A very respectable 34 runners from Buckley turned up at Mold Alun School for the first of five races in the 2016/17 North Wales XC league. This was probably the highest ever turnout from Buckley for the cross country and the mood was buoyant.
A few early morning showers thankfully didn’t put people off, instead they were rewarded with some excellent running conditions. It had turned into a glorious sunny afternoon with a nice temperature for running. The conditions were vastly improved on last year’s mud bath, with there being relatively firm ground all of the way around. There were a couple of areas of soft\muddy ground but it wasn’t enough to kill the pace too much.
First up at 2pm were the ladies (10 runners) and over 70’s (2 runners), with Jack making his appearance back from injury and Anne and Sam making their XC debut. They had to complete a 3.1 mile course which involved one small, one intermediate and two large laps of the fields.
There were some very good positions for the ladies out of 117 runners.
| Position | Name | Time |
| 19 | Sam Dutton | 0:23:06 |
| 29 | Cerri Cook | 0:23:42 |
| 40 | Hazel Berrett | 0:24:31 |
| 50 | Fenella Higgins | 0:25:30 |
| 54 | Jane Lindley | 0:25:39 |
| 55 | Dawn Urquhart | 0:25:49 |
| 68 | Amanda Mountford | 0:26:58 |
| 87 | Anne Broughton | 0:29:17 |
| 100 | Amanda Garner | 0:31:12 |
| 106 | Suzanne Ridings | 0:32:50 |
The over 70’s out of 11 runners in total.
| Position | Name | Time |
| 2 | John Morris | 0:26:23 |
| 8 | Jack Thomas | 0:34:43 |
Next up at 2:45pm were the men, who had all been heard saying “four laps?” in disbelief when they found out they had to complete one small and four large laps of the field for their 5.1 mile course. It didn’t bode well especially as it looked really hard from just watching the ladies and over 70’s.
Around 200 men lined up in total, with there being 22 from Buckley and a few making their XC debut.
The mens positions are as follows. Unfortunately only 20 finished, with both Les and Ian having to pull out of the race.
| Position | Name | Time |
| 10 | Jez Brown | 0:29:54 |
| 29 | Simon Roberts | 0:31:47 |
| 30 | David White | 0:31:55 |
| 32 | Chris Callaghan | 0:32:01 |
| 35 | Simon Edwards | 0:32:09 |
| 61 | Eddie Davies | 0:33:49 |
| 88 | David Gilbert | 0:35:09 |
| 93 | Rob Mahony | 0:35:18 |
| 96 | Andy Pritchard | 0:35:27 |
| 109 | Karl Williams | 0:35:56 |
| 114 | Paul Stinton | 0:36:08 |
| 133 | Gareth Houghton | 0:37:08 |
| 134 | Mike Austin | 0:37:10 |
| 136 | Tim Hargreaves | 0:37:24 |
| 137 | Steve Bellis | 0:37:26 |
| 144 | Lee Wasnidge | 0:37:51 |
| 151 | Paul Quinn | 0:38:48 |
| 163 | David Wootton | 0:39:44 |
| 179 | Simon Hodgson | 0:42:20 |
| 197 | Rob Mackay | 0:52:05 |
Overall a very enjoyable day on what was a tough course. It was very well organised and thanks go to the organising club Deeside AAC for putting it on. The support from the spectators and runners from Buckley and other clubs was exceptional too, it really helped you push on when the going inevitably got tough, which I think was half way through the first lap. 🙂
The next race in the series #2 is at St Davids College in Llandudno on Saturday 5th November, let’s see if we can get a big turnout. See you there!
English (UK) 
Cymraeg