Gwent XC League – Fixture #1

Margam Park, Saturday 11th October

It was a very warm start to the XC season at Margam Park near Port Talbot which may have contributed to the large turnout, with 358 women and 467 men taking to the start lines.

First off was the CAC ladies with a 7-woman contingent for 1 medium and 2 large laps (e.g. ‘the big hill twice’). Unfortunately I’d forgotten about the second hill before I agreed to run yesterday, only remembering at the bottom….

Laura Meech led us home in a fabulous 47th place, collecting a T-shirt for being top 10% in her new age category, followed by Polly Atherton, Daisy Manner-Lolley, Jenny Morgan, Becky Layland, Charlie Hurcum and Donna Davies. By having a full team (5 runners), we finished in a fabulous 11th place as a team, and sit in 2nd place in our division after the first race!

The men were up next, for 1 medium and 3 large laps. Obviously it was a “much wetter course by this point, much warmer and windier…hill had grown…so much harder work” – Jack R.

Jack Richardson led the team back (and collected a ‘top 10% t-shirt’), followed by Tom Gange, Ben Burns, Steve Wood, Nick King, Alex Murray, Matt Crocker, Ben Sharp, Benji Miles, Rory Donovan, Morph Richards and Chris Davies. The Mens A team finished in 19th (3rd in division 2), the B team in 66th and our C team in 106th!

The day was finished with a bake-off worthy selection of cakes 🙂