Saturday (7th Feb) saw the conclusion of the latest season of the Birmingham & District Invitation Cross Country League, with RSCAC’s senior men completing their 4th season back in the top division, with the season curtailed to three races due to the snow and ice in January. As ever in Division 1, right from the start of the season in November, competition amongst the 16 clubs to retain their presence is fierce. Team RSCAC started soundly to finish just above the three relegation places, and held that position after the second race.
Going in to Saturday’s final fixture, the men held a lead of 74 points over their nearest relegation rivals. After what seemed like weeks of continuous rain, the course could only be described as very soft in places with patches of excessive mud and areas of standing water more akin to the National Bog snorkelling Championships. Bolstered by returning University students George O’Connor (for his first race of the season) and Nick Crees (for his 2nd), a reserved level of confidence was held that relegation could be avoided. A strong start over the three-lap course saw O’Connor holding place in the lead pack of 9 after the first lap with several other RSCAC runners packing well not too far behind. Lap two saw O’Connor and one other athlete force the pace as the lead pack started to break up. On the final lap, O’Connor surged ahead on an uphill section and retained his lead finishing with a final surge to win the race. Not too long after, the remaining five scorers crossed the finish line led by Will Stead and quickly followed by Nick Cress, Chris Hine, Tony Davies and Adam Sutton with good back up from Tom Lloyd, Andy Bradley and Chris Taylor. In total, 17 runners from RSCAC ran and completed the course on the day.
Over the season, 9 individual athletes finished in the 6 scoring places for the A team (Fin Barlow, Alex Seabright, Nick Crees, David Sutton, Will Stead, Adam Sutton, Chris Hine and George O’Connor, with Will and Adam being “ever present” in all three races.) In total, 30 athletes from RSCAC ran in the three races over the season.
Thanks also go to our team of Officials and volunteers who fulfilled the clubs commitments to the league over the three races. Thank you, Phil Pollock, Paul Jenkins and Ruth Dobbins.
Once the season ending league results were finalised, RSCAC were confirmed as retaining their top flight status by 94 points. Next season will be the clubs 5th consecutive season in Division 1, extending their record stay at that level (the previous best being just two seasons.)
While this is largely a team effort, individual praise needs to be highlighted in two instances. Firstly, in his debut season in the senior ranks, young Will Stead was 5th, 1st and 2nd finisher for the club over the three races and earned the accolade of being the overall top finisher for the club over the three races. Secondly, George O’Connor’s victory in this race is the first ever Division 1 race winner for the club; in a division and league that is widely regarded as the strongest cross-country league in the country. In doing so, George has surpassed the previous best from the club, which stood as a third place in race 2 of the 1990/91 by George’s uncle Ali, and a 9th place by his father (Adrian) in the same season.
This result capped off a great week for George, who finished 14th in the BUCS (British Universities) Cross Country Championships the previous Saturday and a track PB over 3000m indoors mid-week.
As the saying goes – like father like son; and it is understood that next on George’s target list is his father’s 3000m record of 8.18 later in the year. Good luck George.
Royal Sutton Coldfield AC 