Battle for honours at the first NW Cross-Country match of the season.

By Don Hale


*Pictured above - runners from the leading pack at the NW XC race at St Asaph.

Battle for honours at the first NW Cross-Country race of the season at Llanerch Hall, St Asaph.

Report by Don Hale. Photos courtesy of Bernie Jones.

donhaleblog.blogspot.com/2025 


The North Wales Cross Country League’s first fixture of the season defied the odds and beat Storm Amy last Saturday with hundreds of runners competing for honours at Llanerch Hall, near St Asaph.


Bernie Jones, who was one of the main race organisers, and is the secretary of the NW XC League later confirmed: “A Big thank you to Prestatyn Running Club, Denbigh Harriers and all the marshalls and volunteers for putting on today’s race. It would have been easy to cancel with Storm Amy, but I’m glad we didn’t!”



Some great action shots (*above and below) from the NW Cross Country match at St Asaph last Saturday.



The first finisher in the Senior Men’s race was talented youngster Noa Vaughan (Eryri Harriers) who was the first U20M athlete with a superb run in 28.26, with Andrew Moore (Bangor University) the runner-up in 28.59, and he was the first Senior Man, whilst two of his club colleagues in Ed Slaughter and Martin Sunderland collected the third and fourth positions in 29.34 and 29.50.


Other notable results included: 1st MV35: Ryan Davies (Wrexham AAC) 6th in 29.57; 1st MV45: Stephen Skates(Prestatyn RC) 9th in 31.07; 1st MV40: Tom Carter (Prestatyn RC) 12th in 31.31; 1st MV50: Martin Green (Meirionnydd RC) 15th in 31.45; 1st M60: Neil Kershaw (West Cheshire) 61st in 36.09; and 1st MV55: Andrew Clague (West Cheshire) in 37.09. *There were 146 finishers.


*In the Men’s Over 65’s race, John Jones (Shrewsbury AC) was the first man home in 28.09 and he was the 1st MV65 age cat winner, and he was followed by Andy Clarke (Oswestry Olympians) in 28.15, with Dylan Huws (Eryri Harriers) third in 28.51. 

In fourth place was the MV70 age cat winner in Pete Hough (Shropshire Shufflers) in 29.37, and some other notable results included: 27th Emyr Davies (Hebog), who won his MV80 cat in 37.32; Chris Clarke (Shropshire Shufflers) 38th, and he won his MV75 cat in 39.26; and the legendary Roger Harrison Jones (Prestatyn RC), was the 1st M85 winner in 43rd place in 61.02. 



*The Senior Women’s race was won by Alison Lavender (Oswestry Olympians) the 1st FV35 athlete in 24.21, with Eden O’Dea (Deeside) the 1st Senior women, and in second place overall in 25.10, and her club colleague Martha Owen finished third in 25.26. 



Other notable age cat female winners were: 1st FV45: Joanne Henderson (Denbigh Harriers) 4th in 25.48; 6th Gemma Moore (Eryri Harriers) 1st FV40 in 26.07; 9th Emily Pyper (West Cheshire) 1st FU17 in 27.40; 11th Andrea Rowlands(Eryri Harriers) 1st FV50 in 28.13; 15th Taliska Faulkner (Bangor University AC ) Ist FU20 in 29.05; 34th Emma Collins(Denbigh Harriers) 1st FV60 in 31.50; 46th Helen Blair (Eryri Harriers) 1st FV55 in 32.54; 47th Susie Hancock(Oswestry Olympians) 1st FV65 in 32.58, and 85th Liz Evans (GOG Triathlon) 1st FV70 in 36.35.


This is the link to the provisional results for the senior athletes:

https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx...


Don Hale is a former award winning investigative journalist and now a best-selling author who has created a very popular blog post linked to numerous social media sites. donhaleblog.blogspot.com/2025.

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