Cross-Country Cup opens up door to final for Ermysted's

REPORT BY: STEPHEN SPEAK

AT Middlesbrough’s Stewart Park there were some great individual performances from Craven athletes as all three of Ermysted’s teams qualified for next month’s National Final to be held in Leeds.

These Cross-Country races involved 12 teams of 6 who qualified by virtue of top three finishes in last month’s county rounds.

Four teams from Craven, all three of Ermysted’s teams and Skipton Girls High School’s Juniors had won in the first round at Aireville Park in October and so had hopes of qualification for the national final by again coming in the top three teams at this North East of England qualifier.

The Ermysted’s teams were more likely to make the final as each of their teams had won at Skipton but with low team totals. Their Juniors were led by Joseph Preston who was runner-up at Aireville Park, and he ran well from the start, challenging with the leaders early on and coming back in a very creditable 3rd place.

He was ably supported by Ralph Emsley 7th and Jack Mitchell 8th who both had great runs working their way through the pack. Their final scorer Will Parker also finished strongly in 15th for a tremendous low total of just 33 points and guaranteed qualification for the Final. Delight followed when the team results had all come in and they had actually won the event fairly convincingly with a 24-point cushion over runners-up Hexham.

Their non-scorers were Sevan Chotai 30th and Lachlan MaCamon 40th. The other qualifiers from Craven, Giggleswick, were 12th team.

Some of Craven’s best individual performances were in the Junior Girl’s race where the top three at Skipton were all racing. Giggleswick’s Mia McGoldrick had won the North Yorkshire round, and she had another good run here as she came back 4th individual and led her team to 6th overall.

Skipton Girls had won last month and had Alice White and Maisie Oddy leading their challenge. They too both ran to form and came 5th and 7th respectively. Their team-mates Elizabeth Oakden 28th and Arya Raval 41st were well up the field for a good total of 81points but unfortunately, they just missed out on the final by just four points.

Ermysted’s George Marsh and his Ermysted’s Intermediate team expected to be challenging at the sharp end and so it proved to be.

Marsh had a great run to finish as the individual runner-up and the honour of being Craven’s best placed athlete on the day. His team supported him with some of their best ever individual results. Will Oakden was in 5th place for most of the race, eventually finishing 6th.

However, losing that place near the end didn’t matter to Ermysted’s as it was his team-mate Sam Cheung who had the run of his life as he stormed round on the last lap moving from outside the top ten up to 5th.

Their final scorer Dan Hood also gained about 6 places on his last lap to finish in 13th for a tremendous low score of just 26 points and a second Ermysted team victory. Their non-scorers were both highly placed as Noah Schepisi was 24th and Oscar Fox 29th.

The Intermediate Girls saw Giggleswick’s Camilla Hart in action. She had won at Aireville Park and finished 8th in this round as her team were 10th.

Ermysted’s Sam Bentham and his Senior team had also won at Skipton. Bentham set off with the leaders and a group of three broke clear early on. They kept their lead to the end, but he was dropped and had to settle for 3rd.

The team was missing Ewen Wilkinson who was runner-up last time out but still had some excellent runners. Tom Hooper was 4th most of the way but was caught on the 3rd lap of 4 and finished 8th.

The team always looked like qualifying as Lachlan Wills, Lucas Smith, Samesh Chotai and Oliver Frew were all around 20th position once the race settled down. Eventually Lachlan came through for 15th, Samesh 17th, Lucas 19th and Oliver 24th of the 71 finishers.

Their score of 43 points was always going to be good enough for a ‘Final’ berth but Queen Elizabeth’s, Hexham won with 32 points and Ermysted’s had to settle for runners-up. At full strength they would have won and if all are fit, they should be aiming for a top three place in the final.

There are now just 4 weeks, until the National Final in Leeds, for the runners to fine tune their preparation, where Ermysted’s teams will all expect to be well inside the top ten and even challenging at the sharp end.