KFL 2015/16 Match 5 - Nurstead Court

SAC team

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 James Mason skips through the water 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. John Denyer leads into the water

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:

Ov Pos	Lg Pos	Runner	Age	Time	Club	Rating
2	2	James Mason	32	29:39	Sevenoaks AC	99.67
13	13	Darrell Smith	48	31:20	Sevenoaks AC	96.09
39	39	Andy Ashlee	46	33:34	Sevenoaks AC	87.62
41	41	Edmund Saunders	33	33:41	Sevenoaks AC	86.97
42	42	Andrew Mead	47	33:47	Sevenoaks AC	86.64
47	46	Joe Parsons	25	34:03	Sevenoaks AC	85.34
50	49	Andrew Milne	33	34:07	Sevenoaks AC	84.36
70	65	Daniel Witt	40	34:50	Sevenoaks AC	79.15
87	82	James Graham	62	35:54	Sevenoaks AC	73.62
108	100	John Stevens	54	37:10	Sevenoaks AC	67.75
111	102	Tex Ryan	25	37:16	Sevenoaks AC	67.10
114	10	Cath Linney	46	37:22	Sevenoaks AC	93.28
130	117	Tony Waldron	48	38:01	Sevenoaks AC	62.21
133	118	Ted Scott	56	38:06	Sevenoaks AC	61.89
140	125	James Baker	51	38:14	Sevenoaks AC	59.61
169	20	Annabelle Milne	36	39:10	Sevenoaks AC	85.82
182	158	Allan McPherson	29	39:40	Sevenoaks AC	48.86
201	171	Alan Lewis	49	40:54	Sevenoaks AC	44.63
203	173	Andy Evans	45	40:56	Sevenoaks AC	43.97
207	177	John Denyer	67	41:01	Sevenoaks AC	42.67
209	179	Tony Horlock	55	41:03	Sevenoaks AC	42.02
210	180	Duncan Cochrane	58	41:04	Sevenoaks AC	41.69
215	30	Sally Mortleman	50	41:18	Sevenoaks AC	78.36
225	193	Simon Hallpike	62	41:38	Sevenoaks AC	37.46
233	200	Robert Evans	41	42:10	Sevenoaks AC	35.18
237	34	Katie Wills	27	42:27	Sevenoaks AC	75.37
299	241	Lyndon Collins	65	45:21	Sevenoaks AC	21.82
303	59	Sophie Lamb	24	45:31	Sevenoaks AC	56.72
309	246	Maurice Marchant	67	45:50	Sevenoaks AC	20.20
347	267	Lionel Stielow	67	48:25	Sevenoaks AC	13.36
359	84	Happy Fisher	39	49:25	Sevenoaks AC	38.06
367	89	Sam Znetyniak	40	50:00	Sevenoaks AC	34.33
369	90	Becca Smithers	55	50:09	Sevenoaks AC	33.58
382	283	James Fitzmaurice	73	51:03	Sevenoaks AC	8.14
389	103	Jenny Austin	38	51:50	Sevenoaks AC	23.88
404	294	Peter Nuttall	43	53:39	Sevenoaks AC	4.56

John Stevens and followers

The full results are here.