Race report from the 2009 County XC Champs at Detling. For the senior men, the late withdrawal of Andrew Dunwoody meant expectations weren't all that high that we would manage to place in the Team medals. As it turned out, though, strong performances from all those running brought home a well deserved bronze medal in the six to score, comfortably ahead of Blackheath. Pride of place goes to James Connor who secured what I believe is his third bronze medal of the season Mike Coleman from Medway and his club colleague , Neil Renault , put some distance between themselves and the rest of the field quite early on. Cambridge's Dean Lacey was up with Renault for a while but but dropped right back after suffering a problem. James was tracking Huw Evans for much of the race. He caught and passed Evans after reeling him in on the last lap. Ken's less than complimentary urgings about Mr Evans lack of speed proved accurate as James stormed passed Evans in the woods coming up to the finish. Our next scorer was Rich Mund whose marathon training is clearly paying off. Rich was 13th. Just behind in 14th was Michael Claff who came through well. Andrew Vagi had one of his best races for us coming home in a solid 32nd. Next scorer was Luke Armitage (37th) showing he had recovered well from the nasty virus he had before Christmas. The scoring six was made up by Lee Haze coming home in 48th. Our next two runners were Micky Barlow , clearly suffering in the conditions, placing 82nd whilst Adam Morton continues to improve and was just a couple of places behind in 85th. All in all a very pleasing day.

Under 17 men

The strength of this division is reflected in the fact that although Alfie Grimsey had been impressive in training and ran well on the day a medal alluded him. Fifth place was very creditable behind three talented Tonbridge boys and an Invicta lad who proved a bit of a dark horse. George Quinn ran his usual canny race - starting conservatively and then slicing through the field to finish 12th.

Under 20 Men

It turned out hopes of a medals here weren't misplaced as we came away with Tom Samuel finishing an excellent second in the race and thus helping the Team to secure silver in the three to score competition. This was an excellent race to watch . Tom was together with the eventual winner ( another Tonbridge runner) for much of the race. He had to give ground on the third lap but held on strongly for second. Our second finisher, Jeremy Holt, translated his impressive recent training into a strong 9th position. Our third finisher was Hassan Davis in 19th just ahead of Ralston who was 20th. Theo Hadlow was close up in 24th.

Senior Women

Special mention should go to Andrea Jeffries who was our sole representative. Andrea finished a very creditable 38th.

Andy G