Kenilworth Runners finished twelfth at the third race of the 2011/12 Birmingham Cross Country League at Coundon Park, Coventry, which leaves the club with a fighting chance of a top ten overall finish with one race remaining.

With a number of the club’s best runners not available for the race, including our current number one Rich Simkiss, the mission for the day was to limit the potential losses and to rally the team’s regular B Team finishers (Those finishing in positions seven to twelve), who would now be expected to fill positions five and six in the A Team.

Sunny but cold conditions greeted the runners for the three lap gently undulating 5.2 mile course which, thanks to recent dry conditions and an overnight frost, was hard underfoot and ideally suited to track runners. Connor Carson performed excellently once again to be first Kenilworth Runner home, finishing two and a half minutes behind the race winner Josh Lilly of Tipton to take 49th position. He was followed by Men’s Team Captain Phil Gould (66th); Stuart Hopkins (83rd); and Mike Johnson (87th).

Fifth for the club was Pete Bryan (124th) and in sixth was the star runner of the day Liam Chapple, who before the race had not even finished in the B Team, yet with an excellent performance completed the A Team in 135th position.

The B Team was led by Matthew Kingston-Lee (136th) and was completed by Graham Birch (141st); Martin Dorrill (146th); Phil Fusi (151st); Richard Steel (167th) and Roger Homes (171st). At the back of the field, Stef Shillington maintained his New Year’s Resolution of not finishing last, beating two other runners.

The result meant that Kenilworth Runners A Team scored 544 points on the day to be twelfth, which leaves them in eleventh overall (1480 points) with one race remaining. The gap to tenth placed BRAT has swollen from 9 points to 65, but there is still a fighting chance for the club with one race remaining to claim tenth position.

The final race is on Saturday 11 February at Cheltenham.