Hampshire Cross Country (HXC) vs Fixture 4 - Prospect Park

Apologies for the delay in the publication of this report. Not entirely my fault, but actually due to… “an issue at Reading that needed some careful investigating in the Senior ladies’ race… The possible consequences of the outcome of this enquiry could have meant changes to the Combined Individual and Veteran results for Reading and for the aggregate results for both those age categories.” What could it have been? The imagination runs riot!

Anyway… The same three Hedgies who made the drive across to Bournemouth for the third match of the series in November, Edward Pottrill, Rob Dempster and Mel Ford, made the journey to Reading recently for the fourth and final match of the season.  

Conditions were tricky and variable. A frost overnight had left those areas sheltered from the winter sun hard and uneven, whereas a few yards away there were patches of soft mud where the ground had thawed. Prospect Park has a number of hills which, in such conditions, were challenging. All survived and in fact thrived returning excellent results.

Running c.6km Mel completed the course in 33.53 mins (amazingly the same time as at Bournemouth!) and finished 75^th and again 3^rd V60. (The leading V60 ran a quite astonishing 26.22 and was just the third Veteran lady.) Across the season, Mel was placed 62^nd overall and a very creditable third V60.

Shortly afterwards then men started their race – about 10km. Having won the overall title last time and with a race to run at Stubbington the next day, Abdinasir Mohamoud Elmi from Bournemouth AC left the field open to others. Edward finished 71^st (his best place of the series) in a time of 36.46 and Rob 90^th in 38.53.

In completing at least three races this season both Edward and Rob also achieved overall positions. By virtue of the fact that Rob was able to drop his worst result (120^th at Aldershot) he had an aggregate score of 281 and was placed 56^th out of 136 overall. Amond the 76 Veteran men to secure overall places, Rob was placed a 12^th and 4^th in his V50 category. This is a phenomenal achievement. Edward, without the luxury of being able to drop a result had an aggregate score of 285 and was placed 58^th, narrowly behind Rob. Edward’s improvement since his debut at Popham in October has been remarkable, and both have been a massive credit to the club across the season. 

As we did not field three runners in either race, sadly we did not achieve overall team places. We had fielded full men’s teams on two of four occasions to date, and one more runner at either Bournemouth or Reading would have probably secured the men 5^th place ahead of Eastleigh in Division 3.

I commend all those who have taken part in these events this season. We have had greater participation this year than in the last few, a trend I hope to see continue in the future.