Ten SAC runners took part in the first KXCL match of the season held at Stanhill Farm, Wilmington, including two Juniors, writes James Graham. It was not like a normal cross country meeting as it was a lovely warm, sunny day with the main problem on the course not being mud but rather clouds of dust.
In the Senior Women’s race Jacqui O’Reilly finished in a very creditable 11th place and in the Senior Men’s Darius Sarshar lead the six SAC runners home. The other runners to score for the men’s team were Dan Witt, Andrew Mead and James Graham, with the team currently in 17th place. Chris Desmond and Lyndon Collins also ran in the senior men's race.
Earlier in the day Julia Sackville-West and Ollie Brownridge did extremely well in their first U13 races for the club, finishing 33rd and 15th respectively.
Match 2 takes place on 28th October at Somerhill School, Tonbridge and if anyone would like to take part,
Dan Witt adds: I see the results are up on the Kent League website - I think it's fair to say we struggled to be competitive as maybe we'd have liked in such a large field, one of the biggest I've run in for the Kent League, presumably because of the balmy autumnal weather making it feel like an English Summer's day!
In brief, we fielded a full team in the Senior men's race in which our team of 4 was 17th out of 21 teams. Jacqui fared much better in the Senior Women's race in which she was 11th out of 162 - a very impressive debut. Also, we fielded some juniors that have run very well, for example Ollie in the U13s boys was 15th out of 94. Plus James was second M60 and Richard Pitcairn-Knowles, the only M80, fifth in the M70s.
Let's hope the team fares better this Sunday at the KFL in Knole!