NORTH WALES CROSS COUNTRY LEAGUE.
Telford Athletic Club's Claire Martin was an impressive winner of the fourth and final Grand Prix Express North Wales Cross Country League at Oswestry. Claire who had won 2 of the previous 3 races at Colwyn Bay and Bridgnorth, with one fixture at Wrexham in January cancelled due to snow. Claire won the Oswestry race in 19.18, some 47 seconds clear of Tattenhall's Marilyn Kitching. Oswestry's Alison Lavender winner of the Bangor race in November was 3rd in 20.58, whilst Shrewsbury's Anna Bartlett made a welcome return to action finishing 5th in 21.31. Host club Oswestry Olympians fielded a strong team boosted by promising Under 17 athletes Ella Walker 16th and Chloe Barton 31st making their North Wales League debuts. Oswestry finished second in Division One on the day and second overall with 53 points behind division one winners and league champions Eryri who had 49 points. Telford with just 41 points won the second division and gained promotion to next years 1st Division with Tattenhall Runners swapping places. Shrewsbury AC were second in Div 2 on the day and 8th overall with Whitchurch Whippetts 12th on the day and 9th overall. Eryri won the masters team race on the day with 20 pts with Telford second, but Telford took the league title with 76 points overall with Colwyn Bay second with 103 pts, Eryri third with 117 pts and Oswestry 4th with 189 pts.
Claire from Aqueduct in Telford won the overall senior womens league title as well as the over 35 masters title, Alison Lavender was second overall with Tattenhall's Marilyn Kitching third overall. Telford AC's Nellie Sanders finished second overall in the over 40 women category, with Cheralyn Evans second overall in the over 45's. Wrexham's Alison Whitelaw from Gobowen was second overall in the over 50's whilst Whitchurch Whippets Helen Robbins won the over 55's the first Whippet to win a league medal.
Other leading local womens finishers
14th C. Jones. Osw Oly.
19th J. Hoad. Telford AC
20th Y. Hill. Osw Oly.
21st C. Evans. Telford AC
22nd A. Tickner. Osw Oly.
27th C. Burgoyne. Shrews AC.
37th S. Hancock. Osw Oly
55th E. Sheekey. Shrews AC
62nd S. Richards. Shrews AC
66th H. Robbins. Whitchurch Whippets.
Paul Ward led the Telford AC's mens team to win the team race on the day with 81 pts and take the overall league title. Ward finished 3rd in 33.33 behind winner Richard Roberts from Eryri who won in 32.49 whilst Menai's Walter Dilling was second. Shrewsbury's Ian Coupland was 4th just under a minute behind Ward, which gave him 3rd overall in the league, with Oswestry's Peter Butler having one of his best races of the winter, 5th in 34.47 whilst Shrewsbury's Peter Middleton ran well for 7th in 35.17. Rob Hughes was Telford's second scorer in 10th just one second ahead of team mate Greg Wilson in 11th, first over 50 and league over 50 champion and 4th overall in the league. Shrewsbury's Steve France in 12th completed Shropshire's 7 runners in the top 12.
Telford won the 1st Division overall with 605 pts, with reigning champions Shrewsbury second overall with 726 pts whilst Wrexham took third with 1058 pts and Maldwyn Harriers 6th with 1421 pts out of 8 teams. Menai won the second division with 953 pts and replace Abergele in next years first division. Oswestry finished 4th overall in the second division with 1805 pts, Whitchurch Whippets were 9th, 2511 pts and Bridgnorth AC were 13th with 3513 pts out of 15 teams.
Local men who won age group awards were John Sanders, TAC 3rd over 45, Greg Wilson, TAC 1st over 50, Graham Jones, SAC, 2nd over 50, Ed Davies, Maldwyn, 3rd over 50. Malcolm Dawes, TAC, equal 1st over 60.
Telford AC had just 9 points in the mens masters team event with Paul Ward 1st, Greg Wilson 3rd and Peter Plant 5th to win the team race on the day and win the overall league title with 114 pts with Shrewsbury AC second with 161 pts, Maldwyn were 3rd overall with 206 pts with 11 teams finishing masters teams overall.
Other leading local finishers in the top 40 were
14th J. Anderson. TAC
17th P. Plant. TAC
22nd K. Francis. SAC
25th G. Jones. SAC
26th G. Vickers. TAC
28th S. Vines. TAC
29th R. Jones. Maldwyn
31st P. Clarke. SAC
33rd H. Jones. Maldwyn
34th J. Davies. TAC
35th S. Waters. SAC
37th S. Roberts, Osw Oly
Paul Sanderson
