Sevenoaks AC fielded a depleted team for the latest round of the Kent Fitness League 5.4 mile cross country race at Meopham on Sunday. It would seem that most of the club had shopping to do for another occasion!

The weather conditions were just right. The undulating ground was frozen, even ice in places, but the sun shone and the sky was so blue. The cattle pond was deeper than usual, but at least the ice was broken up to allow the competitors to really enjoy the cold water!

289 runners from all over Kent took part, with Sevenoaks AC taking first place thanks to a valiant lone effort by Allan Lee to cross the line nearly I minute ahead of Mark Penny of Cambridge Harriers in a fantastic time of 33 mins 39 secs. Allan has been away from running for a good year due to severe injury, but now he is in recovery mode and this result bodes well for future prizes for Allan.

Unfortunately, with the poor team turn out we could not field the usual back up to Allan. However, John Denyer showed all just how good he is, as he approaches 60. He crossed the line in 55th place with a time of 40.14 just 9 places ahead of young Mark Haworth, 17, who came home in a creditable  time of 40.49. Our lone, reliable lady runner , Sally Shewell, raced her heart out for 168th place in 46.11. Andrew Johnson made a welcome return to Sevenoaks from the cold damp North to finish well up at 119th in 43.54.

The combined Sevenoaks team came 12th out of 17 teams, the men were 10th and the ladies 14th.

Other notable Sevenoaks individual results were: Erik Folkesson  42.47   95th,  Geoff Kitchener  43.17  105th,  Simon Hallpike 44.41 134th. Full results HERE. Watersplash movie HERE.