Facebook link  Strava link Twitter link  Instagram link

Start

Sevenoaks AC pipped at the post

Since last October eighteen teams from across the County have been contesting the Kent Fitness League  - a series of 7 gruelling cross Country races with 10 runners to score in each race.

After 6 races, Sevenoaks AC were in the lead  - just ahead of Dartford Harriers. Everything hinged on the 7th race, held last Sunday, March 16th.

Thirty-seven Sevenoaks AC runners travelled to Swanley for the race, which was held in glorious sunny conditions around the picturesque Swanley Park.

We knew that Dartford would field a strong team and that some of our top runners  - David Lee and David Ives - couldn't be there.

The Dartford team set off fast in a big group, but gradually our top runners, Allan Lee and Mike Fanning began to break through.

Allan Lee had a great run to finish second in 28.33, beaten only by Chris Wyles of New Eltham joggers who recorded an impressive 5th win of the series.

Then came the first of the Dartford runners, Andrew Pickett in 3rd, closely followed by three other Dartford runners in 5th, 6th, and 7th.

With a massive sprint finish, Mike Fanning came in 10th, and our other scorers not far behind - Andy Nicoll in 16th, Andy Ashlee in 23rd, Ben Bridges in 30th and Andrew Linney in 33rd,

It looks as though Dartford would win. However it wasn't over yet.
Each men's team must have one over-50 runner and Sevenoaks' Chris Desmond and John Stevens were well ahead of Dartford's leading M50.  John eventually beat Chris by one place to be our M50 scorer in 50th place, with Dartford's M50 in 99th place.

In the women's race Sevenoaks and Dartford were also head-to-head. Clare Reeves of Dartford was the winner in 32.22 mins followed by her team-mate 14 year old Chloe Sharp.
For Sevenoaks, Cath Linney came 4th, Heather Fitzmaurice 7th and Pauline Dalton 11th. With Dartford's 3rd runner placing 21st, Sevenoaks won the women's race.

Adding up all the points from the scoring runners, Dartford won the men's race with Sevenoaks 2nd. Sevenoaks won the women's race with Dartford 2nd.

In the series, it couldn't have been closer. With the best 6 races to count for the series, Dartford won by 104 points to 103.

However Sevenoaks AC can be very proud to be runners-up in such a tough competition. In each race the club has fielded between 30 and 40 runners – an impressive turnout for a small club – and has performed consistently well, placing in the top 3 combined teams in every race.

There have also been some outstanding individual performances: -

Chris Desmond  - M50 champion
Jim Fitzmaurice  - M70 champion
Heather Fitzmaurice – W40 - runner up

This is the club's best performance ever in the Kent fitness League.

Thanks go to Geoff Vine and Happy Fisher, our club cross-country captains for inspiring the team and to everyone who ran for the club.

The next task will be to beat Dartford in the 2014/15 season, which starts in October.


Jim Knight

The SAC results were:

Ov Pos
 
Lg Pos
 
Runner
 
Age
 
Time
 
Club
 
Rating
2 2 Allan Lee 41 28:33 Sevenoaks AC 99.44
10 10 Mike Fanning 46 30:35 Sevenoaks AC 94.94
16 16 Andy Nicoll 33 31:19 Sevenoaks AC 91.57
23 23 Andy Ashlee 44 32:03 Sevenoaks AC 87.64
31 30 Ben Bridges 34 32:39 Sevenoaks AC 83.71
34 33 Andrew Linney 46 32:55 Sevenoaks AC 82.02
35 34 Lee Lintern 33 32:55 Sevenoaks AC 81.46
46 45 Joe Parsons 23 33:53 Sevenoaks AC 75.28
49 48 James Wright 45 33:58 Sevenoaks AC 73.60
51 50 John Stevens 52 34:03 Sevenoaks AC 72.47
53 51 Chris Desmond 51 34:14 Sevenoaks AC 71.91
55 53 Adam Lesley 43 34:33 Sevenoaks AC 70.79
62 60 Daniel Witt 39 34:56 Sevenoaks AC 66.85
70 4 Cath Linney 44 35:35 Sevenoaks AC 95.38
76 7 Heather Fitzmaurice 44 35:57 Sevenoaks AC 90.77
91 11 Pauline Dalton 49 36:31 Sevenoaks AC 84.62
96 85 John Denyer 65 36:59 Sevenoaks AC 52.81
98 87 Andrew Rackham 40 37:08 Sevenoaks AC 51.69
100 89 Geoff Vine 66 37:18 Sevenoaks AC 50.56
102 91 Simon Bishop 50 37:26 Sevenoaks AC 49.44
103 92 Tony Horlock 53 37:27 Sevenoaks AC 48.88
107 95 Andy Evans 43 37:47 Sevenoaks AC 47.19
114 101 Sam Bennett 41 38:12 Sevenoaks AC 43.82
117 104 Duncan Cochrane 56 38:25 Sevenoaks AC 42.13
127 16 Judy Howells 37 39:25 Sevenoaks AC 76.92
129 113 Geoff Kitchener 64 39:36 Sevenoaks AC 37.08
140 120 Simon Hallpike 60 39:54 Sevenoaks AC 33.15
155 130 Martin White 46 40:50 Sevenoaks AC 27.53
166 139 Maurice Marchant 65 41:43 Sevenoaks AC 22.47
183 37 Silvia Forcat 37 42:56 Sevenoaks AC 44.62
185 39 Happy Fisher 37 43:08 Sevenoaks AC 41.54
209 47 Clair Thornton 39 45:54 Sevenoaks AC 29.23
216 166 Hugh Shewell 25 46:53 Sevenoaks AC 7.30
236 60 Sylvia Lewis 61 51:04 Sevenoaks AC 9.23
237 61 Rosie Draper 53 52:14 Sevenoaks AC 7.69

The full results are here.

GroupThirteen SAC runners contested the Tunbridge Wells Half on 3 March with results as follows:

Pos. No. Name Gun Time Chip Time Chip Pos. Gender Gender Pos. Cat. Cat. Pos.
88 102 James Mcguigan 01:28:33 01:28:27 91 Male 82 MS 56
101 1661 Joe Parsons 01:29:08 01:28:49 103 Male 95 MS 63
133 730 John Stevens 01:31:06 01:30:40 136 Male 125 MV50 12
142 452 Daniel Witt 01:31:44 01:31:25 144 Male 134 MS 86
224 1511 Marc Thatcher 01:35:36 01:35:27 228 Male 210 MV40 64
296 1580 Andrew Evans 01:38:30 01:38:11 311 Male 271 MV40 79
304 2060 Simon Bishop 01:38:39 01:38:07 309 Male 277 MV50 33
310 925 Pauline Dalton 01:38:47 01:38:29 324 Female 31 FV45 9
788 33 Jane Morgan 01:50:47 01:49:36 788 Female 111 FV35 40
802 2067 Andrew Rackham 01:51:19 01:49:35 787 Male 688 MV40 228
958 1564 Sarah Shewell 01:56:23 01:55:16 970 Female 169 FV45 41
1521 1487 Sylvia Lewis 02:20:39 02:17:46 1516 Female 403 FV55 22
1555 1651 Lynette Van Der Berg 02:23:30 02:20:34 1553 Female 423 FS 166

The full results are here. Photos, courtesy of Gino and Sharon ( This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. )  are here.

Group at h'cap

David Lobley won the February handicap race in strong winds. See report here.

SAC team

Kent Fitness League Feb 2014 – Sevenoaks AC still in the lead

Thirty-four Sevenoaks AC runners made the journey to Rough Common near Canterbury on Sunday Feb 2nd for the 6th race in the Kent Fitness League series.

contemplating mudAlthough the weather was dry and sunny, Rough Common truly lived up to its name. After several weeks of non-stop rain, the mud was ankle deep in the start field but knee deep on the trails through the woods. Many runners fell and returned wet and muddy from head to toe.

Sevenoaks AC started well. Allan Lee lead the race for the first half but unfortunately was forced to retire with a calf injury ….. and had to walk 2 miles through the mud to get back to the finish!

The race was won by Chris Wyles from New Eltham Joggers who completed the tough 8.5 km course in 30.52 mins. This was Chris’ 4th win in the series.

Allan’s Lee’s brother David was the fastest Sevenoaks finisher, coming in 7th, with David Ives close behind in 13th.
50-year-old Chris Desmond had another great run to come 18th, the fastest over-50 runner.

SAC’s close rivals, Dartford Harriers fielded a strong team to win the men’s race.

The SAC men’s team of David Lee, David Ives, Chris Desmond, plus Andrew Mead (33rd), Ben Bridges (35th), Lee Lintern (44th), and Joe Parsons (52nd), came in 2nd position.

In the women’s race, Holly Page from Dartford Harriers ran well to win in 34.38mins, well clear of the rest of the field.
Sevenoaks AC’s fastest woman was Cath Linney in 11th place, closely followed by Pauline Dalton in 14th, with Nicky Thompson in 31st place.

The SAC women’s team was missing this year’s star runner Heather Fitzmaurice through illness, and came 5th behind very strong teams from Canterbury and Dartford.

With just one race to go Sevenoaks are still winning the series.

Happy and Nicki plus mud
In the men’s series Sevenoaks are lying second, just one point behind Dartford., and in the women’s series Sevenoaks are third behind Canterbury and Dartford. Combined, Sevenoaks is still in the lead.

However the championship will be decided on each team’s best 6 races from the 7 – each team being allowed to ditch their worst race. Sevenoaks have been remarkably consistent all season, never coming lower than 3rd place. Dartford, on the other hand, came 6th in the first race on the series in Knole in October. So on the basis of the best 5 races so far, Sevenoaks and Dartford are exactly even.

It all hinges on the seventh, and final race in Meopham on Sunday Feb 16th.

With Allan Lee injured, Sevenoaks will need Mike Fanning to recover from his tendon injury, Heather Fitzmaurice to recover from illness, and every member of the team to compete and run well.

If we beat Dartford on Feb 16th we will win the championship. If Dartford beat us, they will win the championship. It couldn’t be closer.

[Report by Jim Knight, Sevenoaks AC Feb 2014.]

The full SAC results were as follows:

Ov Pos
 
Lg Pos
 
Runner
 
Age
 
Time
 
Club
 
Rating
7 7 David Lee 35 32:10 Sevenoaks AC 97.49
13 13 David Ives 38 32:49 Sevenoaks AC 94.98
18 18 Chris Desmond 50 33:39 Sevenoaks AC 92.89
33 33 Andrew Mead 45 34:26 Sevenoaks AC 86.61
35 35 Ben Bridges 34 34:31 Sevenoaks AC 85.77
44 42 Lee Lintern 33 35:00 Sevenoaks AC 82.85
52 49 Joe Parsons 23 35:31 Sevenoaks AC 79.92
53 50 Andrew Linney 46 35:33 Sevenoaks AC 79.50
54 51 Keith Brown 42 35:34 Sevenoaks AC 79.08
55 52 Andy Ashlee 44 35:37 Sevenoaks AC 78.66
56 53 James Wright 45 35:38 Sevenoaks AC 78.24
74 69 Adam Lesley 42 36:59 Sevenoaks AC 71.55
85 78 John Stevens 52 37:26 Sevenoaks AC 67.78
86 79 Daniel Witt 39 37:27 Sevenoaks AC 67.36
94 86 James Baker 49 38:02 Sevenoaks AC 64.44
120 108 Anthony Waldron 46 38:58 Sevenoaks AC 55.23
142 129 Andy Evans 43 39:52 Sevenoaks AC 46.44
143 11 Cath Linney 44 39:53 Sevenoaks AC 89.13
147 132 Stuart Thompson 39 40:00 Sevenoaks AC 45.19
152 14 Pauline Dalton 49 40:13 Sevenoaks AC 85.87
168 147 Geoff Kitchener 64 41:11 Sevenoaks AC 38.91
177 155 Andy Nicoll 33 41:56 Sevenoaks AC 35.56
180 158 Sam Bennett 40 42:02 Sevenoaks AC 34.31
190 166 Duncan Cochrane 56 42:34 Sevenoaks AC 30.96
213 178 Martin White 46 43:54 Sevenoaks AC 25.94
216 31 Nicki Thompson 37 44:03 Sevenoaks AC 67.39
217 179 Uri Margot 37 44:07 Sevenoaks AC 25.52
220 33 Happy Fisher 37 44:17 Sevenoaks AC 65.22
233 191 Maurice Marchant 65 44:43 Sevenoaks AC 20.50
253 202 James Fitzmaurice 71 45:45 Sevenoaks AC 15.90
264 52 Silvia Forcat 37 46:35 Sevenoaks AC 44.57
280 215 Hugh Shewell 24 48:28 Sevenoaks AC 10.46
282 59 Sarah Shewell 54 48:44 Sevenoaks AC 36.96
294 220 Fay Margot 35 49:46 Sevenoaks AC 8.37

The full results are here.

  1. Canterbury 10 - 26 Jan 2014
  2. SAC Handicap 12 Jan 2014
  3. KFL Minnis Bay 5 Jan 2014
  4. KFL Avery Hill 29 Dec

Page 115 of 127

We have 42 guests and no members online