Cross Country Report
Saturday 10 May 2025
The Boys from Blue Street and their fans travelled to The King’s School (King’s) at Parramatta last Saturday for their annual Cross Country Invitation meet. We were once again greeted by wonderful hospitality and a carefully manicured and testy course. Whilst not quite affording the views the Shore lads have each week at training, the riches were in the undulating, hilly and challenging course, which was a test of ‘Cross Country’ in its truest sense. We were proud of the fist the boys made of it and were pleased with our solid results. Well, from the boys, some parents seemed to be paying a tad less attention to the boys’ travails on course and spent much more time ‘catching up’… I feel it best not to single anyone in particular out, yet…
The Juniors sped off at 9am down a start chute that wouldn’t have looked out of place at a NCAA Cross Country meet, swung left and onto the course proper. Henry Grieve got out faster than last weekend, and it paid dividends in his performance. He finished a very pleasing 14th overall, which was 6th amongst the GPS. Zac Robertson looks to have Henry in his sights. Don’t we love competition amongst ourselves, pushing everyone toward better results? The erudite George Harvey set a solid early pace again, yet Zac reeled him in to be 21st (10th GPS). George hung on to be only two spots adrift of Zac in 23rd (11th). Alex Baxter stepped up to the task of anchoring the Junior team as he was 40th (20th) and will no doubt continue to improve. We are very keen to see how our Juniors fare if the moons eventually align and we get all our registered young blokes at a race. Of course, they need to prioritise commitments to their team sports. C’est la vie!
After the pummelling we received last week in the Opens, we decided it would be prudent to run all our Intermediates down in their own division, and it proved to be a wise decision as we snavelled the win in the Inters and snuck ahead in the season-long cumulative competition by a point. Not that it’s certain we can stay there! Yet! We all remain in awe of James Warren’s competitive drive, always backing himself and having a red-hot crack in his races. This he did again last week and led the Inters home with a fine run to be 9th (2nd). Just three spots adrift overall was Jonty Jagger, who ran tenaciously despite twisting his ankle on Friday night; no questions asked or excuses given, maybe from a dance… to finish 12th (3rd). Toby Ward ran well again and then ran quickly off to his football game in haste after his run! Don’t we love thoroughly committed young men! Toby was a solid 17th (7th). Hugo Stewart, who like Jonty ran back down from the Opens, looked more comfortable on the short green stuff than last week and finished a pleasing 28th (12th). I expect he will soon have his competitive juices flowing and push himself harder to keep up with his teammates in the coming weeks! He’s just that type of guy!
Our Opens managed to get a team together, just, with only five starters, four required. Captain James Bestic surged to the front, possibly a little less prudent than his normal race plan, and after two hot laps, he was cooked! This put Tom Gray on the back foot as he looks to fancy his chances of being our Opens front runner each week. Despite working closer to James as the race progressed, he was unable to make up the early deficit. That being said, James recovered from his early insanity in the latter half of the race, eventually finishing a solid 20th (14th), with Tom finishing in 29th (19th). Vice Captain Daniel Becker was next home, tenaciously crossing the line on the super tough course in 77th (57th). Fraser Pandit completed our Open Team as he was 81st (61st). Sadly, the effervescent James Thompson stumbled off the course mid race as he succumbed to a persistent calf niggle. We do hope he is fixed soon; we could use him! The depth of the Opens across GPS is incredible this year, with several schools continuing to run their better Intermediates up. This may soon change as The Scots College are looking unbeatable. Hence, this would change the complexity of the Intermediates point scoring, time will tell!
We are back at the familiar digs of Upjohn Park and Rydalmere tomorrow for the Cranbrook/Knox Cross Country.
Good running,
Mr Michael Spratt
MIC Cross Country
