Our veterans came home with a clutch of medals after the 18th Middlesex Masters Cross Country Championship on Saturday. On an undulating but relatively firm course at Cassiobury Park, W55 Fiona Kennedy won the women’s race outright. With Louise Prince and Alison Turrell, the club’s women secured team medals in the 45+ category. The M60 trio of Martin Wilson, Rob Howells and Martin Allen also took team honours in their age group.
This championship was first run in Ruislip in 1999, through an exceptionally muddy Mad Bess Wood, and some of today’s club members took part. Fiona Kennedy won the race, albeit in the W35 category, while Jean King won the W55 medal. Gill Morgan was second and Catriona Mitchell was fourth, so the club took the women’s team award by some margin. Lynn Wilson was fifth, behind Catriona, and just missed out on a team medal. For the M40 men, Rob Howells was also there at the inaugural race, placing ninth overall, with Dave Foley half a minute behind in tenth. Back then, Dave was running for the now-defunct London Irish club. In a highly competitive M60 race, we also came out well. Tony Randall was persuaded to fetch out his long-lost spikes from the back of the cupboard and was rewarded with a silver medal, while Cyril Wroth was third.
ESM Results summary
Women (4.4M): 1 Fiona Kennedy 30:15; 10 Louise Prince 35:57; 11 Stacey McManus 36:39; 16 Alison Turrell 39:13
M40/50 men (5.9M): 9 Mark Kencroft 38:15; 44 Dave Foley 42:42; 47 Simon Turrell 51:15
M60 men (4.4M): 6 Rob Howells 35:41; 7 Martin Wilson 35:50; 10 Martin Allen 37:34
Full results here