Golden Girls – Avon’s inter girls squad (L to R): Clemmie Lee, Sophie Moore, Kate Howard, Alice Bridger-Morales, Megan Hornung, Amy Nicolls, Tobina Lawrence, Danni Sinclair, Ella Treby and Amelia Honor.
AVON’S athletes are this week celebrating one of the best set of results in the county’s history.
The county’s young runners came away from the South West Schools Cross Country Championships with four team golds from a possible eight – plus one silver.
Of those fab bour three came in the girls’ races with the Avon stars enjoying a clean sweep of the junior, intermediate and senior age groups.
Add on an excellent win by the senior boys and a team silver for the minor boys and you can understand why Jim Strudwick, who is one of the county’s long serving team managers, is celebrating.
“I would say that since I have been a team manager that is the best set of team results we have ever had,” purred Strudwick.
“In the past we have picked up the odd team gold along with a few individual medals but this was amazing.”
GOLD ONE: Bristol Grammar School’s county champion Rosie Hamilton-James led the way for the senior girls finishing fourth, just two seconds off making the podium, with Claudia Spice of QEH also making the top ten in ninth.
Freya Spruit (Bath College), Rhiannon Paton (Redland Green) and Amy Richards (Beechen Cliff) packed superbly to finish 11th, 13th and 14th respectively with Lizzie Narbett of Kingswood, Bath closing in the team in 23rd place.
GOLD TWO: Avon’s junior girls really did storm to victory as they trounced Devon by 40 points. County champion Laura Chance of the Bristol Free School led the way in fifth just ahead of school colleague Keira Devereux in seventh.
Behind them the next four girls – Charlotte Warren (Clifton College), Ella Smith (Colston’s), Lottie Silverton (Bath Royal High) and Millie Redman (Clifton High) all made the top 18 as the Avon girls over-whelmed their rivals.
GOLD THREE: It was tighter for the inter girls’ team as the squad of Megan Hornung (Clifton High), Kate Howard (BGS), Sophie Moore (Bath Royal High), Amelia Honor (Clifton High) – astonishingly all finishing in the top ten in fifth, seventh, eighth and tenth respectively – Amy Nicolls (Wellsway) and Danni Sinclair (Marlwood) just did enough to beat Wiltshire by 11 points.
GOLD FOUR: County champion Alex Parsons (Beechen Cliff Bath) was a touch below par with illness while Cotham School’s Adbi Hasan suffered a heavy fall on his shoulder and was sent off course so this was far from straightforward.
Golden Boys – Avon’s seniors (L to R): Alex Parsons, Sam Gentry, Ben Hamblin, Alfie Hocking, Justin Davies, Will Cheek and Abdi Hasan
Avon’s leading runner was Justin Davies (King Edward School, Bath) in sixth with Alfie Hocking (Clevedon) and a determined Parsons also making the top ten. Hasan was next before Ben Hamblin (Clevedon) and Sam Gentry (Backwell) completed the scoring to beat Somerset by 28 points.
The minor boys silver heroes comprised Charlie Haines (Kingswood, Bath) and Halbie Wagstaff (Clifton Prep), who finished an excellent fourth and fifth respectively plus Jacob Fleming (Monkton Combe, Bath), Joel Martineau (St Katherine’s), William Jephcott (Clifton Prep) and Max Bennett (Castle, Thornbury).
In addition, the inter boys finished fourth, juniors fifth and minor girls, led home by Holly Sanigar in seventh, placed sixth.
South West Schools Cross Country Championships, Kings Park, Bournemouth
Senior girls: 1 Courtney Howard (De) 14:45; 2 Amelia Willis (S) 14:59; 3 Chloe Olford 15:06.
Teams: 1 Avon 74 (4 Rosie Hamilton-James; 9 Claudia Spice; 11 Freya Spruit; 13 Rhiannon Paton; 14 Amy Richards; 23 Lizzie Narbett). Non scorers: 28 India Ibbotson; 32 Emily Whitaker; 33 Bridie Knox; 45 Dara Goodluck; 2 Somerset 76; 3 Devon 92; 4 Dorset 141; 5 Glos 142; 5 Wiltshire 241.
Inter girls: 1 Bea Wood (W) 14:07; 2 Kiya Dee (G) 14:31; 3 Kaitlyn Sheppard (G) 14:32.
Teams: 1 Avon 71 (5 Megan Hornung; 7 Kate Howard; 8 Sophie Moore; 10 Amelia Honor; 20 Amy Nicolls; 21 Danni Sinclair). Non scorers: 38 Alice Bridger-Morales; 40 Ella Treby; 43 Clemmie Allen; 48 Tobina Lawrence); 2 Wiltshire 82; 3 Glos 90; 4 Dorset 111; 5 Somerset 175; 6 Devon 187.
Junior girls: 1 Sophie Nicholls (S) 11:43; 2 Scarlett Livingstone (De) 11:44; 3 Molly Shorey (De) 12:01.
Teams: 1 Avon 69 (5 Laura Chance; 7 Keira Devereux; 10 Charlotte Warren; 12 Ella Smith; 17 Lottie Silverton; 18 Millie Redman). Non scorers: 29 Clemmie Lee; 54 Elen Ruck); 2 Devon 109; 3 Somerset 122; 4 Glos 141; 5 Cornwall 156; 6 Dorset 168; 7 Wiltshire 181.
Minor girls: 1 Nancy Taylor (Do) 9:29; 2 Freya Woodhead (De) 9:35; 3 Daisy Rowe (De).
Teams: 1 Somerset 107; 2 Devon 109; 3 Gloucestershire 116; 4 Dorset 122; 5 Wiltshire 155; 6 Avon 157 (7 Holly Sanigar; 12 Tia Butler; 23 Felicity Lowe; 31 Emma Wolfenden; 40 Jasmine Spear; 44 Llywela Kenyon). Non scorers: 45 Cassia Oyelumade; 46 Miranda Carr; 61 Amelia Rushforth; 64 Olivia McKean; 7 Cornwall 176.
Senior boys: 1 Oliver Smart (De) 22:25; 2 Johnny Livingstone (De) 22:45; 3 Alex Rawlings (G) 22:45.
Teams: 1 Avon 70 (6 Justin Davies; 7 Alfie Hocking; 9 Alex Parsons; 12 Abdi Hasan; 17 Ben Hamblin; 19 Sam Gentry). Non scorers: 22 Ollie Harper; 26 Greg Hayward; 31 Oliver Lock; 43 Will Cheek; 2 Somerset 98; 3 Devon 102; 4 Wiltshire 131; 5 Glos 162; 6 Dorset 229; 7 Cornwall 232.
Inter boys: 1 Joe Ponter (S) 17:55; 2 Isaac Murray (Co) 18:06; 3 Tom Heal (S) 18:12.
Teams: 1 Somerset 61; 2 Dorset 76; 3 Devon 115; 4 Avon 134 (13 Artie Savage-Swaine; 21 Joe Milton; 22 Will Scott; 24 Rufus Thomas; 26 Steve Kerfoot; 28 Seamus Robinson). Non scorers: 44 Cerdig Jones; 48 Finn Goodhew; 56 Alexander Wilson; 5 Wiltshire 174; 6 Glos 222; 7 Cornwall 263.
Junior boys: 1 William Rabjohns (Do) 13:16; 2 Alex Adams (G) 13:28; 3 Archie Coates (Do) 13:53.
Teams: 1 Devon; 70; 2 Dorset 91; 3 Wiltshire 135; 4 Somerset 143; 5 Avon 153 (12 Joe Markey; 19 Sam Holloway; 24 Nick Pestell; 25 Dylan Stoneman; 31 Ishmael Bradley; 42 Alex Hearn). Non scorers: 51 Thomas Courtier; 55 Eoin O’Halloran; 58 George Peacock; 59 Solly Scott; 6 Glos 159; 7 Cornwall 219.
Minor boys: 1 Christopher Oliveira (de) 11:21; 2 Rocco Sughayer (De) 11:43; 3 Charlie Sidhu (S).
Teams: 1 Devon 55; 2 Avon 77 (4 Charlie Haines; 5 Halbie Wagstaff; 13 Jacob Fleming; 16 Joel Martineau; 19 William Jephcott; 20 Max Bennett). Non scorers: 21 Seb Leaney;38 Alex Auton-Green; 55 Ferdinand Goddard); 3 Somerset 91; 4 Glos 138; 5 Dorset 156; 6 Wiltshire 213; 7 Cornwall 258.