www.homestead.com/whitehorseharriers

APRIL 2001

As I tap away very late on my keyboard on a Saturday night (yes, sad but true) I question whether I should have volunteered to return as Newsletter Editor. After all, late nights are not conducive to good athletic performance. And then I remember, my running and "good athletic performance" are separated by a very great distance (the first Oxfordshire League race?), and in fact even if I was in my prime I’d probably be injured anyway. The reason? The countryside is out of bounds so I would have done in my legs with an excess of road running.

 But first things first. Big thank you to Tim Payne for keeping the Harrier going when under a lot of pressure from work commitments. Tim and I have performed a juggling act with the editor’s job for the last eight years or so…. we must be gluttons for punishment. However I have to say (and I’ve said it before), it’s a great way to get to know people in the club, and gratifying to be the purveyor of (usually) good news.

 What a Cross Country season we have just had! As Dick Jégou reports in his "end of term" feature, the individual and team performances have been absolutely sparkling this year. Dick has been aided and abetted in his Team Manager’s role by Junior Coach Tom King, who has supported and mentored his squad to some brilliant performances, and Membership Secretary Dave Wright, who was instrumental in bringing on board our very talented Army recruits.

 The other major recent news is that the Club Committee met on 16^th March and decided to postpone the White Horse Half Marathon, provisional new date to be 30^th September 2001. See inside for more details.

Next copy date for the Harrier will be 24th May 2001.

TELEPHONE : 01235 760537(home) / 01235 554123(work)

E-MAIL : simon.williamson@barclays.net

 DATE : Sunday, 6th May 2001

 DISTANCE : Approx 5 ½ miles

 VENUE : Sparsholt Firs, on the Ridgeway

(the road to Lambourn)

 TIME : First Start at about 11 a.m

 Your Membership Secretary is Dave Wright, 3 Elizabeth Avenue, OX14 2NP. (Tel. 01235 201380). You can also contact Dave by e-mail, wrightsathome@aol.co.uk.

 New members who have joined in the last few months and perhaps slipped the net in getting a welcome in the Harrier include Kevin Bowerman, Ian Brennan, Gavin ("Woody") Felton, David Gray, George ("Paddy") McCourt, the entire Penfold Family (dad Jeff, mum Jenifer, little bro Henry join Tom and Ben), Kevin ("Shep") Sheppard and Erin Wysocki-Jones (joining Dad Simon and sister Katy). To all of you, welcome to White Horse Harriers.

 Congratulations are due to Jo Godding Paige and husband Geoff on the birth of their son Harrison. Jo and Geoff have also recently moved to Hallett Close, which appears to have more Harriers per inch than any other street in Wantage!

 Congratulations of a different sort to Barry Strange, our Club President. Barry has received an award from the Southern Athletics Association in recognition of 40 years service. No I can’t believe it either, he looks far too young…. must be all that training to keep Jégou in his place!

But seriously, the Club is very lucky to have such a well-respected and hardworking stalwart as President, and I’m sure Oxfordshire A.A are hoping Barry will be around for at least another 40 years too!

SOUTHERN LEAGUE FIXTURES FOR 2001

This is the provisional list for the coming Summer season ....... more details from your Track and Field Secretary, Trevor Taylor (01235 524143).

 5^th May Tooting Bec, South London

2^nd June Plymouth?

23^rd June Salisbury

7^th July Milton Keynes

21^st July Woking, Surrey

 OXFORDSHIRE CHAMPIONSHIPS 2001

The main events will be held over the traditional weekend in May, this year falling on the 12^th and 13^th. The venue will once again be Tilsley Park in Abingdon.

A full timetable of events should hopefully be available on our noticeboard in Wantage Leisure Centre, together with details of entry procedures, age groupings, etc. If it’s not there or you can’t get to the sports centre, give Dick Jégou a ring on 01235 768050. I will also endeavour to put some details up on the Club’s website at http://whitehorseharriers.homestead.com. Most years the closing date for entries is before the end of April.

 The long distance track events are being held on separate Wednesday evenings. The 10000 metres will be on 23rd May, as part of an Open Meeting at the Horspath track in Oxford. The 5000 metres will be held a week later, on 30th June, also at Horspath.

Trevor Taylor, our multi-event maestro, shows inimitable technique in a Southern League triple jump contest a few summers back. At least I think it’s the triple jump…. if it’s the steeplechase I would say his barrier technique needs a bit of refining!

 Photo courtesy of the Harwell Runners website at :

www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Midfield/6701

 Any photos stashed away from yesteryear gratefully accepted for publication in the Harrier. I think I feel a competition coming on, such as "which Committee member did this scrawny youth grow into?" Bribes not to publish gratefully accepted, for club funds of course.

SOUTHERN CHAMPIONSHIPS, PARLIAMENT HILL, 27^th JANUARY 2001

Parliament Hill was at its muddiest, I am told. Another top performance by Josephine Rhodes, slugging it out at the front with some of the best U15 Girls in the country, and a foretaste of even better runs in the Inter Counties and National. Chris Gillespie ran solidly in the U15, but Tom Penfold wisely gave the race a miss, recovering from a dose of flu. Paul Jégou led home the Senior Men in his best ever finish in this race, and in the process set himself well on track to win the Club Championship.

 U15 Boys U15 Girls

1^st A Humphries (Southend) 18:38 1^st S Luck (Havering) 20:29

31^st C Gillespie 20:50 5^th J Rhodes 20:53

90^th Owain Bristow 22:16

1^st N Francis (Shaftesbury) 52:13

13^th Nick Altman (ex WH) 54:43 (running for Thames H&H, who won the team)

175^th P Jégou 63:27

193^rd Dave Wright 64:02

424^th Chris James 71:27

478^th Harry Grundy 72:54

510^th Clifford Jones 74:01

604^th Nick Ponting 77:12

 Team : White Horse 43^rd on 2378 points

Traditionally this is the race where lots of athletes tie up the overall individual titles in the Oxfordshire League. That tradition also seems to involve lots of White Horse athletes, and this year was no exception, with titles won by Josephine Rhodes, Chris Gillespie, Tom Penfold and Frances Briscoe. Another Penfold, Henry, got the day’s proceedings of to a good start with a fine 11^th place in the U11 Boys race, and Rachel Ponting showed true grit over a tough course in the U11 Girls. The U15/U17 Boys team race was simmering nicely up to a classic showdown in the final race; Tom, Chris and Owain won in Cirencester and closed the gap on Witney to just two points.

 In the Senior races, the Women’s team secured a fine 3^rd place, and 4^th overall, with Sheila Bailey 2^nd overall in the V2 section. The Men hung on to their overall lead from Headington, but would 30 points be enough of a cushion going into the final fixture? We were missing our Army guys, but when you have such strong, reliable backup guys as John Schutterlin and Nick Ponting, you can sometimes get away with it. Mention should also be made of Clifford Jones’ fine run in 61^st… Clifford has plugged away doggedly and improved in every race … he must be the fastest shot putter in Oxfordshire!

1st I Castle (OCAC) 5.06

11th H Penfold 5.55

7^th H Penfold 22

23^rd T Grundy 65

1^st A Carreras (Bic) 5.12

26^th R Ponting 9.07

 Overall U11 Girls

21^st R Ponting 72

25^th K Wysocki-Jones 91

 U13 Boys

1^st G Wood (Abn) 11.05

9^th D Gray 14.09

 U13/U15 Girls

1^st J Rhodes 10.46

 Overall U15 Girls

1^st J Rhodes 3

 U15/U17 Boys Team Results

1^st White Horse 11

2^nd Witney 12

3^rd Oxford City 28

4^th Banbury 33

 U15/U17 Overall Team

1^st Witney 54

2^nd White Horse 56

3th Banbury 169

 U15/U17 Boys

1^st T Penfold U17 23.46

3^rd C Gillespie U15 25.02

7^th O Bristow U15 27.29

 Overall U15 Boys

1^st C Gillespie 10

2^nd O Bristow 19

 Overall U17 Boys

1^st T Penfold 3

2^nd M Ashton (Wit) 5

1^st Headington 88

2^nd White Horse 133

3^rd Woodstock 296

 Second Division

1^st Cirencester 313

5^th White Horse B 700

 Overall Standings

1^st White Horse 582

2^nd Headington 613

3^rd Woodstock 1210

4^th Oxford City 1222

 Second Division

1^st Cirencester 1331

5^th White Horse B 2523

 Senior Men

1^st R Bromley (Hed) 37.59

5^th P Wilson 38.38

6^th D Wright 40.07

11^th P Jégou 40.57

16^th T Hughes V1 41.56

17^th J Cooke 42.08

34^th J Schutterlin V2 43.48

44^th N Ponting V1 44.39

 All our athletes did Oxfordshire proud in the Inter Counties, held over an undulating course in Woolaton Park.  Josephine Rhodes finished a sparkling 9th, but such was the competition at this level that just 13 seconds faster would have secured a Bronze medal placing.  Similarly Tom Penfold finished 8th, just behind his old rival Tom Bedford, who finished 4th in the Southern.

Chris Gillespie shouldn't be disappointed with 48th in the U15 race...20 seconds better would have moved him up 20 places, and he was only a minute down on the leaders. Kevin Sheppard was first Oxon Senior man home in 48th, a very high class run.

Other Harriers were Frances Briscoe 51st in the Junior Women, Owain Bristow 199th in the U15, Woody Felton 131st and Paddy McCourt 223rd in the Senior Men.

 This must go down as one of the best Nationals that White Horse athletes have ever competed in.  Josephine Rhodes capped a brilliant season with a superb 7th place.  Not to be outdone, Tom Penfold produced a screamer in his race, a magnificent 4th. Frances Briscoe finished 17th in the U20 Women, a very solid run and proof that she could soon be a force to be reckoned with at Senior level.  This was brilliant peaking by all three runners, and testimony to some fantastic coaching by Tom King ...why aren't we all down at Tilsley Park on Tuesday evenings?!

 And what about those Senior Men?  26th is a tremendous performance in a race of this standard, and must be our best ever. Put in context with the local scene, Headington were 55th. 

 Pete Wilson was back on song with 116th, followed with some excellent packing from Woody Felton 206th, Paddy McCourt 242nd, Dave Wright 302nd, Jason Cooke 361st and Paul Jégou 421st.  Special thanks to Dick and Dave for getting everyone to the starting line and organising the accommodation.

 Senior Men

1^st M Openshaw (Birchfield) 36:52

99^th K Sheppard (Tipton) 40:52

100^th N Altman (TH&H) 40:53

116^th P Wilson 41:10

206^th G Felton 42:48

242^nd P McCourt 43:16

302^nd D Wright 44:03

361^st J Cooke 44:49

421nd P Jégou 45:46

829^th C Jones 51:27

A great day to be wearing green and white (horse). Very pleasing to see our overall individual winners turning out to support their teams, and again getting great backup. Owain Bristow has been getting stronger as the season has progressed and ran out of his socks to enable the U17 Boys to overtake Witney for the overall team title. Dave Wright, Jason Cooke and Derek Green (yes him!) were instrumental in producing a stunning 77 point total which couldn’t be dented by Headington.  Special mention also to Hero of the Day, Paul Jégou, who turned up straight from hospital after being mugged on the Friday night.  Paul had the honour of collecting the trophy, to much cheering from a happy bunch of Harriers.

1^st I Castle (OCAC) 3.54

9^th H Penfold 4.30

 Overall U11 Boys

1^st I Castle (OCAC) 5

9^th H Penfold 31

1^st D Luke (OCAC) 7.26

8^th D Gray 9.01

 U13/U15 Girls

1^st J Rhodes 7.15

1^st J Rhodes 4

2^nd E Ridley (Wit) 10

1^st White Horse 12

2^nd Oxford City 16

3^rd Witney 17

1^st White Horse 68

2^nd Witney 71

3^rd Banbury 206

 U15/U17 Boys

1^st T Penfold 13.17

2^nd M Ashton (Wit) 13.31

4^th C Gillespie 13.57

7^th O Bristow 14.55

 Overall U15 Boys

1^st C Gillespie 14

2^nd O Bristow 26

1^st T Penfold 4

2^nd M Ashton (Wit) 7

1^st Headington 20

2^nd Cirencester 31

3^rd White Horse 43

14^th White Horse B 132

Men Team Results

1^st White Horse 77

2^nd Headington 114

3^rd Oxford City 245

1^st Cirencester 334

2^nd Abingdon 528

3^rd White Horse B 553

1^st White Horse 659

2^nd Headington 727

3^rd Oxford City 1467

1^st Cirencester 1791

5^th White Horse B 3076

 Overall Senior Men

1^st P Wilson 10 =

1^st R Bromley (Hed) 10 =

5^th D Wright 38

7^th P Jegou 62

12^th J Cooke 89

21^st C James 178

28^th C Mills 318

 CROSS COUNTRY END OF SEASON REVIEW (Report by Dick Jégou)

 Now the season is finally over, the time has come to look back with a considerable amount of pleasure at what must have been our best season ever.

 The start was a fairly modest one with Peter Wilson and Paul Jégou travelling to Salisbury for Round One of the Wessex League. Finishing 2nd and 17th respectively they were left to rue the fact that one more runner would have given us a team score. It was a different story though when the Oxford Mail season kicked off in November. Sixteen senior men completed what turned out to be a very long but otherwise excellent course at Ascot under Wychwood. Seven in the first 40, headed by Peter in first place was sufficient to secure a healthy 92 point lead over Headington. (Second division Cirencester actually beat Headington’s score). The only surprise was Tom Penfold’s defeat in the U17 Men at the hands of Witney’s Matthew Ashton. This was certainly not typical of what Tom was to produce for the rest of the season.

 At about this point we were joined by three new recruits from Dalton Barracks in the shape of Kevin Sheppard, Woody Felton and Paddy McCourt. All three duly turned out for the next Wessex race at Weymouth with sensational results. Paddy’s fine debut in 10th place did not even secure a place in the A team as Peter 1^st, Kevin 2nd and Woody 5th scored an unbeatable team total.

 The Berks, Bucks & Oxon came next at Eton College. We took 13 Senior Men hoping to repeat our success of a few seasons ago. The course was rather flat and boring, several laps of the playing field and our first man home, Peter Wilson, finished in 5th place but the packing behind him was brilliant. Paul’s very solid run in 25th did not make the scoring 6 as Woody Felton 7^th, Paddy McCourt 10^th, Dave Wright 12^th, Tim Hughes 15^th, Trevor Taylor 22nd secured a 33 point win ahead of Reading AC.

 Another flat course at Radley saw Headington fight hack. Bolstered by their second claim stars they beat us by 37 points on the day but not enough to take the overall lead from us. The following weekend took us to Hurn Bridge - an interesting and muddy course which was a combined Wessex and Avalon League race. Again we were winning team overall with 3 in the first 9 with Peter now establishing himself as favourite for the individual overall title.

 The January round of the Oxford Mail League took place in December (New Year’s Eve) as the regular date had been nominated for the County Championships. A snow-covered course greeted the hardy souls who travelled up the M40 to Banbury. On the day we beat Headington by 21 points. Peter finished 3^rd, Paddy (making his League debut) 6^th and Paul produced his best run for years in 9^th.

The following weekend saw a return to Ascot for the County Championships over a shorter course than the one used for the League. For the first time in the club’s history we won both the Senior and Veteran Men’s team titles so take a bow: Kevin, Peter, Woody and Paddy; also Dave, Trevor, John and Nick. The Wessex League then moved on to Pewsey Vale, which in some way saw the strangest result of the season. Peter, Paul and Jason were the winning team with three in the first 14 but the finishing order Paul 6^th , Jason 11^th , Peter 14^th was certainly not the expected one.

The final race in a very busy January was the Southern Championships at Parliament Hill -

as usual the longest race of the season. As the only double points scorer in the club championships it was clearly going to affect the result as Peter was unable to take part. For the second race in succession, the Harriers were lead home by Paul in a best ever 175^th. The remaining five - we only just scraped a team score - finished in good order with Dave Wright close behind Paul in 193^rd.

 The following weekend took us to Cirencester Park where Headington pulled out all the stops to beat us convincingly by 45 points, in the process narrowing our overall lead to 31 points, while Peter surrendered the overall individual lead to race winner Richard Bromley. Gang Wanly proved to be very wet indeed, the following weekend, with the team securing yet another win lead home by Paul in 4^th place.

Back in September we decided to not include the National in the Club Championships as we could not reasonably expect many people to travel all the way to Durham. Wrong. More men did the National than the Southern. In short 26^th team proved to be our best-ever result in the National. Peter’s 116^th gained him one of the special mementos awarded to the first 125 runners and everyone enjoyed a brilliantly organised event, held over an extremely good course.

 The final Oxford League race was going to be quite a challenge, foot and mouth notwithstanding, as Headington were threatening to turn out all of their second claimers. Our prospects took a nose dive 36 hours before the race when Paul (who had not missed a race all season - the only Harrier to do so) was attacked in Mill Street and left with a broken collar bone. Suddenly our 7 man score looked like growing drastically. On the evening before Derek Green phoned up to ask about the race. When he heard of Paul’s plight, he decided that he would run and see what he could do to help the team. This was all taking place against a background of rumours that the race would be cancelled due to Shotover Country Park being closed. Fortunately more phone calls and e-mails saved the day and the race did take place - three laps of the playing fields at Horspath. Paul arrived fresh from the fracture clinic at the John Radcliffe in time to see Peter claim a share of the overall title with Bromley of Headington and the team turn in their best score for years – 77 points. Five in the first ten : 3^rd Peter Wilson, 6^th Woody Felton, 8^th Paddy McCourt, 9^th Dave Wright, 10^th Jason Cooke plus 17^th Derek Green and 24^th Tim Hughes. How on earth Derek did it off no training, heaven knows, but it was certainly appreciated. It was a very proud, not to say relieved, Paul who stepped forward to collect the League trophy. Incidentally, Headington were very generous in their congratulations.

 All that remained was for Peter, Jason and Nick to travel to Bournemouth to secure the Division 3 Trophy (Wessex League) and for Peter to pick up the individual title.

I have not mentioned the younger members of the club yet in this report. In truth their achievements have outshone the exploits of the Men’s team. They have been a credit to themselves, their families, the club and, above all, Tom King who has coached and guided them brilliantly this year. The smile on Tom’s face at Durham was worth going all the way to see.

This season’s outstanding results included the following:

 U15 Girls

Josephine Rhodes 7^th National Champs

9^th Inter Counties

4^th Reebok Challenge

1^st Berks, Bucks and Oxon Champs

1^st Oxon County Champs

1^st Oxon League

1^st Oxon Schools

Frances Briscoe 17^th National Champs

6^th Southern Inter Counties

6^th Reebok Challenge

1^st Oxon County Champs

1^st Oxon League

1^st Oxon Schools

1^st Vale of White Horse Schools

Chris Gillespie 6^th Reebok Challenge

2^nd Berks, Bucks and Oxon Champs

1^st Oxon County Champs

1^st Oxon League

1^st Vale of White Horse Schools

 Owain Bristow 2^nd Oxon League

3^rd Vale of White Horse Schools

4^th Oxon County Champs

Tom Penfold 4^th National Champs

8^th Inter Counties

1^st South East Schools Inter Counties

5^th Reebok Challenge

1^st Berks, Bucks and Oxon Champs

1^st Oxon County Champs

1^st Oxon League

1^st Vale of White Horse Schools

 What a season, and how are we going to follow it up next year?

 Owain, Tom and Chris pick up the Team award at the final Oxon League

Frances Briscoe Josephine Rhodes