West District Cross Country Championships

Irvine

Picture the scene. The Senior Women are lining up ready for the start of the West Districts at Irvine on Saturday. Suddenly out of the horizon, two figures start to move towards the start. Actually, dawdle towards the start would be more appropriate. Yes, you've guessed it; Pat and Helen are completing their warm-up, too busy gossiping to realise that the race is just about to commence. When they realised what was happening, the two of them hurriedly started to remove their waterproofs, ably helped by Captain Charlie, who quipped that he was the best guy for the job as he had plenty of experience in removing women's kit. Modesty restrained me from telling of my experiences, although I have to admit that I am usually wearing the women's clothing at the time!

The adrenaline surge did no harm to Pat who again put in a gritty performance, keeping ahead of the much younger Liz. In fact, it was a day of old heads gubbing younger ones, both in the Men's and Women's events. First Westies home in the Women's 6K was Christine, coming back from her expensive dropout a fortnight ago. She once again outpaced the younger Jane, edging slowly away from her throughout the race and winning by a 3-second margin. Behind came Pat and Liz, followed by Helen, who clearly hadn't had as good a time with Charlie beforehand.

The weather was pretty dire all afternoon with blustery gales and heavy showers. Elsie turned up just too late to compete, complaining about some injury or other, but we all know the real reason why she didn't run. Fear of wind! Which makes it all the more surprising that she's attached to that old windbag Pete.

Meanwhile 10 Westies men braved the weather for the Men's 10K. First home was Gibson, clearly getting back to form and again showing that age counts for nothing in our club. He finished almost 2 minutes ahead of Don, who is slowly closing up on Drew in the Westies League. Not far behind was another oldie, Archie, with an excellent run, overhauling youngsters Charlie and Blair in the process. Pete the windbag clearly relished the conditions, using his strength to put in his best cross-country performance for some time. Al Wilson finished behind Pete with a smile on his face; what could this man do if he really tried. Behind Al there was an excellent tussle between Ian Struthers and Drew, with the former getting the upper hand in the latter half of the race. Bringing up the rear was Ian Murray, who's sprint finishes are starting to become legendary. If only he could keep them up for another 9800 metres!

In the women's league, Muffy's absence means that Pat has closed the gap a bit. Christine and Jane have overhauled Elsie into 3rd and 4th places respectively. Don has significantly closed the gap on Drew in the men's league. It's a 2-horse race in both leagues, with only the Nationals and the Balloch-Clydebank remaining.

Results (Unofficial, not yet on any website)

Men

Chris Robison 33:55 (winner)

Gibson 41:39

Don 43:20

Archie 44:09

Charlie 44:39

Blair 46:05

Pete 47:46

Al 48:43

Ian S 51:03

Drew 51:32

Ian M 56:06

Wummin

S Partridge 22:22 (winner)

Christine 26:27

Jane 26:30

Pat 29:24

Liz 29:37

Helen 30:32

Posted by Dave Calder on Wed 30 Nov -0001 | comments are closed

Category cross country