A Great Day at the Essex Schools Champs

What a day for Chelmsford athletes at the Essex Schools cross country championships.

Not all were representing our local district Mid Essex and indeed five individual medals came from other areas including two winners. In the senior boys Sam Plummer in the colours of North East claimed the major honours whilst next home was Joe Grange bearing the colours of Havering. Now the Mid Essex were also to come through tightly packed for

Greg Martin placed 6th, Finn Rafferty 9th, Archie Durham 10th, Will Sweeney 12th, George Day 13th, Louie King 17th and Ryan Carroll 20th convincingly wrapped up the team title.

The senior girls also saw two of our members representing North East with Kiera Atkinson taking the title with sister Kayleigh in the bronze medal placing. Lucy Nuttall with her 5th place led Mid Essex with Sophie McCall 9th, Larna Morgan 10th, Isabella Calabritio 16th,

Alexa Mann 18th and Elsie King 19th. Although North East led the stakes with five home

Mid Essex  sixth runner clinched the issue.

The intermediate boys provided our only `home` winner as Jacob Hurrell took the title by leading the way from two Southend boys and whose team were comfortable winners.

Mid Essex found Max Stephenson 6th, Josh Eida 19th, Ben Smith 28th, Austin Kelly 29th, Warren Diss 31st, Dyla Robbins 32nd and Sam Crane 33rd. Tying on points with West Essex but taking second place by virtue having their sixth scorer home first.

No such issue with the intermediate girls as Mid Essex placed six in the first ten, Evie Warn of the Brentwood club led them home with her second place, followed by Daisy Stollery 3rd, Lottie Wilkin 4th, Isla Widdowson 5th, Harriet Matthews 8th and Sienna Shipton 10th whilst in contention for scoring places were Bethan Davies 11th and Jemimah Knightbridge 15th.

It was another huge success for Mid Essex in the junior girls with all nine runners in the first thirteen home. Brentwood's Summer Smith lifted the title for Havering with our Ezra Harrold placing second for Castle Point. Ava King 3rd then led Mid Essex with Erin Kelly 4th, Heidi Woodley 5th, Frankie Phillips 7th, Amelie Shipton 8th, Emmie Lole 9th, Missy Tiller 10th, Hetty Harrison 11th and Isobel Eida 13th.

It was also first team for the junior boys and a third placed individual medal for Jacob Parrott. Backing up came Fred Ferman 4th, Joel Delaney 7th, Zac Thomas 18th, Will Hughes 19th and Zac Johnson 20th..                  

YES -  WHAT A DAY FOR OUR YOUNG LOCAL ATHLETES.

It will be a big day for some 20 of the above boys and girls with selection for Essex to contest the English Schools at the Pontefract Race Course, Yorkshire on 16th March.

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Report written and compiled by R0y Meadowcroft

Southern Success for our Juniors

Two South of England titles at the Lee Valley Centre where the under 13, 15 and 17 championships took place.

On the track Sam Steadman after winning his heat of the 300m in 39.30s finished a full two seconds in front of his opponents in 38.05s for the under 15 title. At under 17 level Amelie Scott again showed her ability in the triple jump going out to 11.10m and claiming the gold medal. Amelie also contested the 60m hurdles going through heats (8.96s), semi (9.06s) to eventually place 4th in the final in 9.14s. Also reaching this final with times of 8.99s, 9.07s and 9.16s Sophie Catchpole finished in 5th place whilst just missing out of a medal in the 400m with 62.02s being fourth. Not missing out however was Matilda Hewitt as she came up with 12.79m in the shot putt for second place.  At under 15 level Amy Pugsley and Chelsea Clarke could not be separated in the high jump at 1.55m - both thereby coming away with silver medals having placed 4th (5.08m) and 6th (4.89m) in the long jump. Back to the under 17`s and it was a busy meeting for Ed Hughes being second in the hurdles (8.44s), and fifth in both high jump (1.75) and long jump (5.99). On the track Harry Wright came up with third in the 800m in 2m 06.65s with Thomas Carter not far adrift in 2m 08.10s                                                                                                        Having moved up an age level Sam Wright tackled the under 20 multi events at the English Championships in Sheffield placing sixth in the heptathlon with a pb of 4717 points. Best placed event was the hurdles won in 8.30s with other events 60m 7.20s, 1000m 3m 04.97s, high jump 1.93m, pole vault 2.90m, long jump  6.72m and shot putt 11.21m

Report written by Roy Meadowcroft

12 Individual & 8 Team Medals at the Essex XC Champs

What a day for Chelmsford at the Essex Cross Country Championships in Gloucester Park, Basildon.

Of the ten events on the programme no fewer than seven team titles came their way - whilst two of the remaining races saw our colours take individual gold.

Most outstanding has to be from the under 13 girls. The event was won not surprisingly by Brentwood Beagles Summer Smith who already has a 100% record in the Essex League series but then our youngsters took over as Ava King, Heidi Woodley, Erin Kelly and Francesca Phillips occupied places two to five thus wrapping up the team title with 14 points. Not finished then however for Lily Sanford and Beatrix Cook had followed in for six and seven whilst Emma Pickering and Orla Martin with 9th and 10th ensured that we also claimed the silver medals with 32 points. Handily placed as a reserve was Isla Kehoe 12th place.

Staying with the girls but moving up to the under 15 year age group it was a similar story with Brentwood to the fore with Olivia Forrest - another with a perfect record. Daisy Stollery and Ezrah Harrold claimed the silver and bronze medals and with support from Amelie Shipton 6th and Harriet Matthews 9th our total of 20 points gave a comfortable victory.

For the under 17 and 20 women Colchester took the individual honours but Kayleigh Atkinson and sister Kiera came through for the silver medals. In the younger group Sienna Shipton placed 6th, Lucy Nuttall 8th and Emma Cox 10th for 26 points and shading out Woodfords 32. The under 20`s team had Sophie McCullum taking the bronze medal and with Larna Morgan and Sophie McCall 5 and 6 our score of 16 was unbeaten.

There was sound packing from the under 15 boys with Jacob Parrott 6th, Austin Kelly 8th,Ben Smith 11th and Thomas Carter 13th and with 38 points we again edged out Woodford`s 42

On to the under 17 year men and here there was Sam Plummer lifting the title and followed home by Joseph Grange for the silver medal. Not long to wrap up the team title as Gregory Martin placed 5th with Archie Durham 9th to give a score of just 17 points, with Southend second on 34. William Sweeney came through in 14th which would have been a good back up for those scoring.

Moving onto the under 20`s and the old chant of two four six eight who do we appreciate would be appropriate for these were the placings of Joseph Perry, Finlay Rattray, Samuel Waite and Thomas Woodward thus giving a score of 20 points whilst in reserve came Jacob Alexander`s 12th position

Back down to the under 13 boys and Fred Ferman was at his best to take his first Essex  title. With Oscar Stollery 24th, Thomas Burgoyne 27th and Khaya Fakazi 35th our 85 points put us in fifth place.

It was the final event of the day which saw our colours to the fore with Callum Charleston a comfortable lead of 50 seconds from Euan Wilson of Charnwood. Fine showing by  Zach Bridgeland also to take 8th place from the field of 225 starters. Now we relied on veterans with Peter Waite 66th, Ethan Reilly 70th, Will Parrott 71st and

Thomas Murphy 76th our score of 292 points placed us 7th from the 22 teams closing in. As on over 60 year Peter Tullett was amongst the oldest on this testing course and placed 163rd.

So one event not covered in this report - the senior women - for here Chelmsford could not muster a single competitor but we have nine races with something to cheer about and after 73 years in the sport I can not remember any club equalling that. 

Report written by Roy Meadowcroft