The Forum of Benfleet Running Club

Karl C

The 5th and final round of the South Essex Cross Country League at South Weald Park Brentwood hosted by Billericay Striders saw another outstanding performance by Benfleet Running Club. The club had their 5th win out of 5 races to secure the League Championship title.

Benfleet's Karen Goode was 1st lady and the club had an amazing 7 ladies in the top 10 and took all first 6 places with Tracy Swindell 2nd, Gail Dawson 3rd, Charlotte Peppiatt 4th, Jacqui Watson 5th and Vanessa Dodds 6th. Benfleet newcomer Tao Liu was 9th.

However it was Graham Booty who was star of the day he finished in 2nd place, his highest finish of the series and he was Benfleet's top scorer with an average score of 6th in all 5 races.

Benfleet had 3 men in the top 10, joining Graham Booty were Jez Mancer 5th and Mike Briggs 7th. The other scorers were Colin Rothwell 13th, Andy Morris 15th Keiron McGill 17th and Dave Thomson 21st.

Jez Mancer also competed in all 5 races of the series and finished with an average score of 7th.

The overall score for Benfleet was 86 points an incredible 157 points ahead of 2nd place Billericay Striders.

A club spokesman said "This was an emphatic win for the club. To have a clean sweep of wins to take the 2008/2009 Championship was more than we could have hoped for at the start of the season. We also had 4 out of 5 ladies wins in the series with Stacey Ward taking 3 wins and Karen Goode the win in the final race. It caps off a wonderful year for Benfleet Running Club and we are very proud to be taking the League Shield back to Benfleet".

POSITIONS AT ROUND 5

1st Benfleet RC 86 points
2nd Billericay Striders 243 points
3rd Thrift Green 291 points
4th Havering 90 295 points
5th East Essex Tri 420 points

OVERALL POSITIONS AFTER 5 ROUNDS
1st Benfleet RC 25 points
2nd Thrift Green 18 points
3rd Billericay Striders 17 points
4th Havering 90 8 points
5th East Essex Tri 7 points

Karl C · Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 9:09 am Post subject: