N Staffs League - Westwood High School, Leek

The final North Staffs Cross Country league of the saeson clashed with the Shropshire Championships at Lilleshall but Telford AC still managed to win the second division title after their first serious season in the league. Team manager Chris Talbot in his first season as mens team manager was delighted with the overall league result as the team won with 309 points from the 4 races with Vale Royal from Cheshire taking second with 644 points and Stafford Tri 3rd with 1141 pts. In the final race at Westwood High School Leek on a very hilly course Jamie Anderson led the way finishing 18th repeating his position in the previous race and giving him 10th overall in the league with Marc Gadsden 31st, Johnny Sanders 35th, Paul Williams 62nd and 4th overall over 45 veteran and Alan Hodgkiss 229th and 13th overall over 60 veteran.

North Staffs XC D2 Champions

An elite squad of TAC runners went to Leek on a mission - that mission was promotion! 

Westwood High School: Leek
Race 4: Saturday 12 December 2009

TAC senior men were already quite a few points in the lead after 3 races in the North Staffs XC League. To win the division and secure promotion we had to have a minimum of 4 finishers! Not an easy task as the last fixture clashed with the Shropshire county Champs back in Telford.

However, a 'Die Hard' quintet  sacrificed glory in the County race and put their club first. Well done to Jamie Anderson, Marc Gadson, Johnny Sanders, Paul Williams and Alan Hodgkiss for running. Chris Talbot did a splendid job as Team Manager and race strategist, dragging his two young daughters all the way to Leek just to stand in a cold, muddy field :-) Chief in charge of TAC cheer leaders was Ian Beattie doing a cracking job of shouting on our quintet.

Paul Williams, Marc Gadson, Johnny (scarface) Sanders, Chris Talbot and Jamie Anderson.

Medal Scoop

Bryan Dale, photographer and runner was also at Leek. See his photos at http://www.racephotos.org.uk/

See also Mick Hall's photos

Full results will be on the North Staffs XC League web site at

I have fond memories of the last time I raced on this same XC course at Leek back in 2004. We were also fighting for promotion but with Telford Harriers. The Harriers did get promoted that year too. I also remember struggling to distribute only 4 medals amongst the large squad seen below.

Telford Harriers promotion back in 2004

Cross Country Season review so far...........

Hi All,

the cross country season is long and takes up a lot of everyones time but we are reaching the corner point where fixtures start to ease and I hope we can start to get the large telford support we had at the begining of the season.

Here is a update how the leagues are going to date:

North Staffs - With one race to go which clashes with the County Champs we are sitting at the top of the table with a healthy lead over our nearest rivals Vale Royal of 387points I have four names who want to run the league meet instead of the county so next weekend Telford could have county and their first league silverware. Individually in the womens Michelle Clarke is 4th over all and 2nd in her age group, Cherly Evans is 17th overall and 2nd in her age group. The men sees Richard Lucock in 10th, Jamie Anderson in 12th and Ryan Ordidge in 16th and 4th in the Junior mens. Paul Williams is 5th in his age group and Dave Davies is 8th in his age group.

Next one is December 12th Leek

North Wales League - We have had a good start to the league after the first two meetings at Colwyn Bay and Bridgnorth we had a huge 300point advantage over the next club, but due to a lack of athletes at Bangor it has seen 200 points slashed of the lead, hopefully we can field a strong team in the next two meetings and take Division 1 glory in the mens. The ladies contiune their strong position from race one and currently hold a 190point lead coming in to the final two meetings. Next One is January 16th Wrexham

Birmingham League - Telford had an impressive start to their campaign at getting back into Division 1 by taking a 75point lead away from the first meeting, Chris Davies coming 2nd and Mark Dalkins 3rd and Paul Ward 4th, unfortunately the three stars were unable to make the next meet and it was left to Chris Rimmer to lead the way in a impressive 2nd and Craig Walker making his debut in 4th I am awaiting the results but I feel we may have slipped to third when they come out and we need top two to be promoted. but obviously number one should be our aim in this division. Come on Lads next on is Jan 16th Sphinx.

Midland Womens League - The ladies had a nice start to the league with a couple of the top names missing but Cathy Ansell stepping up to the plate and coming in a very good 8th place backed up Michelle Clarke 18th and Cheryl Evans 55th saw Telford start in 5th, on to round two and the team fell apart failing so send out three runners. There was still great performances though by Kim Fawkes in 7th and Sian Webb in 12th well done ladies. The next meet is at Sphinx with the men on January the 16th.

Midland and National Champs - Margaret is now taking names for the championships and deadlines for entry are early in the new year so please either let margaret Know on

thekelchers@btinternet.com or myself at ctalbot23@hotmail.com

North Staffs XC2 Parkhall 07-Nov-09

Hi Everyone men and ladies:

On the 7th of November we see Telford go off to do battle on the paths around Parkhall Country Park in Stoke.
(Photograph courtesy of Bryan Dale Photography)

At the last race we saw a strong mens team take a great lead and a brilliant individual run by Mark Dalkins to take the individual win. The ladies had a small field with Michelle Clarke having a brilliant run to finish 4th and Cherlyn Evans 24th.

It would be nice to see some more women out to back up the good performances and for the men to continue with the impressive start of the league and put a big team out.

Please come and join us, let me know if you can make it, ctalbot23@hotmail.com

Look at link for directions and timetable: http://www.nsccl.co.uk/

Visit the website above for full results.

Once again Telford AC took a strong line up to the cross country events, which saw impressive individual wins for brother and sister Chris Davies and Sian Webb. The mens and ladies team both produced outstanding performances outscoring the other teams heavily. The mens team now have a large lead over Stafford tri of 304points. well done everyone, there was some very good performances this weekend, look forward to seeing most of you next weekend at stafford common for round 3.......

North Staffs XC1 Lyme Valley 04-Oct-09

North Staffs XC1 - Lyme Valley 04-Oct-09


A photo of Mark Dalkins (TAC, race winner, leading Alex Derricott on the second lap of the XC at LymeValley. Photo by Bryan Dale. Lots more photos of this event can be found on Bryan's site at http://www.racephotos.org.uk

Full results from all races on the day are available on the North Staffs XC web site.

Telford AC results from Lyme Valley:

Lyme Valley was the venue for the first north staffs league of the season. The weather was mixed with light to heavy showers, strong winds and a warming sun, this did not stop some truely brilliant performances with great runs from the ladies and an outstanding clear win in the mens, for Mark Dalkins. Running in the mens was Ryan Ordidge, a bright prospect for the future only just in the junior mens class and came through to be our fourth scoring team member.

Ladies:

Michelle Clarke 4th

Cheralyn Evans 24th

Mens:

Mark Dalkins 1st

Chris Bagshaw 8th

Richard Lucock 12th

Ryan Ordidge 20th

Jamie Anderson 25th

John Sanders 27th

Marc Gadsden 31st

Jamie Davies 46th

Paul Williams 54th

Dave Davies 207th

Alan Hodgkiss 232nd

Congrats to all who ran today, it has been another good day for Telford AC.

The team result for the men was an outstanding 1st by 149 points over Stafford Tri Club, looking at our top 6 finishers we would have come 2nd in div 1, just shows which legue we should be in congrats lads, unfortunately the ladies are not scored in this one due to having two runners.