Captain’s report
On a warm and sunny April morning nearly 300 competitors, including 27 Wrekin members, had the enticing prospect of racing on a nice area in this event which combined the WM Championships and WM League. The event was controlled by our own Richard Lewis. We were rewarded with well-planned good and fair courses, a detailed new map which was clear to read, and the forest was nicely runnable although wet underfoot.
Combining the two complementary competitions in one event led to a good turnout from WM Clubs and the nice forest and accessible location attracted other competitors from as far afield as Sheffield and Bristol.
I am writing this before full confirmation of results is published but, provisionally, Wrekin had a number of excellent results across the age ranges in the WM Championships: the Lewis family won three titles in one household; Tom(M35) and Katie (W35 )Lewis ran the Brown course and Blue course in a winning M/W 35 combination while son Edward won the M10 title on the Yellow course. On the Green course Wrekin members Adrian Pickles, Sarah Bayliss and Eva Spurling won M65, W55 and W18 titles respectively. Other Club members also did well; Clive Richardson and Rich Pay gaining second and third places in M55 on the Blue Course. On Green Lawrie Jones (M65) and Di Jacks (W55) finished in second place with Maria Murphy coming third in W55. Janet Hill (W65) and Noreen Taylor (W80) competing on the Short Green course finished second and third in their age class as did Harriet and Grace Allinson in W14 on the Light Green course. These performances plus those from everyone else will turn into another good set of points scored for the annual WM League competition. Congratulations to all our West Midland Champions.
There are always points of interest behind many individual results and these results show Wrekin’s strength in depth across M55-65 classes. Along with a welcome return to events for Pete Jones and Richard Rogers and a return to form for Lawrie Jones, there is obviously good internal competition in the Allinson, Howsam, Lewis, Murphy-Spurling and Turner households. There was pleasing progress for relative newcomers Eva Spurling and Janet Hill, a come-back from injury for Duncan Bayliss and a so-near-yet-so-far story for Jeff Haycock on M80.
The next WM League event is at Shoal Hill near Cannock on April 16th. See you there!
Adrian Pickles
Club Captain
5 April 2023
