Just two other teams fielded more athletes than Buxton AC at last weekend’s Derbyshire County Cross Country Championships, held at the beautiful Wollaton Park in Nottingham. And from a huge number of 46 Buxton runners, 14 were Senior Females, 12 Senior Males and 20 Junior Male & Females. Predictably, the Club returned to the High Peak with much well-earned bling in the form of Gold for the Senior Ladies in first team position, Silver for the Senior Men, Bronze for the Veteran Ladies, and a fine personal Silver for Kate Ledin as second Over 55 female finisher. Junior “bling” reported elsewhere and equally impressive.
Not only did Amy Clark take the fourth overall placing in the Senior Ladies’ race, but she was successful in qualifying for a place at the Inter-Counties Cross Country Championships to be held in March at Loughborough.
Clark’s 4th finishing place was followed by Amy Mellor, Tania Wilson, Katie Rolfe, Kate Ledin, Jo Cudahy, Ruth Gowers, Kate Butler, Emma Wentworth, Bev Golden, Elizabeth Nocton, Heather Fryer-Winder, Rachel Dowle and Sarah Soles. 72 ran.
There was an exciting tussle for first Buxton Senior Male home between Ben Light and Rob White, with much to-ing and fro-ing throughout the 10K race. White finally managed to head Light off to take first Buxton place home. Following the two class runners were Richard Bouglas, Dan Latham, David Fryer-Winder, Chris Rushworth, David Soles, Andy Lidstone, Stefan Ledin, Richard Goff, Pete Bailey and Tim Rolfe. 110 ran.
The cross country season continues with the Manchester League’s Heaton Park fixture next Saturday, when Buxton will send out their finest yet again.
Also taking place on Saturday next is the first of 2019’s Pavilion Gardens 5K events. This popular race attracts many local runners, both Club and unattached runners, and welcomes people of all abilities, with the option to run one, two or the full three laps. Starting at 9am at the Burlington Road end of Broad Walk, this is a free and friendly local event. Children under 10 should be accompanied by an adult. For more details, please see buxtonac.org.uk.
A parkrun round-up includes some impressive placings at Bakewell, with Jon Sewell taking 2nd Vet 45 place and 8th overall from a huge field of 221, in a time of 19.10, with Terry Fowler claiming 1st Vet 50 position (13th) in 19.52. Ross Martland was 22nd in 21.21 and Jane Poulter finished in 29.08 in 136th position. Matt Hawtin was 18th at Marple in 20.48, while Tracy Gregory finished in 27.00 dead, a personal best for the course. Paul Light was sole Buxton representative at Macclesfield in 23.19, while Gill Thompson ran for the Club at Glossop in 28.49.