Red Rose XC III – Bolton

Report by Paul Hobbs

The country season continued to gather pace last Saturday at Leverhulme Park in Bolton.  Todmorden Harriers ladies and men’s teams continued their strong showing from last season in this 3^rd race of the four race series.  Chilly November temperatures failed to deter strong Tod teams turning out, with strength in depth, particular in the veteran category, where Tod and Accrington Ladies and Tod and Bolton men are neck and neck in the race for the team titles.

In the juniors, Jack Crummett now lies in the top 10 overall for the series so far, on Saturday coming an excellent 7^th position.  As always, it was tight at the front between the Tod ladies, all pushing each other, yielding 3^rd team spot & retaining their top 3 position in the league. The veteran category was once again where it was at. Sarah Glyde and Mel Blackhurst came in just 5 seconds apart in 9^th and 10^th position.  Rebecca Patrick also ran strongly, achieving 17^th place.  The ladies can be extremely proud of their performances so far with one race to go topping the V40 team category.

Where the Tod ladies led, the men aspired to follow.  They too, had tremendous strength in the V40 and V50 category.  Andrew Wrench, now into his fifties, continues to show the young guns how it’s done.  He has a comfortable lead in the league V50 category with fellow Tod Harrier Paul Brannigan in 3rd.  Having 7 runners in the top 30 vet 40 category is very impressive and testament to captain Nick Barber’s rallying of the troops for the XC season. Barber was first Harrier home as  6^th V40, followed in by Wrench in 8^th. Dwane Dixon’s strong vein of form continues with an excellent, and not so unlucky 13^th position and Paul Brannigan completing the vets team in 20th.  Tod vets took 1^st place on the day and closed the gap on Bolton who currently top the league.

The final race, at Marl Pits Sports Centre, on December 5^th promises as always to nothing short of a complete mud fest and one where Tod Harriers’ have the potential to claim both the men’s and women’s Veteran prizes.