Jonathan Gilbert

There happen to be 6 urban events on the EA calendar for 2019 so EAOA are trialling an urban league. These are the events to be included in the 2019 league.

Best 4 scores from the 6 events to count.

Your age class determines your urban league class. The categories are Men’s and Women’s:

• Young Juniors (12-)
• Junior (16-)
• Open (16+)
• Vet (40+)
• Supervet (55+)
• Ultravet (65+)
• Hypervet (75+)

Notes:

• There is no minimum number of courses for any event. The organiser and planner will allocate each urban league class to a course for the purpose of scoring. It is possible for more than one urban league class to run each course. For example, it is normal for Men’s Supervet to share a course with Women’s Vet.
• Some races may not be able to provide the YJ category due to terrain suitability and BOF guidelines. If this occurs, then a smaller number of scores will count for the total for competitors in YJ classes only.
• An M/W 16 may only run the Open Course if they are actually 16, i.e. they have had their 16th birthday prior to the event.
• Events are open to all competitors but only BOF members of EAOA clubs will be eligible for scoring in the EAUL.

It was only when I looked on the website at last years club championship results that I realised that I should probably write something, rather than just posting the results.

Last year, the weather turned decidedly nasty, but today we were blessed with a glorious day from start to finish – there were even periods of prolonged blue skies. Having spent all week looking at the BBC Weather and being rather depressed, it was a very pleasant surprise.

As for the club championships, Mick Liston had an eventful start to the defense of his title, going out with the control descriptions from High Ash. However, after sorting himself out, he had a fine run, winning the green course and retaining the men’s competition. It’s always a risk letting Mick have the trophy, but this time it didn’t even make the event – Mick having returned it to an unknown committee member at UEA (later to be identified as Steve Nobbs, who had forgotten to bring it along). I look forward to seeing what happens to it this year!

In the women’s competition, Gillian Pilgrim won the Carol Towler Salver for the 3rd time, the last time being 10 years ago in 2008. Gillian was an impressive 2nd on the Short Green course (and top female).

This is the first year that we have crowned a junior club champion. British Schools Champion, Steven Denby, was pushed close by James Price and Thomas Bartram, but came out on top. He had an solid run winning the blue, being the only person to break 1 hour on the course.

The fastest run-in competition is keenly fought, particularly among the junior boys. Steven Denby won the men’s competition by 3 seconds from Glen Richardson. The women’s competition was even closer, with Gillian Pilgrim pipping Katharine Bartram by 1 second.

Photo’s are below.

The full list of winners is:

Men’s Champion and winner of the Barry Chilvers Cup – Mick Liston
Women’s Champion and winner of the Carol Towler Salver – Gillian Pilgrim
Junior Champion and winner of the Ella Gilbert Trophy – Steven Denby
Fastest Male – Steven Denby (8.4 min/km)
Fastest Female – Kim Eden (11.3 min/km)
M10 – Marcus Richardson
M12 – Daniel Conway
W12 – Imogen Jame
M14 – William Bartram
M16 – James Price
M18 – Steven Denby
M45+ – Ian Renfrew
W45+ – Katharine Bartram
M55+ – Kevin Smith
W55+ – Kim Eden
M65+ – Mick Liston
M75+ – Rodney Freeburn
W75+ – Gillian Pilgrim
Fastest Run-In (male) – Steven Denby
Fastest Run-In (female) – Gillian Pilgrim

Previous years club championship results can be found here.

Our thanks go to the Jonathan Gilbert (planner), Alan Bedder (organiser), Stephen Searle (controller) and all those that volunteered to make it a great event.

Click on the images to see an enlargement.