It was like East Down families day out at the University campus playing fields on Saturday as the McMeekins, Ben, Paul, Tom,  and Patrick, the Findlays, Conor, Tara,  and Ewan, the  Erskines, Johnny, Ellen and Paddy, the McGrattans, Andrew and Matthew, the Rogans, Padraig and Nicola and a whole list of singles descended on the Jordanstown venue. The fact that it rained fairly constantly for most of the morning, bringing with it a persistent, chilling breeze, did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm. For many this was a first taste of Cross Country running at this level and indeed over the championship distances and to their credit all performed well in the trying conditions. Matthew Carrick placed 28th in the Under 12 Boys race over a 2000 metres distance ahead of Matthew McGrattan and Padraig Rogan. In the Under 12 Girls race over the same distance Aoife Cochrane led her team to 5th place with a superbly controlled performance, picking her way through the field on the 2nd lap to finish in the top half, ably supported by strong performances from Olivia Mooney, Tara Findlay, Eimear Connor and the ever smiling Maria McAuley who picked herself up twice to finish the race.

The Under 14 Girls was a big disappointment with a no show from 4 of the 6 entered runners leaving Ellen Erskine and Eimear Degan to battle alone and unable to post a team score.  But they did themselves proud, tackling 3000 metres for the first time with Ellen working her way through a high quality field on the second lap and Eimear showing signs of  having inherited her father's stamina.

In the Boys equivalent Paddy Erskine and Ewan Findlay renewed their personal battle for supremacy, the issue left unresolved as they were credited with the same 12.51 finishing time as they dead heated on the line. This race too saw a great performance from Tom McMeekin, who ran a controlled race all the way to the line and a spirited run with a blistering finish from Matthew Martin.

The Girls Under 16 runners failed to show up either but the Boys duo of Patrick McMeekin and Eoin Quail gained nothing but honour from their runs, Patrick showing a cool temperament and bags of stamina over the 4000 metre course and Eoin showing that a sprinter can also handle distance  running if he controls his pace.

The Under 18 Girls race was probably the best event of the day featuring a masterful display of cross country running by Banbridge's Emma Mitchell, surely a star of the future, while behind a battle royal was enacted for the other podium positions.  Elaine Burch moved through the leading group to take 3rd place at the end of lap 2 but as the heavy conditions started to bite she came under pressure with 500 metres to go from Sara Moore.  The Omagh girl's devastating sprint proved decisive but Elaine can feel pleased with a battling performance and would have won on a different day. Megan Wilson ran very well too on her first outing on grass this year, taking 11th place in a race where every position was contested and the top 12 finish qualifies her for the All Ireland Championships next month.

Of course it wasn't all happiness and joy as both Nicola Rogan and Artur Morgan had to drop out of their races due to injury, an ever present threat to runners but both live to fight another day.

This was the first time chip timing was used for the Junior cross country races and while it does save time and effort at the finish it is by no means infallible and is at risk from chips becoing detached or not reading properly on the mats and increases the costs of entry.  Is it reasonable to charge £6 per head for children, especially in the case of those Under 10 who were only running 600 metres?  Technology gone mad? Non runners cost the club £84 for this one event alone.

After the Age group races the Bobby Rea Memorial races take place with Veteran Men over 60 running with Senior and Under 20 Women.  Whether this is because it's deemed safe to let the more mature males run with the ladies or vice versa is not clear but in my case running “with” them is a pretty loose term which after a lap of the 5K distance means in the same county.  Maybe I just scare them away, though the same applies to my one time male adversaries. A good run though from Newcastle's Anne Sandford who is in pretty good form at present.

Liam Keenan, Jim Erskine and Brendan Teer took on the 5 lap race for Senior and Veteran Men over 8K and found the going tough – the course was pretty well churned up by the time they got to use it.  Brendan was disappointed with his 24th place, considering his efforts  in previous years but he'll be back but Jim and Liam can be reasonably satisfied with the outcome of their personal battle, clocking 29.24 and 29.47 respectively without resorting to chips – well not until supper time anyway!

It was good to see James O'Hare returning to action in the Annadale vest after his bout of sickness as he finished 11th behind Paralympic Gold medallist Michael McKillop.


Joe Quinn
24 October 2010