It was another fantastic day for Kent AC at the county vets XC champs. We won individual medals, team medals and best of all we won back the Kent Messenger Cup.

It was a glorious sunny winter’s day in Tunbridge Wells. The frost was soon gone, leaving the going a little sticky on the notoriously dangerous course, which has steep downhill gullies in the woods with tree roots and badger holes waiting to trip up the flying vets.

The first race was the M50’s which must claim to be the highest calibre county event in the country. Top international Graham Saker soon took the lead and our David Child was left trailing in 8th place after the first half lap. “Come on David” we all cheered but after the first lap he was still only in 6th place. We need not have worried as he powerfully fought his way through 3rd place to set up a battle royal with another international runner Alan Camp. David pushed on but could not shake off Camp. The final lap set up a classic contest for second place and it was not until the last 400m that it was clear that David was going to use his marathon strength to take the silver medal. Barry Lee had a great return to XC in his first XC race for well over five years finishing 17th. Danny Mackay completed the scoring for the team in 51st.

The second race was many races in one including all women’s age group races and the men’s over 60 age groups. First home for Kent AC were Ali Farrell and Natasha McKenna in the W35 race. They were closely followed by Kate Williams then Andrea Jefferies and Caroline Evans in the W45 race. For the W45’s this was a fantastic effort, enabling them to beat Blackheath Harriers and get the silver team prize. Julian Spencer-Wood started the race very well but had to drop out, leaving Ted Hadow in 21st as the only Kent AC finisher in the M60 race.

The last race was the M40 race, where last year we had just been beaten to the team prize by Dartford as Len Reilly had twisted his ankle on the treacherous course and had to pull out. The race started off at a crazy pace round the first field as Dartford’s Andy Green took the lead. After half a lap it was clear that Dartford were leading with another three runners well paced. Our “McG” lead the fight back battling his way through to take the individual silver medal with an excellent run. Well done Steve. He was followed by Luke Armitage who moved through the field to take 5th place and Simon Loach who past two Dartford runners to finish in 9th one place behind county legend Barry Royden. But could we get the team prize? It would all depend on how well Stuart Scott could finish. Stuart had a great race, running a minute faster than last year and outsprinting a Sevenoaks runner to finish 23rd. Yes we did it. We closed on 39 points to Dartford’s 48, a great team effort to take the title and win back the cup which we have now won five times in the last 7 years.

In keeping with our tradition, we proceeded on to a great little pub to celebrate, along with old friends like Mick Barlow, with the cup proudly in the centre of the table along with the pints. All in all another great Kent AC day out and we are already planning for future success with the next generation of our runners nearing 40.