View from the middle - W.Y.X-C.L. (meeting 2) Sat 7th Nov. 1992 Northcliffe Park, Shipley

View from the middle - W.Y.X-C.L. (meeting 2) Sat 7th Nov. 1992 Northcliffe Park, Shipley

The second ‘Complete Runner West Yorkshire Cross County League’ was held at Northcliffe park, Shipley on Saturday 7th of November.

The two lap course (about 5 ½ miles in total) included dangerous woodland paths which were steep , narrow and heavily rooted, I slid down a banking and I’m sure there were many more victims.

Once again the senior mens race had a good turn out with 261 finishers, 13 of them coming from Spenborough A.C.. Fell running international John Taylor from Holmfirth Harriers found the undulating course much to his liking and romped home to victory in 27:29 mins.

Also at the sharp end of the race glorious Spenborough packed three runners into the top ten with Jeff Hornby in 7th (28:32) exacting sweet revenge over Paul Dobson (8th in 28:38) and Jamie Warburton (10th in 28:41) who had both taken turns at beating him in his last two races.

The rest of the team scorers performed well with Gary Damiani (who managed to make the start this time) coming home in 28th (30:16), yours truly with a better run in 47th (31:13) and new ‘supervet’ Ray Padgett (53rd in 31:23) bringing the team a superb third place behind Leeds and Rowntrees but ahead of ‘Super Harriers’ Bingley and Longwood Harriers, our nearest and most bitter rivals.

Dave Sunderland had a good run in 68th (31:53) followed by Tony Patchett (80th in 32:08), back to normal after a good run in the first meeting. A tremendous sprint finish took place between Frank Reddington and Mick Dransfield with Mick having to use his famous kick to come home in 94th (32:30), four seconds ahead of veteran Reddington in 95th (32:34).
Other Spenborough finishers were ‘marathon man’ John Swindon (149th in 34:27), ‘erratic’ Graham Pierson (174th in 35:07) and ‘battling’ Derek Robinson (222nd in 37:24). Kevin Ogden disappointed by dropping out after some rather extravagant pre-race boasts.

A very good team effort leaves Spenborough 4th overall in the League with one fixture to go. Individual honours could also be won by club stars Jeff Hornby (4th overall) and Paul Dobson (5th overall) at the last meeting in Nunroyd Park (Guiseley) on December the 5th.