Dorchester & Clevedon urban O
Andrew & Graham go for hat-tricks
Our most two prominent urban runners were aiming for three league wins in a row, Andrew Page heading south to Dorchester and Graham Hartley northwards to Clevedon. Andrew won and now leads the Southern urban league table in the men's junior category. Graham had a very close race!
Dorchester town race
The race around Dorset's historic county town was the latest in the Southern England urban league series (SEOUL).
Besides Andrew, Brian Fletcher and Tony Hext also made the trip, competing in the veteran men and ultra vets courses respectively. Quantock old boy Gavin Clegg (now of Bristol OK) won his race by seven seconds.
Vikki Page finished halfway down the field in her race, and has since remarked with amused delight that she has improved her national ranking considerably. Well done Vikki.
Urban league tables- Young junior men
Bristol summer series - Clevedon urban
Graham Hartley came so close to that hat trick of wins over three successive Wednesday evenings. In the North Somerset coastal town, he finished just two seconds behind his only rival for the Green course series title, Alison Simmons. Amazingly, he was also a small margin (7 seconds) ahead of Alison's husband John. With a head-to-head record against Graham of four out of four, Bristol OK's very successful W60 has now been installed as series favourite. Graham would need to win his last two races at relatively distant Bath and Dursley to be certain of the title.
Fresh from Sunday's relay, recent joiner Alan Nesbit finished comfortably in the top half on the Blue course, a couple of minutes ahead of Bristol OK's Matthew Owen. Pete Shirvington was a further two minutes behind Matthew, one of a few top South West orienteers regularly seen at QOFLs. Also running were Jim Mallinson, Judy Nesbit and Tony Hext, with Tony finishing in the top half on Green.