot it was firm and conditions for fast running were good. There was success and disappointment in equal measure.

First to run were the U13 girls (all in their first Yorkshire Champs) - Shannon Parkin in a creditable 19th, Charley Rodgers 40th and Maria Mastrolonardo 44th. This brought the team in in 10th place out of 20 clubs - some much larger than ours - well done to you all!

The U15 girls saw Grace Rodgers and Danni Braithwaite toe the line. After a brave start Grace had to pull out due to illness. Danni ran really well but had to settle for an excellent but frustrating 9th place. (First 8 runners are selected to run in the Inter-Counties)

The U15 boys race saw a lone entrant from Loftus and Whitby in Nathan Parkin who finished in an excellent 14th place in a strong field of 44 runners.

In the combined Senior and U20's womens race, won by GB International Hatti Dean, Angharad Owen ran consistently to finish in a creditable 27th place. Julie Mastrolonardo, who was suffering from a cold, started very conservatively but worked steadily through the field to finish in 32nd place. In the U20s race, after a characteristically fast start, Megan Ellis settled down, held her nerve, and passed 2 U20's to finish 4th U20 and 40th overall gaining a Yorkshire vest. The women's team finish overall 8th out of 20 clubs which is an excellent result.

In the Senior and Junior Mens combined event, all eyes were on in-form Alec Duffield who has obviously benefited from his move to Leeds Carnegie Uni. Alec stuck to his race plan and kept in the leading group of 4 runners until the last lap when he slipped back but still finished 5th to win a Yorkshire vest. Lewis Rodgers also had a great race, finishing in 5th place in the Junior men and also gaining selection for Yorkshire.

L&W next counter was team captian Dave Parkin with an excellent 34th place followed by Dan Middlemas in 48th, Robert Howard in 169th and Peter Briggs in 190th.

Yorkshire Cross Country Championships
to be held at Rotherham on Saturday 10th January 2009

word doc General Information
word doc Block Entry form
word doc Individual Entry form
Map of course (jpeg)
Directions to Winter Hills (jpeg)

Tony also has entry forms for the Northern XC Champs to be held at St. Helens.

Date

EVENT

Venue

12th Oct

NYSD League

Croft Autodrome

26th Oct

NYSD League

Summerhill - Hartlepool

15th Nov

UK Cross Challenge

Gateshead

16th Nov

NYSD League

Flatts Lane Country Park

29th Nov

UK Cross Challenge

Liverpool

7th Dec

NYSD League

Acklam Grange

13th Dec

NE Championships

Venue to be decided

11 or 18th Jan

NYSD League

Caedmon School - Whitby

24th Jan

Northern Championship

Venue to be decided

8th Feb

NYSD League

Blakeston School - Stockton

21st Feb

National Championship

Parliament Hill

7th March
UK Cross Challenge/InterCounties
Wollaton Park -Nottingham

15th Mar

NYSD League

Richmond Racecourse

21 Mar
English Schools
Venue to be decided

It Shouldn’t Happen To A Veteran

Sunday mornings should not start before 8 am, but it did for four intrepid veteran members of the Club on the 12th October as they set off on the 85 mile trip to Esholt, home of the original set of Emmerdale.

Dave Horness, Dave Collett, Mark Walker, and Neil Duffield were heading for the Yorkshire Veterans Road Relay Championships. The course was set in the grounds of a Yorkshire Water estate.  It was traffic free, but the start was located right next to a sewerage treatment plant.

Despite an average age of 48, the team were running in the over 40s age group. Each runner wore a mini number on their back showing the category, its soul destroying when someone two ages up goes flying past! The legs were 2.5 miles long, the big question was, could the team break the hour.

Mark took the first leg and put in a credible 14:44, Dave C followed with 15:19. Neil finished with a solid 15:03 and Dave H anchored the team home with a 16:14 for a total time of 61:19, bringing comments of ‘When I was a lad, I ran faster on my own!’

There was no time to rest, or wait for the results (although Dave H did manage to wolf down a plate of Pie & peas); the gang had another race venue to get to.

With Neil driving at 69.99 mph, and Dave C knowing a short cut, the crew arrived at Croft for the NYSD XC just 17 minutes before the Senior race was due to start.

The gun went, and four creaking bodies set off tentatively. The finishing order replicated the mornings times with Mark and Neil working their way through the field to score for the A team.

A steady drive back to the coast saw the travellers home safe and sound, ten hours, 200 miles and two races later.

X/C Flatts Lane Guisborough Sunday 16th Nov 08

The 3rd fixture in the NYSD league was held on a new course at Flatts Lane. The course featured an initial climb of about 800m to reach the circuit which provided excellent running on a demanding course.

Hosted by New Marske they provided an u/11 race in which Maddeline Mastrolonardo was 11th (2nd girl) and Jen Duffty 15th and 3rd girl.

In the u/13 girls race we had 3 runners in the top 10 with Shannon Parkin 5th,Georgina Estll 8th,Maria Mastrolonardo 10th, the 4th member of the team Megan Trowsdale was 18th to put the girls in 2nd place.

After running at Gateshead on Saturday where she finished a brilliant 11th place Grace Rodgers showed her strength by winning the u/15 race.

We fielded a strong team in the Ladies race and Angharad Owen recorded her first senior victory in the x/c league. After leading from the start she was put under pressure by Tracey Waller but she responded brilliantly to record a well deserved victory.

The rest of the ladies backed her brilliantly with Julie Mastrolonardo 4th,Nicola Kent 7th and Julia Jackson 13th.With a score of 25 points they regained top spot in the league and now have a 2 point lead over R&Z.

The men’s race also saw one of our runners in top spot, Lewis Rodgers led a group of 5 athletes through the early stages, mid race he appeared to lose contact but on the final lap he moved back through the field and as they approached the downhill finish he only had last years champion Gary Dunn for company. At the bottom of the hill Lewis had opened up a 25m lead which he held to the finish.

Dan Middlemas fresh from his victory in a fell race the previous week came home in 6th place and Dave Parkin was 10th. The other team scorers were Rob Williamson 26th,Dave Collett 32nd,and Robert Howard 48th. Their score of 123 points put them into 2nd place behind Billingham Marsh House.

After 3 fixtures the team now stand in 2nd place BMH 27pts,L&W 26 and R&Z 19.

Interestingly Grace, Angharad and Lewis had all had hard races on Saturday at Gateshead and Dave Parkin had travelled to Swansea to get his first England vets vest.

After the meeting over a coffee the discussion amongst the old members was about the number of winners the club had had in the senior races over the last 25 years.

I reckoned apart from Lewis, Dan Middlemas, Stephen Hepples, Paul Trott and Craig McBurney had all won. We also had someone else in the same year as Paul, it may have Mike Anderson. I am not sure about John Hunter and Alec Duffield.

In the ladies apart from Angharad, Catherine Hare has won recently but then we go back a long time to Sally Kay and Julie Easton.

If anyone has any other names to add please send them to Chris

Tony

 

NYSD Richmond 16th March 2008

The last fixture of the 2007/08 season was held at the old racecourse, Richmond, this being a new venue high above the town.  The running surface was perfect for cross country running with the biggest hazard being the cold northerly wind.
Because many of the individual and team trophies had been decided the number of athletes taking part was down on normal.
We had three girls in the U13 race; Shannon Parkin continued her improvement finishing in 6th place, Catherine Urban finished 20th and unfortunately Nicole Hutchinson had to drop out with an injury.
Nathan Parkin had a good first lap in the U15 boy’s race but faded a little on the second lap to finish in 12th place.
The women’s team were looking to consolidate overall 2nd place.  With Angharad Owen 4th, Julie Mastrolonardo 6th, Megan Ellis 7th and Julia Jackson 14th as team counters and Joyce Hutchinson finishing in 15th place, the team were successful in their bid by finishing in 2nd place on the day.
The men’s team required only 1 point to win the title for the third year running. Lewis Rodgers, after his exertion at Nottingham finished in 6th place.  Dan Middlemas and Rob Williamson had competed in a fell race in the morning but to ensure the club had sufficient finishers they doubled up and Dan was next counter in 9th place and Dave Parkin 10th.  The other team counters were Paul Wildmore 18th, Dave Horness 41st and Alan Howard 44th.  Rob was 46th and Jimmy O’Brian 68th and running in their first race of the season Mally Peggs finished 71st and Tony Hare 72nd.  The team finished in 2nd place which gave them the championship.
We also won the U13 girl’s title for the third consecutive season and there were four individual winners; Lewis Rodgers U20, John Hunter V1, Dani Braithwaite U13 and Brenda Hare V3.  There are also numerous individual awards and all the trophies will be presented at the club’s presentation evening on Friday the 25th April at the Bunch of Grapes.

 

If you want to see the previous 3 years XC pages please click on one of the archive links in the left hand column.


 


Dani Braithwaite, Lewis Rodgers and Megan Ellis - Nottingham 2008
Dani Braithwaite, Lewis Rodgers and Megan Ellis - Nottingham 2008

Start of BC XC 07
Start of the women's race Barnard Castle Oct 2007