2019 Herefordshire Summer League – Westhope Mens Captains report

Race Reports

The first race of the Summer League was at Westhope, with wet conditions making the evening feel
much more like one of our winter league races, Croft still managed to field an impressive number of
runners. 50 in total, which I am told by Mike is the most we have fielded in any event. This also
meant that we had a notable number of teams, 10 in total which just goes to show how much the
club is growing.
24 Male runners took on the tough Westhope course. With the amount of rain we have had recently
I thought conditions were going to be much worse, however there were only a few places where the
going was tough and slippery underfoot in places, especially the track just before we turned off to go
into the second field. The hill at the start of the race is always tough, however once you get past that
you can settle into a nice rhythm for the middle part of the race before ascending back up the hill
towards the finish.
First home for us was the in-form Mark Lamonby, just three days after he secured his place in the
Ironman 70.3 World Championships, he still managed to claim second place on the night (27.58).
Next in was Gareth Leek (4 th – 28.37) and then followed by Jack Wilson (8 th – 29.10), both on their
debut in the summer league and producing a great display. Another debut for the Summer League
races was young Scott Jones. With the pressure of sitting his GCSE’s at the moment Scott still
managed to run and put in an outstanding performance. A very talented runner who can only get
better and I’m sure in few years will be challenging right at the top. He managed (9 th – 29.16) and 1 st
in his age category which was a great result.

We then had a very good grouping, out of 19 places wehad 8 Croft men fill these spots which definitely showed in the final team results bumping even our B team into 4th position overall. Another youngster running was Jasper Robinson who definitely
claimed the bragging rights over his Dad, came in 67th – 35.16 and 1st Junior Male. Mark Paviour also
took the athlete over the coaching role on Wednesday night and ran a good race (84 th – 36.48).
Another debutant was John Jaspers who has recently joined and for his first race in tough conditions
ran sub 40 minutes (129 th – 39.57) and had a smile on his face after the race which is great to see.
It really was great to see so many sky blue vests running and is a great start to the Summer League
with us sitting in 1 st and also our B team in 4th .

The next race will take place at High Vinnals on the 26 th June. Lets keep it going team Croft!

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