Sevenoaks AC's women's team won for the third time this season as 35 members tackled the new Kent Fitness League course at Shorne Woods. With a big hill and large patch of deep sticky mud on each of the two big laps, the woodland course offered a good technical challenge, but that was no problem for Victoria Croucher as she finished third in her first appearance in the league.
Victoria was supported by fellow scorers Cath Linney in twelfth, Suzy Claridge in seventeenth and Pauline Dalton in eighteenth, with the rest of the fourteen-strong team also running well to push back other teams' scorers.
James Mason was also third as he led the men's team to third place on the day. John Witton also impressed with ninth, as Guillaume Nineven in 27th, Andrew Milne 40th, Ed Saunders 44th, Mike Lochead 52nd, Andrew Mead 58th and Zachary Ramsden 95th also scored for the men.
The women's win keeps them in the lead in the series and helped the SAC combined team to second on the day. This allowed the combined team to retain second place in the series after four of the six races, with the men's team third on the day and fourth in the series.
The SAC results were as follows:
| Ov Pos | Lg Pos | Runner | Age | Time | Club | Rating | # Races |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 3 | James Mason | 36 | 32:46 | Sevenoaks AC | 99.38 | 12 |
| 9 | 9 | John Witton | 41 | 33:25 | Sevenoaks AC | 97.50 | 5 |
| 27 | 27 | Guillaume Nineven | 34 | 34:57 | Sevenoaks AC | 91.88 | 8 |
| 40 | 40 | Andrew Milne | 37 | 36:15 | Sevenoaks AC | 87.81 | 26 |
| 44 | 44 | Edmund Saunders | 37 | 36:19 | Sevenoaks AC | 86.56 | 11 |
| 52 | 51 | Mike Lochead | 34 | 36:52 | Sevenoaks AC | 84.38 | 10 |
| 55 | 53 | Andrew Hutchingson | 40 | 36:58 | Sevenoaks AC | 83.75 | 10 |
| 58 | 56 | Andrew Mead | 51 | 37:14 | Sevenoaks AC | 82.81 | 37 |
| 70 | 3 | Victoria Croucher | 26 | 38:17 | Sevenoaks AC | 98.88 | Debut |
| 88 | 84 | Richard Alford-Smith | 43 | 39:13 | Sevenoaks AC | 74.06 | 3 |
| 91 | 87 | Daniel Witt | 44 | 39:22 | Sevenoaks AC | 73.12 | 56 |
| 93 | 88 | Tim Young | 47 | 39:28 | Sevenoaks AC | 72.81 | 3 |
| 95 | 90 | Zack Ramsden | 53 | 39:36 | Sevenoaks AC | 72.19 | 4 |
| 118 | 111 | Jim Harness | 52 | 40:48 | Sevenoaks AC | 65.62 | 12 |
| 135 | 12 | Catherine Linney | 50 | 41:29 | Sevenoaks AC | 93.82 | 33 |
| 136 | 124 | Graham Dwyer | 47 | 41:30 | Sevenoaks AC | 61.56 | 11 |
| 145 | 130 | Jeremy Winter | 66 | 41:55 | Sevenoaks AC | 59.69 | 3 |
| 147 | 132 | Jatinder Soomal | 37 | 41:57 | Sevenoaks AC | 59.06 | 11 |
| 155 | 17 | Suzy Claridge | 47 | 42:20 | Sevenoaks AC | 91.01 | 4 |
| 165 | 18 | Pauline Dalton | 55 | 42:38 | Sevenoaks AC | 90.45 | 48 |
| 174 | 20 | Vanessa Gilmartin | 44 | 43:00 | Sevenoaks AC | 89.33 | Debut |
| 230 | 37 | Diana Bryant | 45 | 45:18 | Sevenoaks AC | 79.78 | 8 |
| 246 | 42 | Bridgit Weekes | 61 | 46:04 | Sevenoaks AC | 76.97 | 9 |
| 255 | 209 | Tony Horlock | 59 | 46:24 | Sevenoaks AC | 35.00 | 10 |
| 260 | 213 | Duncan Cochrane | 62 | 46:54 | Sevenoaks AC | 33.75 | 33 |
| 265 | 218 | Simon Hallpike | 66 | 47:09 | Sevenoaks AC | 32.19 | 53 |
| 277 | 51 | Sarah Shewell | 60 | 47:38 | Sevenoaks AC | 71.91 | 111 |
| 279 | 52 | Kim Henderson | 44 | 47:44 | Sevenoaks AC | 71.35 | 2 |
| 310 | 64 | Jane Morgan | 42 | 49:18 | Sevenoaks AC | 64.61 | 7 |
| 312 | 248 | Hugh Shewell | 30 | 49:25 | Sevenoaks AC | 22.81 | 24 |
| 349 | 84 | Lucy Wilkes | 45 | 51:48 | Sevenoaks AC | 53.37 | 3 |
| 352 | 86 | Sarah Fisher | 23 | 51:53 | Sevenoaks AC | 52.25 | 3 |
| 371 | 277 | Lionel Stielow | 71 | 53:07 | Sevenoaks AC | 13.75 | 17 |
| 467 | 158 | Bet Benn | 38 | 1:00:26 | Sevenoaks AC | 11.80 | 2 |
| 481 | 166 | Sylvia Lewis | 67 | 1:03:53 | Sevenoaks AC | 7.30 | 17 |
The full results are here.
The next event is at Minnis Bay, Birchington on Sunday 12th January at 11:00.
Marco Mion won the final handicap race of the 2019 series ahead of Darius Sarshar, but third-placed Andrew Mead had already secured the series trophy. Sylvia Lewis held on to her second position in the series, and with fourth place on the day, James Baker snatched third.
The 2020 series starts with a five-miler on 19 January. All the details are here.
Sevenoaks AC once again fielded a full senior men's team in the Kent XC League as James Graham (170th, 49:48) joined ever-presents Andrew Mead (98th (10th over-50), 43:42), Dan Witt (128th, 45:21) and Zachary Ramsden (145th, 47:11) to finish 16th on the day at the match on 14th December at Footscray. The men stand 14th after three matches.
No senior women ran at Footscray, but Suzy Claridge completed her third match this season (53rd (11th W45), 22:36) at Danson Park on 9th November.
The Kent League results are here.
The final match for men and women is at Norman Park, Bromley on 8th February. SAC seniors/veterans can contact
Sevenoaks AC had representatives in three of the male categories at the Kent County Athletics Vets Championships at Central Park, Dartford on 30 November. In the second event, over 5.4k, the over-60 and over-70+ categories were contested along with all the female categories. James Graham was 19th in the M60 race and 3rd M65 in 23:52, while Geoffrey Kitchener was 6th M70 in 26:48.
Also competing in the M70s, Richard Pitcairn-Knowles was 23rd but first M80/M85 in 40:51.
Earlier, in the first race, over 9.3k, Darius Sarshar was 23rd M50 in 34:01.
The full results are here.