It is now seven years since we last failed to field a team of twelve in the Kent League, but this time it was looking dicey for the eleven of us sheltering in the club tent fifteen minutes before the start; but then we were delighted to spot Tarbo pushing his bicycle through the rain towards us. We still all had to finish of course, but finish we all did, so everyone counted, from Dean in 8th to Ian McCarthy in 260th (it would have been 263rd without a spectacular sprint finish). We may have only come 9th, but at least we registered.
Our four to score team was made up of the same four as last time, and in the same order, and again we came 4th with both Dean and Bayley improving on their positions by two places.
A little earlier there had been another excellent performance from our over 70s in the shorter race of 5k: Peter Hadley coming 2nd and Keith Dungate 3rd.
As always the Somerhill School course was immaculately laid out and provided some excellent racing. By the time of the senior men’s race the forecast rain had arrived and the course was well churned up by the previous races.
Results – Senior Men – 10k
8 Dean Lacy 34:20 10 Bayley Massey 34:37 63 Luke Ford 40:05 71 David Reader 40:29 82 Tarbo Fukazawa 41:25 210 Clem Dixon 48:28 231 Wole Odele 50:41 232 Mike Daly 50:43 241 Antonio Irranca 52:07 250 Martin Hawkins 53:10 252 Paul Ford 53:19 260 Ian McCarthy 55:21
Results – M70 – 5k
2 Peter Hadley 26:30 3 Keith Dungate 27:40