The last Kent League fixture of the season was held at Norman Park in Bromley, not somewhere that we have raced before and those that know the area were somewhat sceptical about it as a venue. But although the course could hardly be described as a classic there were a few inclines and a fair amount of mud and the strong wind added an extra challenge.
Both Dean Lacy and Danny Kendall were running for us: would Danny take Dean’s scalp again as he had at the Kent Champs the previous month? No. Both ran well but Dean in 4th place had a comfortable margin over Danny in 6th. Christian Poulton and Tarbo Fukazawa completed the four-to-score team which was 4th, enough to move us up the table by a couple of positions but only as far as a disappointing 6th place.
In the twelve-to-score we were 5th out of the 5 clubs with enough runners to score, but at least we had a team, although it looked touch-and-go before the start, particularly after David Reader returned from his warm-up run and pronounced himself injured (he went some way to redeem himself by taking the photos). In the end we had 13, although everyone was on strict instructions that they had to finish thanks to my inability to count. In the end it was Ian McCarthy who had the honour of being our 12th finisher and thanks to Tunbridge Wells Harriers failing to get 12 out we finished the season in 4th place, one better than last year.
Dave Kitcher made the long trip from his new home in Somerset to be our 5th finisher and to record another first place in the M60 category winning that competition for the season by a large margin.
In the earlier M70 event run in conjunction with the women’s race we had two runners: Peter Hadley notched up another 3rd place leaving him second in the final standings and Dave Tull, running just a few days after his 75th birthday came 5th.
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