Cross Country Report
Saturday 1 June 2024
St Joseph’s Invitation, St Ives Showground
Clouds were looking ominous last Saturday at St Ives Showground. However, as things panned out, runners’ hair product was only challenged for the last few minutes of the Opens race. Phew! The Blue Street Boys were in top form on the challenging St Ives course and approached securing the results we hoped for the season’s duration. We went 1st (joint), 2nd and 2nd amongst the GPS Teams in each Age Group! Nice! The boys are starting to not just run well, but they are also seeking out the camera at every opportunity, following JJ Black’s lead (who always manages a smile for the palooka photographer lurking in the trees…), as they look good on film; also smiling, often hamming it up or just very ‘focused’ in the lens!
The 14s were missing Harrison Thomas, as he was off at AFL, yet they were keen to make a good account of themselves. Toby Ward was determined to make a statement about his current form after his disappointing stack last Saturday and ran superbly, closing in on the pointy end of the race as he surged into the Top Ten overall to be 9th, 3rd GPS. Henry Grieve loves mixing it with the older boys, giving up nearly two years to some of them, and he was not far behind Toby in 12th. He seems to relish the hills and floats across the tough terrain. Archie Watson had another fine run with George Harvey not far adrift, doing his best to try and catch Archie on the last lap. Archie held him off as they both accelerated to the line, with Archie finishing in 20th overall and George only five places behind in 25th. They completed our Junior Team result as they tied 1st with Scots amongst the GPS teams. Leon Field and Elliot Smith continue to impress and get keener by the week and William Johnstone, quite pleased with himself, supplied the quote of the week: “I cracked the top 100!” at race end.
Our Intermediates were certainly aware of the camera at race start and were obviously keen to put on a show. That they did with some fine performances. Jonty Jagger claimed to be feeling a tad unwell pre-race however, it certainly wasn’t evident during the race. If he runs like he did on Saturday ‘crook’, we’re so looking forward to seeing him fighting fit! He led our Inters for the duration with Will Bestic hot on his heels. They were running superbly together, don’t we love that, yet Will succumbed to a nasty niggle in his ankle and was unable to hang onto Jonty. Jonty finished an awesome 14th, 7th GPS! Hugo Stewart was also moving through the field and managed to slide past Will as they both finished creditably in 19th and 21st respectively, 12th and 13th GPS. Feeling quite pleased with myself after I prophesied in the SWR last week that an awesome confidence building performance for Ben Frantz was just around the corner, well he nailed that on Saturday as he was 22nd, just behind Hugo and Will and was even closing on them as the finish loomed! No doubt success coming from getting out a bit quicker and backing himself. Ben completed a fine Inters result for Shore as we were 3rd overall behind dominant Trinity and King’s to be 2nd GPS.
The Opens race was pretty much a sea of Blue, White and Gold upfront as Shore and Scots were tussling it out for the duration. Shore spectators relished the ‘team running’ on display as a Blue Street Pack surged past each lap. Ryan Gilmour looked his best so far on course, as he nailed a fabulous 3rd overall, 3rd GPS; so fine! Isaac Lanham ran brutally, to the chagrin of a young Scots runner who tried to close him down as the line loomed. Little did he know that Isaac had ‘speed credentials’ and was having none of that as he was 7th, 6th GPS. Lachy Brown is getting back to what history tells us he is capable of as he slid comfortably into 10th with James Bestic, reliable as always, completing our Opens team result as he was 11th. Lachy and James both cracking the GPS Top Ten in 8th and 9th. We were only 2 points adrift of Scots in the Open team result, which indicates how close things are between the two Schools when we are all fully fit! There’s no reason to ‘throw the toys out of the cot’ yet, as the season is long, and you never know… Thomas Gray had another super run supporting the Opens team, even leading for a while, as he was 18th.
Shore Cross Country “Machine of the Week’: Again, plenty of banter and opinion amongst the coaches in selecting last Saturday’s ‘Machine’, and it was narrowed down to either Ben Frantz or Isaac Lanham. Isaac just gets the nod for his awesome result in the Opens to be the 2nd Shore Team member home – if a sequel were to be made of ‘True Grit’, John Wayne wouldn’t get a look into Isaac! Nice!
Hopefully, as the SWR goes to print, we will have snavelled some fine performances, with no ‘horsing about’, at the CIS Cross Country Championships at the Horsley Park Equestrian Centre. I’ll get back to you…
Good running,
Mr M Spratt
MIC Cross Country
