Team at Blean Woods

The final race of the 2017/18 Kent Fitness League took place on Sunday 4th February in cold, wet and muddy conditions with sleet and hail storms. Sevenoaks fielded a team of 18 runners, but crucially, only three of them were women. Heather Fitzmaurice added to a list of injuries already including previous scorers Jacqui O'Reilly, Pauline Dalton and Grace Manzotti and Vanessa Gilmartin was also unavailable. That left Ella Pyman to lead the women's team in 35th place with Sally Shewell and Anna Humphrey-Taylor also running well, but no fourth scorer.

Led by Andrew Milne in 19th, followed closely by Andy Ashlee and Lee Lintern and some excellent packing just behind them, the men's team were an excellent third on the day, so that even with the depleted women's team only 15th, the combined team were fifth. The result meant that SAC slipped one place back in the series with the combined team third, the women fourth and the men second - a brilliant effort in the circumstances.

Andrew Mead adds: "I had a quick look at the results and I think that the fact that we did not have a full women's team probably did not make much difference to the final standing. If the '4th woman' score was say 50 rather than 102, then we would have come fourth not fifth on the day but still not enough to stop Petts Wood taking 2nd overall for the season (they had all four women in the top 10, so their combined score was not beatable unless we could match that in the mens). So not such a disappointment as it seemed on the day and a great team achievement for the cross country season. Also doesn't Mr Simpson deserves a big thank you for his sterling efforts?" Quite right Andrew. On behalf of all the SAC KFL runners, thanks David for handling the admin and supporting the teams in all weathers.

In the individual series positions, Heather was 5th woman and 1st W45, Vanessa 3rd W40 and Sally 3rd W55, while Andrew Milne was our first man in 16th, Andy Ashlee 2nd M45, Keith Dowson 3rd M50, Dan Witt 3rd M40, James Graham 2nd M60 and Jim Fitzmaurice 2nd M70 (1st M75). Heather is confirmed as W45 champion on the list of champions here. The SAC results at Blean Woods were as follows:

Ov Pos Lg Pos Runner Age Time Club Rating # Races
19 19 Andrew Milne 35 32:44 Sevenoaks AC 92.11 15
21 21 Andy Ashlee 48 32:48 Sevenoaks AC 91.23 25
24 24 Lee Lintern 37 33:02 Sevenoaks AC 89.91 29
31 31 Keith Dowson 54 33:26 Sevenoaks AC 86.84 14
33 33 Andrew Mead 49 33:44 Sevenoaks AC 85.96 33
42 41 Darius Sarshar 48 34:28 Sevenoaks AC 82.46 4
47 46 Daniel Witt 43 34:47 Sevenoaks AC 80.26 45
63 61 Nick Humphrey-Taylor 45 35:29 Sevenoaks AC 73.68 4
83 79 James Graham 64 36:18 Sevenoaks AC 65.79 22
88 84 Tom Waldron 22 36:26 Sevenoaks AC 63.60 2
98 91 Tony Waldron 50 37:06 Sevenoaks AC 60.53 24
132 119 John Denyer 69 39:23 Sevenoaks AC 48.25 46
196 35 Ella Pyman 51 43:14 Sevenoaks AC 66.34 7
218 45 Sarah Shewell 58 44:19 Sevenoaks AC 56.44 102
262 66 Anna Humphrey-Taylor 48 48:06 Sevenoaks AC 35.64 4
275 202 Lionel Stielow 69 49:08 Sevenoaks AC 11.84 8
277 203 Paul Allum 55 49:27 Sevenoaks AC 11.40 4
306 216 James Fitzmaurice 75 53:46 Sevenoaks AC 5.70 67

The full results are here.

Although that's it for the Fitness League until late October, there is still one Kent League cross-country fixture remaining which is on Saturday (10th Feb) at Sparrows Den, West Wickham (no junior races). As usual the contact for that is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..