KFL Race 7 Swanley Park, March 16th 2014. · Sevenoaks Athletics Club

Sevenoaks AC pipped at the post

Since last October eighteen teams from across the County have been contesting the Kent Fitness League - a series of 7 gruelling cross Country races with 10 runners to score in each race.

After 6 races, Sevenoaks AC were in the lead - just ahead of Dartford Harriers. Everything hinged on the 7th race, held last Sunday, March 16th.

Thirty-seven Sevenoaks AC runners travelled to Swanley for the race, which was held in glorious sunny conditions around the picturesque Swanley Park.

We knew that Dartford would field a strong team and that some of our top runners - David Lee and David Ives - couldn't be there.

The Dartford team set off fast in a big group, but gradually our top runners, Allan Lee and Mike Fanning began to break through.

Allan Lee had a great run to finish second in 28.33, beaten only by Chris Wyles of New Eltham joggers who recorded an impressive 5th win of the series.

Then came the first of the Dartford runners, Andrew Pickett in 3rd, closely followed by three other Dartford runners in 5th, 6th, and 7th.

With a massive sprint finish, Mike Fanning came in 10th, and our other scorers not far behind - Andy Nicoll in 16th, Andy Ashlee in 23rd, Ben Bridges in 30th and Andrew Linney in 33rd,

It looks as though Dartford would win. However it wasn't over yet.
Each men's team must have one over-50 runner and Sevenoaks' Chris Desmond and John Stevens were well ahead of Dartford's leading M50. John eventually beat Chris by one place to be our M50 scorer in 50th place, with Dartford's M50 in 99th place.

In the women's race Sevenoaks and Dartford were also head-to-head. Clare Reeves of Dartford was the winner in 32.22 mins followed by her team-mate 14 year old Chloe Sharp.
For Sevenoaks, Cath Linney came 4th, Heather Fitzmaurice 7th and Pauline Dalton 11th. With Dartford's 3rd runner placing 21st, Sevenoaks won the women's race.

Adding up all the points from the scoring runners, Dartford won the men's race with Sevenoaks 2nd. Sevenoaks won the women's race with Dartford 2nd.

In the series, it couldn't have been closer. With the best 6 races to count for the series, Dartford won by 104 points to 103.

However Sevenoaks AC can be very proud to be runners-up in such a tough competition. In each race the club has fielded between 30 and 40 runners – an impressive turnout for a small club – and has performed consistently well, placing in the top 3 combined teams in every race.

There have also been some outstanding individual performances: -

Chris Desmond - M50 champion
Jim Fitzmaurice - M70 champion
Heather Fitzmaurice – W40 - runner up

This is the club's best performance ever in the Kent fitness League.

Thanks go to Geoff Vine and Happy Fisher, our club cross-country captains for inspiring the team and to everyone who ran for the club.

The next task will be to beat Dartford in the 2014/15 season, which starts in October.

Jim Knight

The SAC results were:

Ov Pos	Lg Pos	Runner	Age	Time	Club	Rating
2	2	Allan Lee	41	28:33	Sevenoaks AC	99.44
10	10	Mike Fanning	46	30:35	Sevenoaks AC	94.94
16	16	Andy Nicoll	33	31:19	Sevenoaks AC	91.57
23	23	Andy Ashlee	44	32:03	Sevenoaks AC	87.64
31	30	Ben Bridges	34	32:39	Sevenoaks AC	83.71
34	33	Andrew Linney	46	32:55	Sevenoaks AC	82.02
35	34	Lee Lintern	33	32:55	Sevenoaks AC	81.46
46	45	Joe Parsons	23	33:53	Sevenoaks AC	75.28
49	48	James Wright	45	33:58	Sevenoaks AC	73.60
51	50	John Stevens	52	34:03	Sevenoaks AC	72.47
53	51	Chris Desmond	51	34:14	Sevenoaks AC	71.91
55	53	Adam Lesley	43	34:33	Sevenoaks AC	70.79
62	60	Daniel Witt	39	34:56	Sevenoaks AC	66.85
70	4	Cath Linney	44	35:35	Sevenoaks AC	95.38
76	7	Heather Fitzmaurice	44	35:57	Sevenoaks AC	90.77
91	11	Pauline Dalton	49	36:31	Sevenoaks AC	84.62
96	85	John Denyer	65	36:59	Sevenoaks AC	52.81
98	87	Andrew Rackham	40	37:08	Sevenoaks AC	51.69
100	89	Geoff Vine	66	37:18	Sevenoaks AC	50.56
102	91	Simon Bishop	50	37:26	Sevenoaks AC	49.44
103	92	Tony Horlock	53	37:27	Sevenoaks AC	48.88
107	95	Andy Evans	43	37:47	Sevenoaks AC	47.19
114	101	Sam Bennett	41	38:12	Sevenoaks AC	43.82
117	104	Duncan Cochrane	56	38:25	Sevenoaks AC	42.13
127	16	Judy Howells	37	39:25	Sevenoaks AC	76.92
129	113	Geoff Kitchener	64	39:36	Sevenoaks AC	37.08
140	120	Simon Hallpike	60	39:54	Sevenoaks AC	33.15
155	130	Martin White	46	40:50	Sevenoaks AC	27.53
166	139	Maurice Marchant	65	41:43	Sevenoaks AC	22.47
183	37	Silvia Forcat	37	42:56	Sevenoaks AC	44.62
185	39	Happy Fisher	37	43:08	Sevenoaks AC	41.54
209	47	Clair Thornton	39	45:54	Sevenoaks AC	29.23
216	166	Hugh Shewell	25	46:53	Sevenoaks AC	7.30
236	60	Sylvia Lewis	61	51:04	Sevenoaks AC	9.23
237	61	Rosie Draper	53	52:14	Sevenoaks AC	7.69

The full results are here.

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