KFL 2015/16 Match 4 - Oxleas Woods

SAC team at Oxleas

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:

Ov Pos	Lg Pos	Runner	Age	Time	Club	Rating
1	1	James Mason	32	31:23	Sevenoaks AC	100.00
36	35	Chris Desmond	52	35:28	Sevenoaks AC	88.51
42	40	Andy Ashlee	46	35:49	Sevenoaks AC	86.82
45	43	Andrew Mead	47	36:02	Sevenoaks AC	85.81
53	51	Joe Parsons	25	36:48	Sevenoaks AC	83.11
58	56	Daniel Witt	40	37:01	Sevenoaks AC	81.42
64	61	James Wright	47	37:15	Sevenoaks AC	79.73
72	67	John O'Callaghan	31	37:26	Sevenoaks AC	77.70
92	82	James Graham	62	38:31	Sevenoaks AC	72.64
113	102	Shaun Mullen	39	39:22	Sevenoaks AC	65.88
115	103	John Stevens	54	39:26	Sevenoaks AC	65.54
119	107	Tex Ryan	25	39:37	Sevenoaks AC	64.19
121	10	Cath Linney	46	39:45	Sevenoaks AC	93.08
133	119	Allan McPherson	29	40:35	Sevenoaks AC	60.14
184	159	Tony Waldron	48	42:44	Sevenoaks AC	46.62
188	162	John Denyer	67	42:57	Sevenoaks AC	45.61
189	163	Andy Evans	45	42:59	Sevenoaks AC	45.27
215	30	Pauline Dalton	51	43:51	Sevenoaks AC	77.69
233	196	Geoff Vine	68	44:54	Sevenoaks AC	34.12
234	35	Sarah Shewell	56	45:07	Sevenoaks AC	73.85
239	201	Simon Hallpike	62	45:23	Sevenoaks AC	32.43
306	245	Maurice Marchant	67	48:32	Sevenoaks AC	17.57
314	249	Lyndon Collins	65	48:49	Sevenoaks AC	16.22
351	80	Happy Fisher	39	52:02	Sevenoaks AC	39.23
359	271	James Fitzmaurice	73	52:44	Sevenoaks AC	8.78
370	91	Becca Smithers	55	53:30	Sevenoaks AC	30.77
383	100	Jenny Austin	38	55:05	Sevenoaks AC	23.85

The full results are here.

Runners assemble at Oxleas