5th November 2005	BIRMINGHAM CROSS COUNTRY LEAGUE- SENNELEYS PARK
	Led by an outstanding return from Pete Benyon, Stoke AC senior men dramatically showed that they are not the hot favourites for relegation from Division One that everyone assumed. U20 Alex Hall coming back from a cold that caused him to pull out of the North Staffs League last week went out hardest of the group and sustained his effort throughout. Pete, Tom Gayle, Mark Kinch and Andy Allen were all in a position to get past him at some stage in the race but it took a great last lap effort by Pete to get past Alex and lead the team home.  Only 5 places and 8 seconds separated our first 4 runners home with Andy Allen pretty close behind and well inside the top 50. 6th man Gavin Walters kept his composure to finish 79th for a team score of 250 and 4th team, our best opening fixture team result in more than 10 years in Division One. U20 Danny Barker also showed more strength than before after his usual couple of hours on the Bourne Sports stand and will be looking to improve further next time out.  In 175th Richard Barrington yet again provided our fail safe putting 'retired' youngsters like myself to shame. Not everything is rosy though, we still lack the numbers to feel safe in this division and we need to make sure we turn out some of the missing guys at Gloucester in 3 weeks time. This fixture was combined with the UK Cross Challenge and in the U17 men Alex Derricott showed that this could be another top winter for him. Although he missed the mid race breakaway that got the two leaders away Alex looked much stronger at the finish and I am sure that he will improve on his 3rd place next time out. John Danahay Full results at www.birminghamccleague.co.uk
	29. Pete Benyon 30. Alex Hall (U20) 31. Tom Gayle 34. Mark Kinch (M40) 47. Andy Allen 79. Gavin Walters 98. Danny Barker (U20) 175 Richard Barrington (M60) Teams: 1. Birmingham Uni 2. Loughborough Uni 3. Tipton 4. City of Stoke 5. Cheltenham 6. Coventry 7. Severn 8. Staffordshire Moorlands 9. OWLS 10. Halesowen 11. Telford 12. Leamington 13. Kidd & Stourport UK Challenge Races: U17 Men 3. Alex Derricott U17 Women 64. Chloe Banks U15 Boys 41. Josh Kinch U13 Boys 32. Luke Kinch	38.09 38.12 38.13 38.17 38.48 40.19 41.03 49.47 59 73 122 250 261 286 323 370 377 399 428 449 451