Round 7 Borders League
Deestriders, 30/4/2008

It was records all round for Abergele Harriers at the final race of the Borders Road Running League in Deeside on Wednesday, with the team winning the Veterans League for the first time in club’s history, winning a record seven individual prizes overall, and on the day fielding a record twenty six members and the men’s team getting a league record ten counters home in the top thirty nine positions, scoring a club record 251 points in the process.

Over a new four mile course, with the club’s strongest possible team in action, first Harrier home on the night was the in-form Sean McCormack finishing in 13^th position and easily securing second position overall in the MV40 category. Very close behind, making his debut in the League, and one to look out for in the future, was sixteen year old Stephen Boyton, finishing in a fantastic 15^th position. Seventeenth position went to Geran Hughes in 22mins 17secs, just two seconds and one position ahead of John Earlston, who had the consolation of, not only winning the MV45 category for the second year running, but also defending his “First Veteran Overall” title. Earlston in turn just managed to hold off John Ford who finished in 19^th position, again just a matter of seconds behind. Several other close battles continued behind, with Tim Cahill just out-sprinting Darren Blazier for 29^th and 30^th positions respectively, with Cahill securing the 3^rd MV45 prize and Blazier the 4^th Senior Male one. Dewi Roberts also ran superbly finishing in 32^nd position, with Steven McCormack and Gareth Roberts finishing in 38^th and 39^th positions, again with just seconds separating them. Matthew Ashton ran a fantastic 23mins 20secs but the disappointment of finishing outside the “ten” on the night was soon overcome by the news that he had won his first ever Borders League trophy, by finishing 10^th Senior Male for the season, a just reward for his very consistent racing. Ed Reid ran a superb race as usual, finishing in 24mins 17secs for a very satisfactory 74^th overall, with Haydn Jones, fresh from a ten mile personal best just five days earlier, finished in a tremendous 116^th. Not far behind was Grahame Shone in 26mins 20secs for 125^th and Keith Elliott in 26mins 47secs for 142^nd. Sandwiched between them was Carol Willgoose who finished in 26mins 42secs to secure 1^st position overall in the FV45 Category, in this her first full season running in the League. Pete Smith proved he had recovered well from his London Marathon PB with an excellent time of 28mins 41secs, just ahead of Rob Spotswood in 28mins 57secs. Second claim member Pam Grant was second home for the ladies in a tremendous 29mins 5secs, again recovered well from London, just two seconds and two positions ahead of Katie Williams, who was making her debut for the club. Alan Lucas, another London veteran, ran a superb race finishing in 30mins 40secs, with John Essary just behind in 31mins 2secs for 224^th on the night.

Alex Dutton and Allison Guillemin also had a very close battle finishing in 226^th and 227^th respectively, while Sue Calvert was less than a minute behind in 241^st, again running superbly in this her Borders League debut. The record sized team was completed by Stevie Ward in an outstanding time of 35mins 41secs.

Special thanks also to John Hickman whop turned up on the night to support and Jaime Ashton who was present at all the races all season to help record the finishing times and positions.

Abergele Men’s Team Results;

Total Points; 251

 Abergele Ladies Team Results; 

Total Points; 78

Individual Results
Team Results
Individual Standings after final race