N Wales Cross Country at Deeside

It was a busy day for Telford AC with the club having to field teams at the North Wales League, the Birmingham League and the Midland Womens League all on the same day. A group of 9 senior men travelled to another new course this time at Glyndwr University, Northop organised by Deeside.

The race winner was again Rob Samuels from Eryri, with his team mate Richard Roberts second. John Garmson led the Telford squad home in 33rd, the same position as in the previous race at Llandudno, he was 4th over 45 in 35.22. Steve Jones was the next man home improving from 56th at the last race to 39th this time, in 35.43 and first over 55. sam Garmson was the next finisher in 87th, 39.39 just one place and 9 seconds ahead of Spencer Davies. Paul Sanderson was the 5th scorer, 111th in 41.42, with Mike Whitehead improving 10 places on his last race to complete the scoring 6 in 127th, 42.57. He was just ahead of Nigel Tatton, still on target for his 50th race this year, finishing 129th, 19 places higher than at Llandudno, in 43.12, with Darren Fincham 133rd, 43.28 and Dave Davies 151st in 48.07.

The club finished 6th team on the day out of 8 in Division 1, but we are still 3rd overall with 2 races to go. Eryri lead with 249 pts, Meirionnydd are 2nd with 569 pts, TAC 3rd with 946 pts, Shrewsbury 4th, 1138 pts, Tattenhall 5th 1175 pts, Colwyn Bay 6th 1241 pts, Wrexham 7th 1419 pts and Menai 8th 1460 pts.

TAC were 6th on the day in Masters League and are 4th overall.

The next league race is hosted by TAC at Lilleshall on Saturday 14th January, which again clashes with the Birmingham and Midland Womens League. We will again aim to get teams in both leagues on the same day as well as organise a home fixture. Please support and run if you can if not please come and help.

Paul Sanderson

North Wales Cross Country at Llandudno.

Telford AC had a large mens team on duty at the second North Wales Cross Country League race of the season over a tough 2 lap course at a new venue, St David's College, Llandudno. The Telford AC turn out masterminded by team manager Jamie Davies, included 3 father and son partnerships from the Garmson, McDonald and Tatton families.

Dan Young made his cross country debut for the club and led the team home in 12th, 31.17 out of a field of 166 finishers, behind the race winner Rob Samuels from Eryri, in 28.44. Following up his impressive run in the recent Breidden Hills Race Dan was running his first cross country race since primary school. Ryan Heath had another impressive run as the second finisher and 4th under 20 in 18th, 31.38. Sam Garmson improved on his first league race depsite their being more runners finishing 27th and 6th under 20 in 33.14. His dad John was the next club finisher, 9 places higher than at Bangor, in 33rd, 33.40 and the second over 45. It was terrific to have Ben McDonald back and he was delighted to finish 44th, 34.17 his first race finish for some 5 years. Steve Jones, club treasurer, was the 6th scorer in 56th and second over 50 in 34.46.

Other TAC finishers were
59th Paul Williams 35.03
65th David Tatton 35.26
69th Peter Plant 35.47
97th Spencer Davies 38.01
116th Paul Sanderson 39.05
123rd Alan MacDonald 39.41 2nd over 60.
136th Mike Whitehead 41.10
148th Nigel Tatton 42.11
150th Darren Fincham 42.35
156th Dave Davies 43.34

The team finished 3rd in Division 1 on the day with 190 pts, just 5 points behind 2nd placed Meirionnydd based in Dolgellau, much better than compared to the 271 pts at the opening fixture at Bangor and are 3rd overall after 2 races. The vets team were 4th on the day but just 5 points behind leaders Shrewsbury AC and are 4th overall.

Division 1 positions and points
1. Eryri 61 ( 173 overall )
2. Meirionnydd 185 ( 376 )
3. Telford AC 190 ( 461 )
4. Menai 338 ( 823 )
5. Tattenhall 354 ( 874 )
6. Colwyn Bay 383 ( 738 )
7. Shrewsbury 397 ( 745 )
8. Wrexham 496 ( 1079 )

Divison 2 - local highlights
3 Oswestry 293 ( 476 )
6. Whitchurch Whippets 525 ( 987 )
10 Maldwyn 676 ( 1363 )
13. Bridgnorth 1021 ( 1851 )

The next race is at Deeside AC, Glyndwr University, Northop, Nr Chester CH7 6AA on Saturday 12th November. This race clashes with the first Birmingham League and Midland Womens League at Leamington. We will need as many runners as possible to be able to field teams at both venues.

Paul Sanderson

North Wales Cross Country at Bangor. October 2011

Telford AC opened the senior cross country season with some good results at the first North Wales Cross Country League races at Bangor. Claire Martin last years overall champion opened her season with a victory in 18.05, 35 seconds ahead of her nearest rival Marilyn Kitching from Tattenhall. Lisa Blagden the only other TAC girl in action was 28th in 22.59.
Ryan Heath in his first ever senior North Wales League race was delighted with his 8th and 2nd Under 20, placing in 30.28, behind winner Rob Samuel from host club Eryri. Sam Garmson also making his senior debut was next home in 31st and 6th under 20. New team manager and driving force behind the senior men this season was Jamie Davies in 34th, 33.11 whilst John Garmson was 42nd, 33.20 with Spencer Davies 65th, 35.54 as Paul Sanderson completed the scoring 6 in 91st, 38.28, just ahead of Alan MacDonald 98th, 39.14 and Dave Davies 120th, 43.22.
The mens team finished 3rd in Division 1 with 271 pts behind winners Eryri with 112, whilst Meirionnydd were 2nd with 191 whilst Shrewsbury were 4th with 348, Colwyn Bay 5th with 355, Menai 6th with 485, Tattenhall 7th, 520 and Wrexham 8th, 583.
Oswestry won Division 2 with 183 pts.
The next race is at St Davids College, Llandudno (LL30 1RD ) on Saturday 22nd October.

Five North Wales XC League Titles for Telford AC

NORTH WALES CROSS COUNTRY LEAGUE.

Telford Athletic Club's Claire Martin was an impressive winner of the fourth and final Grand Prix Express North Wales Cross Country League at Oswestry. Claire who had won 2 of the previous 3 races at Colwyn Bay and Bridgnorth, with one fixture at Wrexham in January cancelled due to snow. Claire won the Oswestry race in 19.18, some 47 seconds clear of Tattenhall's Marilyn Kitching. Oswestry's Alison Lavender winner of the Bangor race in November was 3rd in 20.58, whilst Shrewsbury's Anna Bartlett made a welcome return to action finishing 5th in 21.31. Host club Oswestry Olympians fielded a strong team boosted by promising Under 17 athletes Ella Walker 16th and Chloe Barton 31st making their North Wales League debuts. Oswestry finished second in Division One on the day and second overall with 53 points behind division one winners and league champions Eryri who had 49 points. Telford with just 41 points won the second division and gained promotion to next years 1st Division with Tattenhall Runners swapping places. Shrewsbury AC were second in Div 2 on the day and 8th overall with Whitchurch Whippetts 12th on the day and 9th overall. Eryri won the masters team race on the day with 20 pts with Telford second, but Telford took the league title with 76 points overall with Colwyn Bay second with 103 pts, Eryri third with 117 pts and Oswestry 4th with 189 pts.

Claire from Aqueduct in Telford won the overall senior womens league title as well as the over 35 masters title, Alison Lavender was second overall with Tattenhall's Marilyn Kitching third overall. Telford AC's Nellie Sanders finished second overall in the over 40 women category, with Cheralyn Evans second overall in the over 45's. Wrexham's Alison Whitelaw from Gobowen was second overall in the over 50's whilst Whitchurch Whippets Helen Robbins won the over 55's the first Whippet to win a league medal.

Other leading local womens finishers
14th C. Jones. Osw Oly.
19th J. Hoad. Telford AC
20th Y. Hill. Osw Oly.
21st C. Evans. Telford AC
22nd A. Tickner. Osw Oly.
27th C. Burgoyne. Shrews AC.
37th S. Hancock. Osw Oly
55th E. Sheekey. Shrews AC
62nd S. Richards. Shrews AC
66th H. Robbins. Whitchurch Whippets.


Paul Ward led the Telford AC's mens team to win the team race on the day with 81 pts and take the overall league title. Ward finished 3rd in 33.33 behind winner Richard Roberts from Eryri who won in 32.49 whilst Menai's Walter Dilling was second. Shrewsbury's Ian Coupland was 4th just under a minute behind Ward, which gave him 3rd overall in the league, with Oswestry's Peter Butler having one of his best races of the winter, 5th in 34.47 whilst Shrewsbury's Peter Middleton ran well for 7th in 35.17. Rob Hughes was Telford's second scorer in 10th just one second ahead of team mate Greg Wilson in 11th, first over 50 and league over 50 champion and 4th overall in the league. Shrewsbury's Steve France in 12th completed Shropshire's 7 runners in the top 12.

Telford won the 1st Division overall with 605 pts, with reigning champions Shrewsbury second overall with 726 pts whilst Wrexham took third with 1058 pts and Maldwyn Harriers 6th with 1421 pts out of 8 teams. Menai won the second division with 953 pts and replace Abergele in next years first division. Oswestry finished 4th overall in the second division with 1805 pts, Whitchurch Whippets were 9th, 2511 pts and Bridgnorth AC were 13th with 3513 pts out of 15 teams.

Local men who won age group awards were John Sanders, TAC 3rd over 45, Greg Wilson, TAC 1st over 50, Graham Jones, SAC, 2nd over 50, Ed Davies, Maldwyn, 3rd over 50. Malcolm Dawes, TAC, equal 1st over 60.

Telford AC had just 9 points in the mens masters team event with Paul Ward 1st, Greg Wilson 3rd and Peter Plant 5th to win the team race on the day and win the overall league title with 114 pts with Shrewsbury AC second with 161 pts, Maldwyn were 3rd overall with 206 pts with 11 teams finishing masters teams overall.

Other leading local finishers in the top 40 were
14th J. Anderson. TAC
17th P. Plant. TAC
22nd K. Francis. SAC
25th G. Jones. SAC
26th G. Vickers. TAC
28th S. Vines. TAC
29th R. Jones. Maldwyn
31st P. Clarke. SAC
33rd H. Jones. Maldwyn
34th J. Davies. TAC
35th S. Waters. SAC
37th S. Roberts, Osw Oly

Paul Sanderson

North Wales XC League - Wrexham

The North Wales Cross Country League race due to be held at Wrexham on Saturday 16th January 2010 has been cancelled due to the poor condition of the course.
Paul Sanderson

North Wales Cross Country League

N Wales XC League

Oswestry Olympians Alison Lavender won her first ever North Wales Cross country league in the 3rd of this season's races held at Treborth Playing Fields, Bangor. The Loughborough University student who gained an England International fell running vest during the summer has had an excellent six months on the fells the road and at cross country. She finished in 20.37 and was 7 seconds ahead of second placed Marilyn Kitching from Tattenhall with Rhian Pierce from Denbigh taking 3rd. Denise Sanders led the Telford Ac contingent home in 9th with team mate Cheralyn Evans 11th.
Oswestry finished second team on the day with 46 pts to host club Eryri who had 36 pts, they are now 3rd in the league after 3 races with Colwyn Bay in second. Telford AC again won the second division with 46 pts and are clear league leaders with 85 pts almost 200 pts ahead of second placed Menai. Whitchurch Whippets were 7th with 165pts and Shrewsbury Ac 11th with 205 pts. Telford were second to Eryri in the veterans team race with 27 pts behind Eryri but lead overall with 53pts to Colwyn Bay's 64pts. Oswestry were 4th vets team on the day and are 4th overall.

Other leading finishers were

13th C Jones. Oswestry, 15th A.Tickner. Oswestry, 17th Y. Hill. Oswestry, 26th J. Hoad, Telford AC, 33rd J. Jarvis, Oswestry. 39th L. Blagden, Telford AC, 45th R. Foster, Whitchurch. 57th E. Sheekey, Shrewsbury.

Maldwyn's Tim Davies from Welshpool, came 2nd in the mens race to follow up his 3rd and 4th places with Nick Swinburn from Bangor University winning the race. Shrewsbury's Ian Coupland was 5th to lead the reigning champions to second on the day with 163 points behind host team Eryri with Telford 6th, 380pts and Maldwyn 7th 469 pts. Telford still lead overall but have their lead cut to just 101 pts from Shrewsbury 625 with Wrexham 3rd overall, Eryri 4th and Maldwyn Harriers 5th. Oswestry were 4th in the second division with 330 pts whilst Whitchurch were 9th 570pts and Bridgnorth 14th with 1024 pts. Shrewsbury AC were winners of the veteran teams section on the day with 35 pts with Eryri second and Maldwyn 3rd whilst Telford were 9th. Telford still lead overall with 105 pts from the first 3 races with Shrewsbury second 127pts and Maldwyn 5th with 156 pts.

Other leading men finishers were

8th P. Middleton SAC.
9th R. Hughes TAC
15th P. Jones Oswestry
23rd J. Ogden Oswestry
24th G. Jones SAC 2nd over 50
25th E. Davies Maldwyn 3rd over 50
26th D Beales SAC 3rd over 45.
33rd J. Sanders TAC
45th H. Jones Maldwyn
47th R. Jones Maldwyn
49th S. Waters SAC
51st P. Clarke SAC
55th C. Talbot TAC
58th R. Sharam Whitchurch.

The 4th race is the N Wales League takes place at Ysgol Morgan Llwyd, Cefn Road, Wrexham on Saturday 16th January 2010.

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 Wales XC 3 Bangor 21-Nov-09

Match 3 in the North Wales XC league was probably the at the most northern point of wales!!! Quite a drive from Telford.
This may explain the reason for the weak turnout especially from the TAC senior men - or it may have been the rain that put them off...

Well done to all that did make it and congratulations to Nellie on receiving her Masters gold medal from her performance last week.

Results will appear on the North Wales XC new site.

North Wales XC 2 Bridgnorth 10-Oct-09

And here are the pictures...

And here are the results...

The sun was shinning a new course was set and the Telford Athletes proved more than a match for the occasion. With Telford having to swap venues it was frantic behind the scences to get the race organised and run smoothly, thanks to Maragret Kelcher, Margaret Cooper, Paul Sanderson, Peggy, John Bradley and Malcolm.

Down to the action, first up was the ladies where Claire Martin powered ahead to win, her second win in two races. Backed up brilliantly by Michele Clarke 4th, a fast finishing Nellie Sanders 6th, a superb run by Harriet Granfield finishing 14th in a tough field, showing what a star of the future she can be, Cherlyn Evans ran a guttsy race to finish 21st running most of the race not feeling well, congrats ladies excellent racing.

Next was the mens, a race that led to me having kittens with the great turn out, 24 runners started the race for us. With eleven of them finishing in the top 30 thats impressive bunching lads. With Chris Davies showing his strength to ease away from the field and never look to being caught from the whistle to tape. There was outstanding performances throughout the Telford Field with a great return to cross country for Paul "Wizzo" Ward in 5th, Greg Wilson 7th, Wayne The Dash 9th Rob Hughes returned to the Telford team 10th and Chris Baggshaw completed the team in 13th. The great racing didn't just stop with the first six home with an impressive 45points, we then had Richard Lucock in 15th, Dave Mansbridge returning to finish 18th, Johnathon Hockey after a good sexarathon performances finished 19th, Jamie Anderson 20th, Johnny " the web master" Sanders 26th and Peter Plant completing the B team in 42nd. But there is still more. Paul Williams came 47th, John Garmson 51st, Rick Hailey 55th, Steve Jones 65th, Malcolm Dawes 109th, Steve Needs 118th no jokes with blokes with tashes please,Darren Fincham 136th, Dave Davies 147th and the forever young Alan Hodgkiss coming in 152nd.

Thank you for everyone who came out either to run, help with preparations or to be vocal and shout on our Athletes its been a great day and I hope to see you all at the next round......

And here are the pictures...

And here are the results...

Mens team clear winners and our b team would have been 2nd.
Ladies team clear by 40 points well done and the master teams all winning there team slots as well.......

North Wales XC1 Colwyn Bay 26-Sep-09

2009 XC FIXTURES

TAC do the double in first match of the North Wales cross country season at Colwyn Bay. Claire Martin wins ladies race and Chris Davies takes the men's.

Some photographs from the day on my gallery at
http://www.johnnysanders.co.uk/gallery/090926ColwynBay/

Results :-
http://www.thepowerof10.info/fixtures/meeting.aspx?meetingid=30227

Other clubs in the league with web sites
http://www.nwrrc.co.uk/
http://www.abergeleharriers.co.uk/
http://www.prestatynrunningclub.com/
http://www.eryri.org.uk/
http://eryriharriers.blogspot.com/
http://www.wrexhamroadrunners.org.uk/

Results summary
Men
1 Chris D 28.37
6 Greg W 30.55
16 Wayne D 33.09
18 Richard L 33.24
19 Johnny S 33.29
39 Peter P 35.03
45 Paul W 35.19
112 Steve N 39.10
134 Malc D 40.43
184 Alan H 50.05
(187 finishers)

Teams
1. TAC 99
2. Wrexham 180
3. Eryri 184
4. SAC 218
5. Maldwyn 291
6 Colwyn Bay 322

Vets
1 TAC 20
2 Abergele 27
3 Wrexham 30
4 SAC 41
5 Maldwyn 48
6 Eryri 59

Ladies
1. Claire M 16.27
8. Denise S 18.09
19. Cheralyn E 19.12
27 Juliet H 20.07
41 Emma L 21.08
42 Lisa B 21.09

Teams
Div 2
1 TAC 28
2 Menai 73
3 Prestatyn 114

Div 1
1 Colwyn Bay 34
2 Eryri 57
3 Denbigh 109

TAC overall top ladies team!

Lady Vets
1 Colwyn Bay 15
2 TAC 17
3 Wrexham 37