Westbury's Senior Men romp to SouthWest XC Title

A great start to 2012 for Westbury Harrier's Senior Men, as their squad came away with the Club Prize at the SouthWest XC Championships at Bicton Agricultural College in Devon. Ken Ham also did the club proud take individual silver in the V.50 category!

Despite missing the likes of John Collier, Scott Campbell, Gregg Ward and Simon Everington, the team of  Matt Ellis, first home in 10th place, followed by Anthony Glover in 21st, Felix McGrath in 30th, John Terry 32nd and Charlie Jones in 39th, was strong enough to hold off Cornwall AC by 132 pts to 137, with Wells City Harriers 3rd with 176.

Also in action Chris Palmer in 41st, Ken Ham 53rd (2nd V.50), Colin Johnson 65th (12th V.40) and James Cant 86th. Great running from all the guys!

The race also doubled as the SouthWest Inter-counties championships and many of our club were actually running in the colours of Avon as Matt Ellis, Anthony Glover, Daniel Jones (Team Bath), John Terry, Charlie Jones and Chris Palmer finished 3rd, behind the two powerhouse counties of Devon and Cornwall, where the race itself was won by Bideford's Kevin Heywood in a phenomenal 24.40, nearly a minute clear of Bristol and West's Robbie Bugden.

Westbury / Avon SM squad (l-r) James Cant, Charlie Jones, John Terry, Matt Ellis, Anthony Glover, Chris Palmer, Colin Johnson

The ladies were sadly underrepresented both at county level and for the club. Fortunately Lizzy Smith made the trip down to Bicton and did club and county proud finishing 15th overall! Laura Parsonage was 3rd and first Avon counter, with first and second being Cornwall runners (Miranda Heathcote 1st, Emma Stepto 2nd).

Ken Ham - V.50 silver medalist (photo Lizzy Smith)