Witton Park, Blackburn – 28th January 2023

Saskia Huxham

The unmistakable scent of drizzle, freshly churned mud, woodchips, bananas and Tiger Balm meant only one thing. It was time… for the cross country battle of the Northern counties. Upon first arrival, Blackburn’s first field seems quite tame. You only realise how very wrong you were after jogging the course. Through the trees an unforgivable, almost fell-race-worthy, hill was waiting. With quagmires galore, this course was a test of strength and determination (and whether your spikes would actually stay on). Duct tape anyone?

U20 women:

After recently running well indoors for middle distance, winning silver in the Northern indoor champs for 1500m, Shen-Wigfield Turner had a great run over the mud to finish 13^th (24:07) in the Junior Women’s 5.9km race. Hannah Metherall also had another successful cross country outing after earning a Yorkshire vest earlier in January, finishing in 27^th (25:27).

Senior women:

It was a fantastic outing for the red vests (and shorts!) in the Senior Women’s 7.4km race. Phillipa ‘Philli’ Williams charged to the front right from the gun and demonstrated her fine international mountain running form throughout the course, storming through the tape for the gold medal in 27:11 by a margin of 41s. Unsatisfied with just being Northern champion, Philli also won the Tigger Tor fell race on the same weekend coming 7^th overall! Not far behind was Lauren McNeil, who raced for England in the World Athletics XC Tour CrossCup just the previous weekend, coming a fantastic 4^th place (27:59) after running most of the race just behind Philli and battling down the home straight with Phillippa Stone and Scout Adkin.

Hatti Archer showed great strength to come through in 11^th place (29:02), another a world-class athlete in steeplechase, cross country and mountain running. Continuing her successful cross country season after a recent 13^th place in the Yorkshire Championships, Charlotte Slack was in fine form as Hallamshire’s fourth team counter in 29^th (30:55).

Nicola Squires ran a great race to come in 39^th (31:25), closely followed by Cat Allen in 43^rd (31:37) who has recently made strides with some speedy road 10ks. There was a charge for the line between Saskia Huxham (55^th, 32:29) and Laura Robertson (56^th, 32:30), with Laura running very strongly on the hills throughout. Jenny Evans ran well to finish 64^th (33:05), followed by fell-runner Ellie Crownshaw in 137^th (37:38) and Kirsty Bryan-Jones in 185^th (40:42).

The quartet of Philli, Lauren, Hatti and Charlotte earned a well-deserved silver medal in the team standings with 45 points, following Leeds City (35) and thrashing Vale Royal AC (89)!

Senior men:

A sea of red vests flooded the start line for the Senior Men’s race, with 16 Hallamshires readying themselves for the 11.5km mudfest. Cameron Bell pulled off one of his strongest cross country races yet to earn his ‘first bit of XC bling with the grown ups’ – a shiny bronze medal in a very speedy 36:59. Cameron ran particularly strongly over the final 1km to secure his bronze medal position, with his track running prowess and hill strength shining through. Second runner in was Elisha De Mello in 15^th (38:03), showing excellent strength throughout and again demonstrating his versatility as both a track and long-distance athlete.

After earning both Yorkshire and North of England vests in recent races, running well at the Scottish Inter District Championships, Jed Bartlett continued this great start to the year to come in 35^th (39:05). Suddenly, a flurry of red appeared as Bertie Houghton (38^th, 39:10), Jamie Hall (39^th, 39:14) and Ben Sharrock (40^th, 39:15) sprinted towards the line in quick succession, all working well together throughout the race.

Closely following Ben Sharrock was John Birch in 43^rd (39:23), who ran well over this relatively shorter distance compared to his recent 5^th place at the Brass Monkey Half Marathon in York. Tom Saville came in 45^th (39:35) in his debut championship race as a Hallamshire, followed by Tommy Power in 55^th (40:04) who recently placed 10^th in the Yorkshire Championships. Jonathan Crickmore and recent Northern indoor 1500m bronze medallist Euan Brown came through strongly in 60^th (40:11) and 61^st (40:13). New members Laurence Griffin and Jack Wergan showed strength on the hills to place 74^th (40:49) and 98^th (41:33). Wyatt Hill continued his good form to come in 131^st (42:39), followed by Pete Hodges, who arrived just in time for the race after a very long journey dodging football fans, in 177^th (44:00)! Hallamshire Chairman Craig Fishwick brought the team home in 310^th (48:50).

With six to score, the team of Cameron, Elisha, Jed, Bertie, Jamie and Ben earned a fantastic bronze medal. Hallamshire now has successive 2022 and 2023 bronze team medals, once again showing Hallamshire’s dominance in the North. Well done lads!

Juniors:

It was great to see some of our junior Hallamshire athletes out on the course too. Hopefully they will be moving up to the Senior Endurance Group in the future! A highlight of the day was seeing the U13 team of Thomas Thake (1^st, 10:53), Max Taylor (20^th, 12:30), Finlay Mackenzie (24^th, 12:35) and William Martin (73^rd, 13:53) become Northern champions over 3.2km. Tom Thake has had a golden start to the New Year as Yorkshire and now Northern 2023 cross country champion! Matilda Withycombe represented the U13 Hallamshire girls, running well to finish 76^th in 14:52. For the U15 girls, Izzy-Mai Wilson had a great run to finish 13^th (17:52), backed up by Katie Leese (59^th, 19:32) and Iolanthe Cooper (87^th, 20:51) over 4.3km. Jonah Cooper ran well for the U17 Hallamshire men over 5.9km with a placing of 28^th in 21:44.

It was wonderful to see so many Hallamshires running well. See you all at Nationals!

Saskia.