14th January 2006	STAFFORDSHIRE CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPS - LEEK
	A better than average turnout for Stoke AC saw some outstanding individual and team performances on the tough cross country course at Westwood High School.  Perhaps the performance of the afternoon in any age group came in the U13 Girls where Kate Holt achieved an amazing 1st overall in the combined race against some excellent U13 Boys competition. With Kirsty Batson, Chloe Hardy and Chloe Lloyd also running well it was good to see Stoke finishing a team in this age group. Mike Harding, the boys' winner did have a quite a big excuse though. Having lost one shoe after 200m, he then lost the other on the way round and had to run most of the muddy and slippery course with no shoes at all. Despite this handicap Mike also overcame 3 months of illness and relatively poor form to produce an outstanding win. Behind him Mark Shallcross also lost a shoe as he battled to a fine 4th. A solid run from Jake Guest in 7th helped the team to an easy win. Joe Broome, and Jon Bentley finished close behind. Jon has another year to go in this age-group and looks an excellent prospect for next year. Newcomers Tom and Chris Weston performed well on this tough course after only 6 weeks training and will improve rapidly this year. In the U15 Girls Heather Holt and Clare Capper acquitted themselves extremely well against very tough competition. The U15 boys got 2nd team with Jake Hart very close to an individual medal in 4th. Rob Cook started very quickly and with a bit more pace judgement has the capability to win these races. The U17 Women's race was a particularly tough because they had to run the full 2 lap course with the U17 boys and the junior, senior and veteran women. Clare Shubotham and Chloe Banks ran well to maintain Stoke AC's top 10 individual placings in every race. Damian Gallagher confirmed his North Staffs form to finish an easy 3rd in the U17 Men. In the U20 Women Rebecca Brown ran a great race to gain a silver medal behind the junior international Stacey Johnson from Cannock and Staffs. The surprise performance of the day from a Stoke perspective definitely came in the combined U20, senior and veteran Men's race where 17 year old Liam Jones produced an astonishing run in 6th place overall and 2nd U20, just in front of another good performance from the club's other outstanding junior Alex Hall. Liam was moving faster than anyone else on the last lap and looks to have a bright future at cross country if he can build on this rate of improvement. Danny Barker 'enjoyed' a steady run to finish 8th U20 and complete the second team victory of the day for Stoke. In the senior men's age group we were effected by continuing colds and injury problems and Tom Gayle (with a cold) and Richard Barrington were our only other finishers. After winning the North Staffs League for 3 years in a row and maintaining our Division One Birmingham League status we really do need to try and finish a team for once in this championship. John Danahay Full Results Photos from Steve Shubotham Photos from Brian Dale: http://racephotos.topcities.com Photos from Mick Hall / Staffs Moorlands
	U13 Girls - 4th Team 1. Kate Holt 18. Kirsty Batson 21. Chloe Hardy 22. Chloe Lloyd U13 Boys - 1st Team 1. Mike Harding 4. Mark Shallcross 7. Jake Guest 8. Joe Broome 9. Jon Bentley 14. Tom Weston 22. Chris Weston U15 Girls 6. Heather Holt 8. Clare Capper U15 Boys - 2nd Team 4. Sam Hart 6. Jake Hart 10. Rob Cooke U17 Women 7. Clare Shubotham 10. Chloe Banks U17 Men 3. Damian Gallagher 19. Mike Shallcross U20 Women 2. Rebecca Brown Senior Women 8. Clare Booker? U20 Men - 1st Team 2. Liam Jones (6th overall) 3. Alex Hall (8th overall) 8. Danny Barker (30th overall) Senior & Veteran Men 23. Tom Gayle 84. Richard Barrington	10.21 14.07 14.25 14.37 10.22 10.46 10.55 10.58 11.06 11.39 12.09 17.53 18.18 15.34 16.02 16.26 25.03 26.07 18.10 22.24 23.27 22.00 27.24 27.42 29.38 29.00 36.41