19th January 2008	BIRMINGHAM CROSS COUNTRY LEAGUE- COVENTRY
	A muddy Coventry course greeted the strongest City of Stoke team to compete in the Birmingham League this season! Brian Cole was our first finisher, as he typically started very steadily and then spent the entire race passing other runners. Steve Bazell continued his very consistent winter with a fine top 60 place in a really packed field, even by Div 1 standards. Not far behind, Andy Allen recovered from a very bad cold to finish a strong 65th.  I managed another consistent run to finish 92nd. Team manager Steve Shubotham's timely shouting certainly helped me to gain a few places, and Ian Milner also ran well with a strong last lap in 122nd place. Close behind Ian, our newest recruit Tim Smith ran an excellent debut Birmingham League race and he looks a good bet along with Ian for a substantial improvement next time out.  And we are going to need some improvement. Although this result gave us our highest Birmingham League team finish of the winter so far, we will be without Brian Cole and Steve Bazell in the last fixture at Gloucester... Adrian Thiemicke and Richard Barrington yet again provided our buffer against automatic relegation as they completed our 8 finishers - our biggest team of the year! So we really, really need everyone out in 3 weeks time to maintain first Division status for a 16th consecutive year. We are 41 points from safety, behind Birmingham Rowheath, whom we beat by 115 points on this occasion, so survival is possible. The other teams will be thinking the same thing.  I'll try to do my bit, starting with two runs a day for the next three weeks! Any Stoke runner who beats me gets a pint on the way back from Gloucester! John Danahay Full results at www.birminghamccleague.co.uk
	Stoke results: 46. Brian Cole 56. Steve Bazell 65. Andy Allen (M40) 92. John Danahay (M45) 122. Ian Milner 129. Tim Smith 171. Adrian Thiemicke (M40) 177. Richard Barrington (M60)	12th Team - 510 points - 14th overall 31.09 31.28 31.44 33.11 34.44 35.08 40.40 42.14