The fifth race in the Kent Fitness League Cross Country series took place in Meopham on Sunday December 20th, with a field of over 400 runners, writes Jim Knight.

Another fine run from Sevenoaks AC athlete James Mason saw him home in 2nd place behind Thanet Road Runners' Noel Sutton. "I could beat him on the twisty sections through the woods," said Mason, "but he was very fast on the flat open section. He pulled away on the second lap and I couldn't catch him"

With 5 races of the 7 completed, Sutton has three wins and Mason two, so we are guaranteed and exciting finish to the series.

Sevenoaks AC managed to field a strong team of 36 runners to take on the muddy two lap 5 mile course cross-country course, which features the famous "water splash" – especially deep this year after the recent rain.

There were excellent scoring performances from Darrell Smith (13th), Andy Ashlee (39th), Edmund Saunders (41st), and Andrew Mead (42nd). The club's top two M50s, Chris Desmond and Steve Searby, lying 3rd and 4th in their category in the series, were both unavailable. However their replacements, James Graham, the leading M60 ran well to come 87th, and John Stevens came a creditable 108th.

Once again Cath Linney led the women's team home with a storming finish, overtaking two other women in the final stage to finish in 10th place (2nd W45, and another top 10 finish in the women's category). The club's other scorers were Annabelle Milne in 20th and Sally Mortleman (30th), who was unable to wear spikes due to a slight niggle and had to contend with very slippery conditions with less than ideal footwear, but ran brilliantly in the circumstances to keep the team's chances alive in the competition.

Both Dartford Harriers and Dartford Road Runners were out in force, but the strong performances by the Sevenoaks team keep the club in 3rd position in the series. On the day, the Sevenoaks AC men and women were both fifth with the combined team fourth. After five races the men are fourth, the women fifth and the combined team third.

The Kent Fitness League is a series of cross-country races between the 18 registered Athletics Clubs in Kent. Any number of club members can compete, but 10 are needed to score in the team competition – 7 men (of whom two must be V50 and one V40) and 3 women (of whom one must be V45 and one V35).
The next race will be in Minnis Bay on January 10th, starting at 11 am.

The full Sevenoaks AC results were:

The full results are here.

Despite some key runners having to drop out before the races, Sevenoaks AC fielded full teams in both the M60 and M40 categories at a very windy Kent County Masters Cross Country Championships at Sparrows Den, West Wickham on Saturday 5th December.

But the first race of the day was the M50 event over about 9k, in which Chris Desmond and John Stevens were contesting the individual places without their usual teammate Keith Dowson, with whom they've been in or close to the medals in recent years. Both men ran well in a very high quality race with Chris finishing 12th and John 32nd. Ben Reynolds of Tonbridge AC won the race by over a minute and half.

The M60 race was run together with all three women's categories and the M70+ group. The shorter course was described as 5,430 metres on the course map but in practice seemed shy of 3 miles at 4.75k. Again standards were very high, so that Kent Fitness XC League M60 leader James Graham was seventh despite running very well. Backed up by Geoff Vine in 26th and Simon Hallpike in 27th, the M60 Sevenoaks AC team came up just short of the medals in fourth. In a tight finish, Jeremy Carnell of Cambridge Harriers won the race by one second from John Harley of Tonbridge.

There were no team awards for the M70+ group in which SAC was represented by Ron Denney and M80 Richard Pitcairn-Knowles. Ron was our first finisher in that category in 5th place with RPK seventh.

The final race of the day featured the M40s over the same course as the M50s and was again a top class race. Like the M50 race, the winner, Christopher Greenwood of Kent AC, was over one and a half minutes clear. Andrew Mead was our leading runner in 25th with Dan Witt 35th, followed closely by Nick Humphrey-Taylor 40th with Tony Waldron 64th. A strong performance on the day for tenth team.

The full results are here.

Having won the first race in Knole Park and come second in the second race at Swanley, Sevenoaks AC athlete James Mason was again the winner in the fourth race of the Kent Fitness League series at Oxleas Woods, Eltham on Sunday 29 November.

On a 2 lap, 5.5 mile, muddy course, which is reckoned to be the toughest of the seven race series even without the high winds on the day, Mason led home a 27-strong Sevenoaks AC team in a field of over 400 runners from Kent running clubs.

At Swanley, Mason had allowed one of his rivals to get a few too many metres ahead before the final sprint, but there was no mistake this time as the 32-year-old Otford resident pulled clear to win by 150 metres.

Both the Sevenoaks men and women were missing some of their fastest runners on the day, but there were still some excellent scoring performances with two of the older members helping the team scores. James Graham, who is the leading M60 in the series, provided one of the the club's M50 scores, while Sally Shewell, who is second W55 in the standings, contributed the club's senior woman's score.

Once again, Cath Linney led the Sevenoaks women's team home and provided the W45 score, while W50 Pauline Dalton provided the W35 score to keep Sevenoaks AC in the top five women's teams after four races.

In the men's section, Chris Desmond was Sevenoaks' second scorer and provided the other M50 score, followed by Andy Ashlee, who was the club's M40 scorer, Andrew Mead, Joe Parsons and Dan Witt. Although slightly down on the day, the men's team are still battling it out for third place in the standings, and the combined men's and women's team is still in third place.

On the day, the men, women and combined teams were all 5th, leaving the men 4th, women 5th and combined team 3rd in the standings. In the categories, Cath was 1st W45 (1st in standings), Sally 3rd W55 (2nd), James Graham 2nd M60 (1st) and Chris Desmond 4th M50 (3rd).

The Kent Fitness League is a series of cross-country races between 18 registered Athletics Clubs in Kent. Any number of club members can compete, but 10 are needed to score in the team competition – 7 men (of whom two must be over 50 and one over 40) and 3 women (of whom one must be over 45 and one over 35). The next race in the series will be at Nurstead Court near Meopham on Sunday December 20th, starting at 11.00.

The Sevenoaks AC results were as follows:

 The full results are here.

A record team of 25 Sevenoaks AC runners made the long journey to Deal for the third race in this year's Kent Fitness League series, writes Jim Knight. The temperature was sub-zero as the team left Sevenoaks, but it warmed up though the morning and conditions for the race were ideal for running – cold, but clear and sunny.

The race took place on the site that was previously Betteshanger Colliery, Kent's biggest coalfield, which closed in 1989. The site was regenerated in 2000 as Fowlmead Country Park with several miles of mountain-bike and walking trails. In May 2015, Hadlow College acquired the park, renaming it Betteshanger Country Park. It is an ideal place for a cross-country race with excellent trails and great views over the undulating East Kent countryside.

Just under 400 runners from the 18 Kent clubs lined up for the start at 11.00. 29 minutes and 26 seconds later, Noel Sutton of Thanet Road Runners crossed the line for his second win of the series. The only runner to have beaten him in this year's series is Sevenoaks' James Mason who could not be present at this race.

The Sevenoaks men's team ran well, with 7 runners in the top 50. Fastest SAC athlete was 46 year-old Andrew Mead in 26th place, closely followed Joao Branquinho in 27th (just a few days after completing a 6 day desert marathon in Oman), and Edmund Saunders in 28th. 52-year old Chris Desmond was the club's top M50 in an impressive 30th place (3rd M50) with fellow M50 Stephen Searby in 52nd. The other scoring members of the Sevenoaks men's team were Andrew Milne in 40th and Andy Ashlee in 42nd. There were good runs also by Joe Parsons in 48th, Dan Witt in 57th, and 60 year old James Graham who was the fastest M60 in the field, in 69th position. Overall, a great performance by the men's team to come home in 4th position.

In the women's race, the fastest Sevenoaks runner, once again, was Cath Linney in an impressive 6th place (1st W45). The other SAC women were Annabelle Milne in 18th, Pauline Dalton in 21st and Sally Shewell in 27th (2nd W55). The women's team equalled their 4th place in the Swanley race, again coming in 4th in Deal. Another great performance.

With both the men's and women's teams doing so well, the combined team placed 3rd on the day. Deal is normally one of SAC's weakest races in the series as large numbers from Canterbury Harriers and Deal Tri Club attend, in addition to the big teams from Dartford, so 3rd position for the overall team is impressive. After three matches, the Sevenoaks AC men's and combined teams are third and the women's team fourth. The next race in the series will be in Oxleas Woods, Eltham on Sunday Nov 29th.

The full SAC results were:

The full results are here.