Kent XC League  -  Sparrows Den    Saturday 3 December 2011

Three of our 4 scorers were photographed at the start of the Senior Men's race - Chris Thomas (left) checks to see that our two leading Seniors Mark Wilkins and (far right) Chris Holmes are aware the race has started

In a field of 162, the team included Alex Newson (23rd) Tim Corby (33rd) and vet-60 Trevor Edgley (122nd) were 4th on the day and are now 7th in the League, with one more fixture to go, in mid-February

The rest of the programme involved Young Athletes in their 4th and final fixture of the season

Lining for the start our u-13 Girls surpassed themselves

finishing 3rd team on the day thanks to Maddy Young (29th) the 3rd best 3rd scorer of the 9 league teams and to Sarah Hall (32) and Lily Whitehead (42) both pushing other clubs' 3rd scorer further back

Leading our u-13 New Red Sparrows was Holly Fielder 17th and, in her first race after graduating from the Red Devils to the Red Sparrows, Laura Parrish made an impressive debut to finish 22nd. 

Pictured after the race are (left to right) Sarah, Laura, Lilly, Maddy and Holly..

In the individual league rankings for u-13 Girls,Holly is 8th, Maddy 15th most consistent in the League - Lily is 38th and Sarah 48th of 66 girls who ranb at least once in this league

The u-15 Boys who train together were 5th team on the

day as they featured two internal rivalries - Max Shepley (17) ran a focused race to eventually shake off team-mate Ben Hall (28) - In the top 6 and pressing their claims for places in the county team wereclubmates and close rivals James Pitcher (4) just yards ahead of Barney Howard who in 6th, has revived the form that took him to the English Schools last winter

The under-17 Women were 2nd, ahead of Blackheath Bromley and just 2 points behind undefeated Tonbridge

in the individual run of the day, Alex Clay won the race by 250m after playing a waiting game for the first half, before notching up her first Kent Leaguewin .Ellie Hume was 5th and Emily McKane 10th and this team could push Tonbridge very close for the Kent Championship at Wilmington next month.

In the League rankings for consistency all season, Ellie is 9th, Emily is 11th and Alex 25th

Special mention for Josh Richards (u13) and Sam Hudson (20) both lone IEK in their race - Josh finished 11th on the day and 7th overall in the season's rankings while Sam was 2nd u20 on the day, and 3rd overall

Our u-15 Red Sparrows grabbed all the headlines by going unbeaten in all 4 matches to wrest the title from Tonbridge and break their 4 year winning streak

Not only did all 5 Sparrows on the day pack into the top 14, but this quintet (pictured above at the start) were ALL also in the League's top 8 consistent perfomers.

Order on the day, Bobby Clay (1), Anna Weston (3), Amy Old (8), Ellen Whitehead (10),  Lilly Coward (14)

Pictured above are the victorious Red Sparrows with the League team Trophy -

[left to right]   -  Bobby, Amy, Lilly and Anna.

Five Red Sparrows did all 4 races in this yera's League  - Bobby Clay is ranked 1, Anna weston (2), Amy Old (6), Lilly Coward (7), and Ellen Whitehead (8)

Lydia Gallyer Barnett was 24th overall (7th of those who completed 3 races) and Willow Forest was 43rd overall, 6th of those completing one race.

• Results Kent XC Lge 2011 - Match 4 (Sparrows Den)