10 November 2007	NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE CROSS COUNTRY LEAGUE - STAFFORD
	A relatively benign Stafford Common saw the continuation of the roll-a-coaster season for the club's senior men, but the younger age-groups yet again shone delivering 4 great wins. Sarah Griffiths is one of the finds of the season. This was Sarah's 3rd straight victory and she is looking stronger and more confident each time. Close behind Jessica Heath and Lydia Beech maintained the team's hold on the U11 championships. With Lydia Whiston, Mirade Nolan, Louise Nolan, Zoe Astley and Beth Beech all improving this is looking a great squad for the future. In the U13 girls Grace Mahoney, Jessica Griffiths, Jade Heath and Melissa Harding all battled strongly to keep their team in contention for a medal too.  Clare Booker continued her steady progression in the senior women's race, whilst Leslie Degg may be a little slower than in the days when she used to win these races, but she still tries just as hard! All they need are some team mates. The U11 lads were led home in first place by the fast finishing Macauley Snutch, who timed his race to perfection. With 4th placer Alan Collis continuing to improve and much better runs from Robbie Gregory and Jake Holdcroft, the addition of Lindon Evans in the final fixture will hopefully bring home the team title for these guys too.  Incidently, Lindon ran instead at Gateshead in the UKA Cross Challenge where he finished a highly creditable 14th in the U13 race at the age of 10. The two new Bloor lads in 'Bill's group' also ran well, and together with George Steventon these guys will definitely improve by the next race. Dave Sheldon strolled to a 3rd win and he is a class above other local U13 year olds at the moment, but Kris Washington is definitely getting much closer with each race as he finished an excellent 2nd. It might be an interesting race at Leek. Long Jumper turned cross country runner Brad Sentence also showed that he is improving rapidly from training with such a strong squad, with the likes of Greg Smalley and new recruit Corey Blanch chasing hard.  Callum Griffiths who actually shot putted for us this summer, is also turning into a stronger cross country runner with each race. Connor Bradbury would normally hope to have been up in the top 5, but feeling unwell he had to stop for a few minutes. After recovering slightly he ran strongly to the finish - these guys are tough! Can anyone beat this team? The U15 ding-dong battle between Nathan Ainsworth and Tom Guy continued, but in the confusion of two races mixing Tom lost concentration and Nathan was gone again. Nathan is now two points ahead for the title, but can Tom win the last race? Mike Harding and Joe Broome also again ran strongly to keep the team right in contention for championship gold.  Luke Kinch is quietly chipping away at the guys in front and could prove to be a great bet for stardom in the same age-group next year. Rob Wilson still looks like a fish out of water on the country, but we know he just wants to do a quarter of a mile very, very quickly... Alex Brecker is an enigma, with a long stride tailor-made for running - we know Alex can do so much better. Aaron Griffiths was amazingly the 4th of the Griffiths siblings to race today for Stoke AC, and as another of the club's field-eventers also achieved a creditable finish.  At U17 level, Josh Kinch ran really strongly again against very tough Staffs Moorlands competition to keep his strangle-hold on the overall title with one race to come. Dave Clarke and Rob Cooke may not have been at the top of their form in this race but will surely run much better at Leek and the team should win the league title. The senior men went into this race with a mountain to climb in the team competition after the problems at Parkhall, but a much better turn-out nearly turned into a complete turn-around, although in the end we still suffered a bit more from this season's bad luck. Andy Allen is getting stronger with each race and after battling every inch of the way with top local road runner Ben Gamble he only just missed out on 5th this time. Steve Bazell was a little bit down on previous finishes this season, but he just loves the tough course at Leek, so I would not count against another top 10 finish there. Well inside the top 10 for much of the race it quickly became apparent that Danny Barker was in real trouble after dropping 5 or 6 places in the last half a mile. It turns out he started with a broken bone in his foot, and then broke another one in the race!  Some serious R&R now needed - let Danny sit down when you buy some shoes off him in the next few weeks!  It was brilliant to see Tom Gayle back racing again for the first time in more than a year after major injury problems. This guy is only going to get a whole lot faster in the next couple of months. Tom just cruised through from the mid 30s and you could tell it was hard but immensely satisfying for him to get to this stage so early in his comeback. Brian Cole is another strong competitor who has had some problems of late, and this combined with a compulsory rest after recent marathons left him well short of normal race fitness. Brian will improve massively in the next 4 weeks... Gavin Walters is another top athlete who has struggled this year. But he has got better with each race and we know that if he does some regular training between now and Leek, anything is possible. Very close behind these guys there was an excellent cross country season debut for Ian Milner. Ian stuck to the task through-out and finished very strongly. I know there is potentially quite a lot more to come from Ian. It was also great to see Mark Kinch having a run round after another 3 week injury interruption. Richard Barrington was our 9th and final finisher, a record number for this season! I suffered a slight hamstring pull and had to pull out very early on. This was a real disappointment because I have now got myself into much better shape and a top 15 placing would not have been out of the question - and we still need every point we can get...   So overall a good result, and we are now only 24 points behind in the race for this years title. Perhaps more importantly this also points to a better result in the Birmingham League next time out too. John Danahay Full results on the North Staffs Cross Country League Website: www.nsccl.co.uk Great photos from Mick Hall U11 Girls Team 1st - 13 points 1. Sarah Griffiths 5. Jessica Heath 7. Lydia Beech 8. Lydia Whiston 10. Mirade Nolan 16. Louise Bodan 17. Zoe Astley 21. Beth Beech U13 Girls - Team 3rd - 34 points 8. Grace Mahoney 12. Jessica Griffiths 14. Jade Heath 18. Melissa Harding Senior Woman 12. Clare Booker 40. Leslie Degg (L50) U11 Boys - Team 2nd - 22 points  1. Macauley Snutch 4. Alan Collis 17. Robbie Gregory 18. Jake Holdcroft 20. Macauley Bloor 25. Daniel Bloor 26. George Steventon U13 Boys - Team 1st - 7 points  1. David Sheldon 2. Kris Washington 4. Bradley Sentence 5. Greg Smalley 7. Corey Blanch 12. Callum Griffiths 20. Connor Bradbury U15 Boys - Team 1st - 9 points 1. Nathan Ainsworth 3. Tom Guy 5. Mike Harding 6. Joe Broome 9. Luke Kinch 10. Rob Wilson 12. Alex Brecker 17. Aaron Griffiths U17 Men - Team 2nd - 23 points 4. Josh Kinch 6. Dave Clarke 13. Rob Cook Jun, Sen & Vet Men - Team 1st - 104 pts  6. Andy Allen (M40) 14. Steve Bazell 15. Danny Barker 17. Tom Gayle 25. Brian Cole 27. Gavin Walters 32. Ian Milner 84. Mark Kinch (M40) 157 Richard Barrington (M60) 5.48 6.10 6.15 6.17 6.38 6.53 6.54 7.08 7.27 7.56 8.10 8.36 20.31 23.32 7.04 7.06 8.17 8.18 8.26 8.41 10.57 12.07 12.26 12.50 13.22 13.55 14.14 15.03 16.48 17.07 17.38 17.44 18.35 19.04 19.31 21.36 17.51 18.23 20.01 33.30 34.21 34.29 34.43 35.52 36.04 36.19 40.02 45.52