Ten SAC runners took part in the first KXCL match of the season held at Stanhill Farm, Wilmington, including two Juniors, writes James Graham. It was not like a normal cross country meeting as it was a lovely warm, sunny day with the main problem on the course not being mud but rather clouds of dust.
In the Senior Women’s race Jacqui O’Reilly finished in a very creditable 11th place and in the Senior Men’s Darius Sarshar lead the six SAC runners home. The other runners to score for the men’s team were Dan Witt, Andrew Mead and James Graham, with the team currently in 17th place. Chris Desmond and Lyndon Collins also ran in the senior men's race.
Earlier in the day Julia Sackville-West and Ollie Brownridge did extremely well in their first U13 races for the club, finishing 33rd and 15th respectively.
Match 2 takes place on 28th October at Somerhill School, Tonbridge and if anyone would like to take part,
Dan Witt adds: I see the results are up on the Kent League website - I think it's fair to say we struggled to be competitive as maybe we'd have liked in such a large field, one of the biggest I've run in for the Kent League, presumably because of the balmy autumnal weather making it feel like an English Summer's day!
In brief, we fielded a full team in the Senior men's race in which our team of 4 was 17th out of 21 teams. Jacqui fared much better in the Senior Women's race in which she was 11th out of 162 - a very impressive debut. Also, we fielded some juniors that have run very well, for example Ollie in the U13s boys was 15th out of 94. Plus James was second M60 and Richard Pitcairn-Knowles, the only M80, fifth in the M70s.
Let's hope the team fares better this Sunday at the KFL in Knole!
Keith Dowson secured the Kent Grand Prix M50 title with third place (2nd in Kent clubs) in the category at the Ashford 10k on 8 October. Keith was in second place going into this final race of the series and needed a minimum of third M50 from Kent clubs to ensure victory in the Grand Prix. In a tight race, three eligible M50s were within 15 seconds of Keith at the finish, with his nearest challenger from Orpington RR, who led going into the final race, securing six points to Keith's nine.
Andrew Milne was first SAC runner home, finishing just ahead of Dowson, and reversing their positions from the previous GP race, the Sittingbourne 10, seven days earlier. In the Sittingbourne event, Milne and Dowson were the only Sevenoaks AC runners. Keith Dowson reports: "I was 11th in 1:03:57 and 1st Vet 50 (nice tankard!), Andrew was 20th in 1:05:15 which was especially impressive as he ran the mob-match the day before, which I whimped out of". The Sittingbourne results are here.
Nick Humphrey-Taylor and Dan Witt also ran well at Ashford to complete a strong men's team, while Jacqui O'Reilly was fifth and third senior in the women's race.
Keith Dowson is joined as a GP champion by James Graham who had already secured the M60 title by winning six of the first seven races. The GP positions prior to the final race at Ashford are here. The SAC results from Ashford are:
| Pos | Num | Name | Club | Sx | Cat | Chip | Gun | CPos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27. | 669 | Andrew MILNE | Sevenoaks AC | M | SM | 37:52 | 00:37:53 | 20 |
| 32. | 250 | Keith DOWSON | Sevenoaks AC | M | M50 | 38:06 | 00:38:07 | 3 |
| 41. | 470 | Nick HUMPHREY-TAYLOR | Sevenoaks AC | M | M40 | 38:28 | 00:38:34 | 8 |
| 65. | 1071 | Daniel WITT | Sevenoaks AC | M | M40 | 39:58 | 00:40:00 | 15 |
| 5. | 736 | Jacqueline O'REILLY | F | SW | 40:34 | 00:40:40 | 3 |
The full results are here.
Sally Shewell was second W55 as twenty Sevenoaks runners, including several of the previous days mobsters, contested the Tonbridge Half in damp windy conditions on 1st October. Nick Humphrey-Taylor was our first runner home, narrowly edging out fellow M40 Matthew Walker.
Sevenoaks AC were sixth in the mob match organised in conjunction with the Malling Parkrun on 30th September. SAC had the smallest team of the seven participating clubs, but there were high-quality performances at both ends of the field. The SAC results were as follows:
| Pos | parkrunner | Time | Age Cat | Age Grade | - | Gender Pos | Club | Note | Total Runs | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | Darius SARSHAR | 18:35 | VM45-49 | 78.12 % | M | 9 | Sevenoaks AC | First Timer! | 1 | |
| 12 | Andrew MILNE | 18:40 | SM30-34 | 70.27 % | M | 12 | Sevenoaks AC | New PB! | 58 |  |
| 15 | Nick HUMPHREY-TAYLOR | 18:51 | VM40-44 | 74.62 % | M | 15 | Sevenoaks AC | First Timer! | 145 |   |
| 25 | Daniel WITT | 19:34 | VM40-44 | 70.78 % | M | 23 | Sevenoaks AC | First Timer! | 36 | |
| 26 | John STEVENS | 19:36 | VM55-59 | 79.08 % | M | 24 | Sevenoaks AC | First Timer! | 9 | |
| 47 | James GRAHAM | 20:31 | VM60-64 | 80.99 % | M | 44 | Sevenoaks AC | PB stays at 00:19:40 | 55 | |
| 80 | Annabelle MILNE | 21:59 | VW35-39 | 68.46 % | F | 6 | Sevenoaks AC | First Timer! | 56 | |
| 147 | Simon ROWE | 24:20 | VM45-49 | 60.14 % | M | 127 | Sevenoaks AC | First Timer! | 15 | |
| 160 | Anna HUMPHREY-TAYLOR | 25:02 | VW45-49 | 64.71 % | F | 27 | Sevenoaks AC | First Timer! | 151 | |
| 313 | Sylvia LEWIS | 31:47 | VW60-64 | 63.77 % | F | 119 | Sevenoaks AC | First Timer! | 77 | |
| 346 | Richard PITCAIRN-KNOWLES | 33:28 | VM80-84 | 70.22 % | M | 203 | Sevenoaks AC | PB stays at 00:31:41 | 279 |  |
| 349 | Lesley KNIGHT | 33:34 | VW65-69 | 62.26 % | F | 144 | Sevenoaks AC | First Timer! | 17 | |
| 386 | Jim KNIGHT | 44:58 | VM65-69 | 37.66 % | M | 217 | Sevenoaks AC | First Timer! | 18 | |
| 396 | Paul Antony TABOR | 56:07 | VM55-59 | 27.86 % | M | 219 | Sevenoaks AC | First Timer! | 78 | |
The parkrun results are here. The "fiendishly complicated" mob match scores are here.