Results_

At the last cross-country league race at Lancing on the 12th February, the Under 13 boys team who have been excellent all season took first place on the day and claimed silver team medal for the season.

With seven athletes in the team all performing well, the lads really showed the rest of us how its done. Team manager Quenton Davis puts it this way: 'I think a combination of up-and-coming talent & and our commitment to attendance in numbers saw us through'

Archie Davis was first home in third place just 23 seconds off the lead. Archie was unlucky to miss out on the individual medals by a whisker. Then we had Matt Berridge 7th, Reuben Hoyte 9th, Isaac Wright 12th, Will Russell 32nd and Josh White 40th. Joe Lillie was unlucky to have to withdraw with an injury.

U15 boys featured two ever-reliable athletes Sam Kitchen 9th and Luke Reynolds 21st and place sixth for the year.

There was no U17 boys team featuring at all in the results.

Charlotte Matthews ran well again for the U13s but without support the team was just 11th for the season. Jody Mann 6th, and Amber Muir 14th ran well for the under 15 girls but without a full team had to settle for 6th overall.

The senior women fielded just two runners, Liz Durman 15th and Megan Lillie (U17) 42nd. After poor representation all season they languish 5th in the second division.

The senior men again featured just two runners (James Miles an excellent 9th and Andrew Neighbour 69th) and had to depend on the vets for their scoring including 60+ runner Malcolm Kemp. They were inevitably well short of the medals in 5th place. The vet men have been reasonably represented during the season but were without their strongest team at Lancing. They held on to fifth place. Nigel Herron ran a terrific 34th and Malcolm Hughes 55th and Lance Bellers 67th were the other scorers.

We need to decide whether we want to succeed across the board in this competition next season and, if so, what can we learn from the U13 boys team?

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Team silver for the over 60s (Andrew Haig, Terry Avey, Malcolm Kemp with Rik Taub in support) and team bronze for the over 40s (Bruce Warren, David Powell, Nigel Herron, Bruce Faulkner with Malcolm Hughes, John Marinko and Ro Harrington in support). Fine runs by Phil Hampshire and Brian Friend in the over 50s.

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It's the boys teams that are still keeping the Phoenix flag flying. The U13 boys fielded 5 runners with Archie Davis (3rd), Reuben Hoyte (4th), Isaac Wright (9th) running exceptionally well, with Joe Lillie and Will Russell in support. Winners on the day, the team have now moved into bronze position overall. The U15 boys have jumped from 7th to 4th overall with excellent runs from Billy White (3rd), Sam Kitchen (14th) and Luke Reynolds (21st). Thats where it stops with the under 17 boys without a team and no longer featuring in the tables.

Well done to Charlotte Matthews, Elorah Mann (U13G), Jodie Mann, Amber Muir (U15G) for strong performances. Its always going to be difficult to trouble the medals without full scoring teams. The U15s, though, have moved up from 9th to 8th place.

Then – oh dear – the senior turnout was dire. The women first. TheU17 runner Megan Lillie, was the ONLY Phoenix runner. She ran brilliantly for 30th place but in division 2, the women's team has now plunged from third to fifth position overall.

The men too were unable to provide a complete scoring team with James Miles (an excellent 9th) the only senior runner. As ever it was down to the four vets who turned up to provide a measure of respectability. Bruce Warren (33rd), Nigel Herron (48th) and Malcolm Hughes (69th) ran well, with O65 runner Andrew Haig (91st) unexpectedly having to contribute to the scoring. Inevitably the seniors have slipped from third to 4th overall but with 34 points separating them from bronze could still get among the medals at Lancing. The vets have slipped a place to 5th but it's very tight with just 11 points separating them from bronze-placed Arena 80.

THIS FROM U13 BOYS MANAGER QUENTON DAVIS:
…the U13 Boys now lie in bronze position in the team event overall. Statistically, we have not yet fielded our strongest 3 runners in any of the first 3 matches. Brighton & Hove have pretty much run away with the gold medal  but Chichester, currently in 2nd place,  are now only 15 points ahead of the Phoenix Boys. After the great performances on Saturday at Bexhill, we took the team event over Chichester by 12 points. With Archie Davis now looking like he is back to full fitness and the other boys all improving with every match, particularly Reuben, Matt Berridge and Isaac Wright, if we manage to field our strongest teams at Lancing, it may all get very interesting indeed. Whatever the outcome, this has been an outstanding cross country season for the Phoenix U13 Boys, who are pretty much all in their first season and with the exception of Will Russell, all eligible to compete in this age group again.

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22  01:19:57 92 Liz Halliday Vet F   1ST

And they're off! Cross-country league 1 took place at Goodwood on Saturday 23 October. The good news is that Phoenix were represented in all age groups, both male and female. The less good news is that The U17 boys, the U15 girls, the U13 girls and the senior women were short of a full scoring team. The points are made up by taking the number of runners in each race and adding ten points to complete the scoring and that is a heavy penalty!

The U13 boys are in a handy 6th place, within striking distance of the medals. Archie Davis ran an excellent race for 4th with the ever reliant Matt Berridge and Will Russell backing him up. The U13 girls are in 11th place with Charlotte Matthews and Madeline Houghton running solidly.

In the U15 categories Jody Mann was only representative for the girls, running well for 12th. The U15 boys with four runners led by Billy White (3rd) were second team.

In the U17 boys event Charlie Grice cruised to a well-judged win with Will Durkin impressing for 5th place. They are 5th as a team.

The senior women would have scored well with a third runner to back up Liz Durman (12th) and Deb Friis (59th). As it happened the cavalry in the guise of Anita and Rachel arrived just too late for the start. So – they are languishing in division 2 for the moment.

The senior men were short of a few lead runners for one reason or another but put in a spirited performance with Finn McNally (6th), Max Pickard (7th), new member Tom Hopkins (9th) and James Miles (16th) putting us into an excellent 2nd position.

The vets led by Garry Thayre (51st) are in 5th but just a handfull of points away from 3rd spot.

Three to go and all to play for as they say, but let's complete those teams folks.

Full results