Senior Men and Women warm up for National Cross

Men finish 2nd and Women continue to improve

Senior men went into the last Birmingham League fixture at Northampton holding a slender 6 point lead over rivals Coventry Godiva.  A depleted mens squad competed well with a full strength Coventry team.  Tipton however were just missing that last competitive 6th man.  Fast starts from Josh Lilley, Dan Beier and Nigel Stirk were all to the fore with Ian Williams following and Martin Williams starting steady after a heavy few weeks training.  By halfway the field began to string out with Josh Lilley, Paul Miles and Biniam Ande battling for the win.  The Coventry lads were well bunched behind.  Martin Williams began to move through the field into the top 20 to close on Ian, Nigel and Dan who was holding on strong after a fast start. 

On the last lap Josh Lilley broke away with Paul Miles, with Paul Miles breaking Josh on the long drag hill with approx 800m to go to take the win with Josh finishing an excellent 2nd.  Martin Williams moved past the Tipton runners but Dan Beier hung on to Williams on the hill before out kicking him for personal best 9th place, Martin in 10th with Nigel Stirk in 12th and Ian Williams 13th following closely behind, to finish 5 runners in 13 places.  Unfortunately Coventry got their 6th man in 15th place.  Tiptons veteran runner Phil Clamp closed the scoring 6 in 54th place.  Coventry claimed the title by 40 points.  Tipton were runners up.  Josh claimed 3rd place in the overall 3 ot of 4 series, with Ian Williams claiming 3rd place in the 4 out of 4 races.

Tipton women save the best for last!

It was bright but cool and windy for this, the fourth and last race of the series at Cofton Park. Tipton's ladies got an overall score today of 51. This was by far their best result and netted them 4th place on the day (just one point off third place) and 7th place in the series.

The ground was not too muddy but a bit heavy. The course was simple – more or less straight round the edge of the park twice and quite easy to see what was going on. However, the rise and fall over the course was about 40m and at 7km long, it was pretty challenging - the times testify to this.

We had Amie Fithern, Lina Martino, Lynne Cox, Sophie Lynch and Sue Street.

Sue had an amazing race, running close to the front for most of it, coming in eventually in 8th place and beating some very worthwhile opposition. Lynne started more slowly but worked her way up the field and overtook Sophie to be second Tipton finisher in 19th place. Sophie held on gamely, even though she looked very tired and came in 24th. Amie was not at her best but still gave her all and got 46th place. Lina also found the going hard and dropped a few places over last time to 114th – still a big improvement for her over 2010.

Overall the team has scored in the series:

10th place at Leamington (Lynne, Amie & Julie Caddick counting)

7th place at Perry Park (Jo Ritson, Amie & Sophie)

5th place at Wyken Park (Sue, Amie & Julie)

4th place today at Cofton park (Sue, Lynne & Sophie)

Special mention for Amie who was the only Tipton lady to run in all four races.

Pity the series isn't longer - we may have got into the top three eventually!