NEHL Alnwick, 17th March 2018

A bitterly cold day with a biting wind and intermittent snow showers greeted a depleted field for the re-arranged final event of the North East Harrier League at Alnwick. The Claremont contingent was smaller than it would have been on the original date and this seemed to apply to most clubs,

Given the recent snow and rain, the course was in amazingly good condition (could do with drainage like that in our garden!) with just a couple of big puddles and short stretches of mud. The only problem, particularly for spectators and marshals was keeping warm!

Once again the Claremont ladies showed the lads how it was done with some great performances, including two in the top 15 – Sarah Kerr was an impressive13th and Catherine Young nearly caught her after starting from the medium pack to finish a fantastic 15th. Mandy Herworth also ploughed through the field from the medium pack to be 3rd counter, and it was great to see Serpil Bulut back to form to complete the “A” team. Alice Vialard, Cath Robson and Gill Milne were the 3 other finishers. The ladies have finished 4th in the 2nd Division – an excellent performance following promotion last year.

Alice just pipped Bill Milbourne, overtaking him in the finishing straight but Bill was still first over 65 man home. In fact Bill was the only over 65 male to brave the cold!

As there were only 6 men, everybody would count, so the main target was just to make sure that we all got around safely. Tom Tinsley, Dean O’Brien, Chris Carr, Howard MacLennan, Dave Wotton and Kenny McCormick did just that!