Heathside win Fraternity Cup and Beckford receives award

In an exciting Saturday afternoon at Trent Park, with an enthusiastic Heathside turnout, we won the Fraternity Cup for a second consecutive year. The other big excitement of the week was that Lily Beckford is to be congratulated on being selected as Haringey’s Junior Sports Performer of the Year. Wonderful news Lily, and very well deserved!

There were a number of races over the weekend, but the largest event for the club was the cross country Fraternity and Sorority Cup held on Saturday afternoon at a muddy (but sunny) Trent Park, and the North West London Young Athletes Cross Country League held there earlier in the day. There was an excellent turnout for the Young Athletes League, with many good performances - in particular Ruairi McGonagle who came 2nd in the Under 11s race (see the full report of that race here). And here is Chris’s full and colourful report of events at the Fraternity and Sorority Cup race:

Adam Kirk-Smith leads the Women home as Heathside’s Frat Boys win again

Fraternity and Sorority Cups, Trent Park, Saturday 29th November

After the torrential rain at Grovelands, the sun shone on Trent Park on Saturday, making for excellent conditions for the Fraternity and Sorority Cups. The 8km course is challenging but offers something for everyone - some open fields, some woods, some hills, some flat, and plenty of mud. 133 men and 54 women completed what is one of the few mixed cross-country races run on a Saturday afternoon. Although this is one of the longest-running cross-country events in London, it is relatively low key and relaxed these days. Consequently, it’s fairly informal - although not quite informal enough (yet) to allow Adam Kirk-Smith to get away with running as a woman.

Tom Aldred narrowly missed out on winning the individual race outright for the second year, and had to settle for second place this time, in a nonetheless outstanding time of 26.14. Despite sporting a woman’s race number, Adam Kirk-Smith wasn’t fooling anyone, and was duly allocated a fifth place finish in the men’s race (26.15). Jack Ridings made his cross-country debut with an excellent 16th place finish, just one second behind John Driscoll (15th). A mention also for Sam Thompson, who ran a 10k PB on the road in the morning before completing the 8km Trent Park course in a creditable 31.15 (finishing 40th). No less than 30 Heathside men completed the race, an excellent turnout.

In the six-to-score team event, Tom Aldred, Adam Kirk-Smith, Chris Norris, John Driscoll, Jack Ridings and Matt Collins led Heathside to victory for the second consecutive year, beating Highgate into second place. That’s Heathside men coming in ahead of the Gazebo Gang for the second week running. Sweet.

Rebecca Bunting was the star turn for Heathside women in the Sorority Cup, swinging by after her morning park run to finish 2nd in a time of 32.42. Rebecca was backed up by stellar performances from Jane Higgins (10th woman, in a time of 35.04), Elspeth Storrar (16th in 36.55) and Elizabeth Beard (19th in 37.25). It was a pleasure, as always, to see Jo Irwin, Caroline White and Alison Harrow giving their all yet managing to finish looking unflustered. Talent.

In the women’s team event (four to score), Rebecca, Jane, Elspeth and Elizabeth eased Heathside into a third place finish. We weren’t quite able to retain our title from last year, but it wasn’t for want of trying and some excellent racing. Nice one, ladies!

Many thanks to everyone who came along and supported us, especially Pete Holland and Our Dear Leader for collating the results at the end of the race (and sorting out the confusion over Adam Kirk-Smith’s running number). It is a great credit to the club that we supported this event in such numbers and with such enthusiasm. Trent Park is beautiful, and so are we!

5ks, 10ks and 5 miles

Apart from the fun at Trent Park  there were a number of other races enjoyed over the weekend: Matt Collins and Pete Crockford were the only club representatives at the Last Friday 5k of the month, with Pete coming in 1st V55 and Matt 13th place. Sam Thompson (who in fact ran twice on Saturday, as did a number of others judging by the Parkrun results) had a little warmup in the Transcendence 10K at Battersea Park in the morning where he managed a PB, before he headed over to Trent Park in the afternoon, for a second run (in the mud). Ed Samuel and Ben Wolfe took park in the inaugural Hatfield 5 on Sunday: Ed said:” Fine weather and flat 1 loop course with plenty of twists and turns. Marginally more interesting than the Perivale 5 in terms of scenery! Running with (& beating!) London 2012 marathon Olympian Claire Hallisey was an obvious plus.”

Heathsiders had plenty of success in the many and various parkruns round the country, of note, Roger Braybrooks came 1st place in 17.27 at Hackney Marshes, Leigh was first woman at the Cardiff parkrun in 18.59, Rebecca Bunting 1st woman at Oak Hill parkrun in 19.13, and Cathy Jeremiah was 1st woman at the Scunthorpe parkrun in a time of 19.22

RESULTS ROUNDUP

Fraternity Cup 8k, Trent Park 29.11.2014

(men - 133 finished)

2. Tom Aldred  26.14
5. Adam Kirk-Smith  26.55
12. Chris Norris  28.40
15. John Driscoll  29.21
16. Jack Ridings  29.22
18. Matt Collins  29.23
19. Chris Hartley  29.39
25. Richard Macaulay  30.07
27. Steve Armstrong  30.08
30. Howard Gold  30.34
31. Jonathan Hopkin  30.39
37. Stuart Meiklejohn  31.09
40. Sam Thompson  31.15
47. Tony Killilea  31.38
49. Gavin Evans  31.46
50. Rob Shulman  32.04
55. Lee Connor  32.13
56. Paul Lemmon  32.22
59. Dom Jackson  32.28
63. Chris Burke  32.57
78. Brian Boyle  34.43
79. Elliott Reed  35.10
84. Carl Heap   35.21
86. Andrew Sulston  35.40
99. Harry Davids  36.50
102. Hassan Nahal  37.12
105. James Dark  37.38
110. Alun Nash  38.20
112. Declan McIntyre  38.43
118. Jesper Lycke  39.39

Sorority Cup, 8k, Trent Park 29.11.2014

(women - 54 finished)
2. Rebecca Bunting  32.42
10. Jane Higgins  35.04
16. Elspeth Storrar  36.55
19. Elizabeth Beard  37.25
22. Victoria Pound  38.05
24. Jo Irwin   38.18
26. Caroline White  38.39
30. Noelle O’Regan  39.52
47. Alison Harrow  45.59

North West London Young Athletes Cross Country League, Trent Park 29.11.2014

U17 Men (5600m)

6th 23:20 Johnny Naylor              
7th 24:11 William Griffiths  
10th 24:51 Jacob Phillips

U15 Men (4200m)

5th 16:59 Liam Garrett
8th 17:30 Antanas Weston
16th 18:54 J Raine 

 U11 Men (2450m)

2nd 10:23 Ruairi McGonagle      
15th 11:43 Arthur Reed
24th 12:04 S Harris         
39th 12:55 Oliver O’Connor         
43rd 13:30 Z Brookes-Caufman  
45th 13:35 O Boss

47th 14:33 E Mundy  

U17 Women (4200m)

5th 20:03 Genevieve Weston

U15 Girls (3000m)

12th 14:40 Phoebe Crockford
15th 15:06 Meg Naylor           

21st 15:39 J Matthew        
22nd 15:40 S Tucker             
24th 15:49 Rachel Finke
29th 17:21 Naomi Conlon

U13 Girls (2450m)

20th 12:51 Ella Conlon

U11 Girls (1400m)

8th 6:41 Rose Garrett     
15th 7:20 Kate Driscoll        
18th 7:32 Hattie Munday         

Last Friday of the Month, Hyde Park, 28.11.14
13th       Matt Collins       17:41
52nd       Pete Crockford 19:48 1st V55

Prince William 5k Turkey Trot, Manassas, Virginia, USA 27.11.14
5th Jonathan Litchfield 18:14
63rd Jessica Vinluan 21:54 (1st V55)

Self Transcendence 10, Battersea Park, 29.11.14
39th Samuel Thompson 35.40 (PB)

Hatfield 5 miles, 30.11.14
6th Ed Samuel 28'21
26th Ben Wolfe 31'10

Check out the Parkrun results here