Senior Cross Country Leagues Report

Last Saturday saw the fourth and final league matches in the Birmingham Men's and Midland Women's League held at the Plock Court in Gloucester.
The men went into the race in third position after a disappointing third race had seen the lead lost to OWLS and Loughborough. With 38 points to catch up it was going to be a tall order. Steve Marriott had his best run to date in Tipton colours with a great seventh place. Nigel Stirk is beginning to show some more form with a solid 15th - another step on from the Midlands. John Millington was 26th with Pat Kavanagh getting fit again in 34th. The two juniors of Dan Cotterill and James Ratcliffe seemed to struggle more on the faster course but finished creditable 39th and 40th to close out the team.

This gave Dan Cotterill third place overall in a strong Junior competition and was one of only two Tipton runners to compete in all four matches. With all the other races Dan's done so far he's having an excellent season and hopefully he can keep improving to get himself in the 12-stage team.

The final race saw us consolidate third with 161 points on the day, finishing 122 points behind OWLS and 82 behind Loughborough. Congratulations to OWLS on their first league title. It's good to see another club fighting for the win and hopefully this can spur us on to regain the shield next year.

The final women's race saw Tipton finish in 7th position on the day and 5th overall behind the winners Telford. Lynne Cox had another strong run and has run consistenly well all season - finishing 13th, 14th and 15th in the last three leagues. Amie Fithern was a strong 26th and Kate Williams came back from a wedding related layoff for 46th. Similar to the men the women started the season strongly with 5th and 3rd position finishes. Both teams really struggled in the third match - we'll have to correct that next year.