The latest round of the Derby Runner cross-country league saw a massive 38 Ivanhoe Runners turn out for this key race in the series. It was an emotional race for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it was at this fixture last year that a number of club members successfully resuscitated a fellow competitor who had suffered a cardiac arrest, and secondly this year League Organiser Dave Mann paid tribute before the race to Ivanhoe Runner Tom Shepherd who passed away recently.

At the racing end, both men's and women's team saw superb performances with some new members making an instant impact. In the men's race, Ramzi Sidani led the team home again with a great 38th place (44.45), hotly pursued by Matt Pleass in 40th (45.09) and Craig Hinds in 46th (45.43). Matt Brocklehurst was 51st (46.17)before new member Adam Smythe powered home in 53rd (46.38) in his first cross-country for Ivanhoe. Recent addition Chris Lockhart was also impressive, finishing 64th (47.35) ahead of Tom Smith 75th (48.21), and Ian Bolton 81st (48.41), the final men's team counter.

Filling the places ahead of the other teams is vital in this league though, and Phil Stevenson did his bit for the cause with a fine 86th place (49.15), followed by the boys doing the hard graft in the engine room, Andy Lindley 131st (52.08), Mark Bradford 136th (52.29), men's-mud-captain Martin Yeomans 137th (52.37), Pav Mazur 147th (54.06), Patrick Horn 149th (54.15), Andy Jeyes 165th (55.25), Damon Bland 186th (57.36) and Mark Eydman 190th (58.07) all breaking into the top 200 places.

Julian Rawlings was 218th (61.14), followed by Jez Millington-Pipe 248th (67.27) and Keith Baron 251st (68.24). This brought the team home with a fantastic score of just 448 for the eight counters, which placed them a brilliant second on the day and first in league two. After six race the men lie second overall in league two.

The women's team were again led home by the youthful Armstrong girls, both running brilliantly with Ellie finishing 3rd (47.44) and Isabel 8th (49.47). New Ivanhoe member Eliza Wrenne was an excellent 11th (51.09) on her cross-country debut for the club, and Faith Tipper was 20th (54.05) to complete a super score for the team.

As in the men's leagues, it is vital to back the scorers up and the Ivanhoe squad ran really well to pack well up the field. Rosie Dear ran her usual gutsy race to finish 26th (55.28), while Karen Bell was 27th (55.32), Emily Wideman 35th (56.43) and Victoria Smith 64th (61.07). Carolyn Osborne had another strong run to finish 72nd (62.55), just ahead of Karen Hartland who was 75th (63.34), ladies cross-country captain Teresa Talbott 77th (63.57) and Emily Partridge 79th (64.56). Amanda Bradbury was 84th (66.09) and Helen Smith just behind in 86th (66.16), followed by Fiona McKean 92nd (67.17), Sarah Malone 112th (69.58), Trish McPherson 122nd (70.40) and Grania Towle knocking a lot of time off last years race, 144th (75.13.

The ladies brilliant score placed them a fabulous first in the race, and they lie third in league one after six races, but could move up with a storming last race. The combined team were third on the day and lie second after six races. This was a strong showing by both the men and the ladies before the final fixture at Bosworth on March 5th.

In the Derby midweek series, six Ivanhoe Runners had a crack at the mile, with Matt Pleass clocking 5.16 in 5th, Andy Lindley 6.00 in 20th, Tim Moore 7.02 in 41st with Karen Hartland just one second behind in 42nd, and Helen Brandon (70) and Kev Wright (71) both clocking 9.28. In the five kilometre race, Andy Lindley clocked 20.39 in 47th, Karen Hartland 23.21 in 74th, and Helen Brandon and Kev Wright 32.35 in 95th and 96th.

Written by Kevin Sanders - last updated on 23/02/2017