It was a great day for club teams as the Essex Cross Country League season came to a successful end at the final fixture at Colchester on Saturday.
Basildon to win the league title. Top class performances yet again from Michael Jones with an emphatic runners up spot and the smooth Jamie Buckley-Stanton in 5th, with excellent support yet again from Chris Sullivan in 14th and Jonathon Seekings closing the team in 17th position, brought the team victory on the day and worthy League champions. Back up was again good with Sam Swain 31st, James Drew 36th and William Crichton 39th.
The U15 Boys had already won the first four League races to sew up the league title and convincingly they made it five victories out of five to cement their success. They were led home this time by Matt Bloy with a solid second place, ably supported by Daniel Winters, who only just made it to the start line about travel problems. Daniel's performance, combined with his results in earlier rounds, gave him third place in the individual league standings. Steve MacLachlan was already assured of the league title, after winning all the first four races cruised to 11th place here, with an under par Grant Twist suffering stomach problems back in 19th. Such is the team's dominance in their age group that they still won the team event by 20 points. Once again the scoring quartet team had good support form Simon Brown in 21st, Robbie Kidd 26th, Daniel Shanney 27th and Thomas Shanney in 30th.
There were equally good turn outs and fine performances in the younger girls' categories. In the under 15 girls event Georgie Sales ran an excellent race to finish a fine second and to finish this campaign in third position overall in the league. She was backed up by Emma Fox in sixth with Ingrid Deane in eight and with a good 17th from Becky Owen the team finished in a commendable second place both on the day and over the season.
Once again it was a excellent turnout for under 13 girls age group and all the girls ran superbly. Sidnie Sales once again had a fine race and led the team home with a fourth place and was soon followed in by Eleanor Bounds in sixth with Rebecca O'Neill in eighth and Shannon Sullivan in 12th to bring the quartet home in second place to secure the same position in the league. The rest of the girls also ran well so hopefully we can build on this for the future.
It's been a good and improving season for the senior men and this was the highlight so far. A terrific run and sprint finish by Trevor Keys saw him take his highest league position coming home in second place. Gavin Maley worked his way through the field to take 14th and was closely followed by the ever-present Rob Warner in 17th. Matt Bland returning from injury was next home in 21st. Good runs by Ian Anthony 29th and Martin Chester 34th completed the scoring team with their best score of the season of 117 points. Tony and Neill Collins were next home in 45th and 49th respectively, chased home by Graham Pritchard 53rd and Russ Middleton 59th. Hurdler Kevin Benton made his annual appearance in cross-country to take a good 79th place. Kevin White 92nd and Martin McVeigh 98th brought home the team, which had their highest turnout this season with thirteen athletes.
