A report from Team Manager (Women and Vets) Tom Ulliott
In summary the 2023/24 cross country league season for the B&H AC senior and vet ladies can best be described as a poor start but a very good recovery.
The first fixture of the season, Goodwood back in Oct saw a low turnout from our top athletes which meant our team score of 154 for that fixture alone left us in the precarious situation of being 7th of the 8 teams in Division one, some 101 points behind 3rd placed Worthing.
The situation was even worse with our vet ladies where we placed 13th in the first match with only 2 scoring runners.
Steady progress was made in the next two matches though, so we climbed up both tables, but considerable work was required at Glyndebourne in the final fixture if team medals were to be had.
Before the final race we were placed 4th senior ladies and 4th vet ladies but a solid turnout saw Linda Schofield finish an outstanding 3rd in the race with Dulcie Yelling 8th, Lydia Growns 18th and Paula Blackledge 25th, this was enough to overhaul Crawley AC and move us up to 3rd in the league and hence bronze medal spot. From what I can see, unofficially it looks as if the ladies who scored in any of the 4 matches who should receive medals will be as follows….. Rosie Gasson, Tilly Wilburn, Jeanette Kenneally, Allanah Clayton, Linda Schofield, Dulcie Yelling, Lydia Growns and Paula Blackledge.
It was a case of almost, but not quite for our vet ladies though as the trio of Linda Schofield, Paula Blackledge and Jeanette Kenneally finished 2nd on the day but just could not quite close the gap on 3rd placed Chichester overall in the league, finishing just 23 points shy of the medals. Frustratingly if match one at Goodwood had seem the same performances as the other 3 fixtures, our vets would have been neck and neck for the gold medals in the vets league, but it’s not always possible to get everyone out for every fixture.
In terms of individual medals in the league, it very much looks as if Tilly Wilburn has placed 2nd u20, Lydia Growns has moved from 5th to 3rd as a result of the final fixture to take bronze in the senior ladies and Linda Schofield romped home in the V45 ladies with a perfect score of 3, so 3 wins in her 3 races.
No such drama with our vet men in the league however as we went into match 4 with an already healthy lead and this was cemented by another fine performance which saw us 1st vets team on the day, and of course also in the league. I believe the vet me who should receive gold medals will comprise Zared Hale, Howard Bristow, Adam Clayton, Craig Halsey, Louis Taub and David Benton.