Birmingham League Race 3, Sat 14th January
Division 2 race at Wyken Croft Park in Coventry
The Rugby & Northampton Mens team finished in 5th place at the third fixture of the Birmingham Cross Country League, but still hold on to their lead at the top of Division Two. Competing at Wyken Croft Park in Coventry the squad were not as strong as their previous two races, in which they took victory, but it was enough to maintain a 55 points advantage over winners on the day Worcester A.C.
Top man for the club and making up for the previous weeks DNF in the County Champs was Stuart Nelson who once again went one place better than last time to finish in 6th position over the 5.5 miles course in 31 mins 47 secs. Nelson now has an 8th, 7th and 6th to his credit and should place well in the overall individual standings.
Chris Perez completed his 30th League race and of those occasions has made the top two for the club ten times and he crossed the line in 27th spot on 33.34 while recently joined Seb Palmer had a massive improvement from the first two races to finish an excellent 47th in 34.15
While running for Northampton Phoenix in the nineties Gary Wallace scored in the team on 20 occasions and he added one more to that total when he was timed at 34.24 in 49th place and trying to hang on to him was Brendan Moen just eight seconds adrift in 52nd , which now brings his total to twenty times in the A team.
Team manager Vince Carroll has a habit of just sneaking into the team and for the 13th time in his career he finished as the 6th man for the club when he produced a strong finish to claim 67th spot in 35.11.
Lying in third place in the table and 62 pts behind R&N are Wolverhampton & Bilston who host the final match on February 11th, so the team need to be at full strength if they are to be sure of clinching the title.
Terry Egan notched up his 50th race in Division Two alone when he led home the B team for the 10th time. The 51 year old recorded 35.22 for 71st place and is now just three races short of the century in total.
Recording 35.32 for 76th was Neil Willsher who made his league debut in this division exactly 10 years ago and finished in the very same position as he did then. Brian Summers and John Saw followed with the former in 85th spot on 36.06 and the latter 109th with 37.15.
Closing off the B team were two runners achieving a lifetime best position with Max Chipping ton (137th in 38.44) and Steve Dixon ( 140th in 38.55).
R&N were only beaten by Wolves & Bilston on the day, but they still hold an 18 point lead in the B competition.
Also running and making his debut was Veteran Aaron Lincoln who finished 167th in 40.57 and former sub 25, 5 miler Steve Childs with a time of 42.32 for 189th.
