4th November 2001

A bright and warm day by November standards saw the start of the Suffolk Cross Country Championships at Framlingham.  A slightly extended route down and back up a hill added an extra challenge to this already tough course.

The course challenges became very evident with Chris bashing his knee against a stile and Rosemary left with a near broken nose.  An impatient unknown junior who slipped on a bank overtaking Rosemary swung his arm out in getting his own balance.  His arm smashed into Rosemary's nose leaving her reeling and blood pouring!  It's believed that the unknown junior continued without hesitation or a word of apology at that point or at the end of the race!  Cheers to St John's Ambulance who assisted Rosemary in her plight.  Jeers to that junior!

Other more humorous challenges became apparent when running through the more muddy part of the course.  A fellow runner was precariously hobbling on one leg thick in the mud, leaning over desperately trying to recover his other shoe from the suction!! 

Special mention goes to Gordon Slack and Peter Tricker who not only ran a close race together but lead the Men's over 50 league table as 1st and 2nd respectively!  Colin Pitts and Chris Starmer are also an impressive 2nd and 3rd in the Men's over 40 table.

The best individual results for the ladies go to Gail Sparkes and Maria Reynolds who are 2nd and 3rd respectively for the Ladies over 40 league table.  Striders also dominate the Ladies over 50 table with Anne Fellingham, Anne Fish and Sue Seggar taking the 3rd to 5th positions out of the 6 ladies in the age category.

Edward Tricker did very well in the junior race coming 12th out of 30 junior runners with a time of 16.38... the first 11 year old in!!

Here are the Stowmarket Striders results:-

• Men's
• Ladies
• Team

Men's:

Ladies:

Team: (out of 10 teams)

Not as good a start as last year, but only 130 points separate the leaders, Flying Shufflers, and ourselves.  Plenty of time yet to creep up the board!