SPIKES were a must as runners including a good turnout of senior men from Bromsgrove & Redditch Athletic Club competed at the first Birmingham League Division One Cross Country meeting of 2016.
Cheltenham’s Pittville Park was the venue and the course, which proved to be very slippery, featured a brook which the athletes had to cross.
Mark Appleton led the B&R team home in 149th place, ahead of Andrew Freeman (168th), Malcolm Duff (170th) and Kevin Lanckham (186th).
Then came Ian Keyte (206th), Darryll Thomas (241st), Stephen Brooks (243rd), Robert Humphries (248th), Dean Hartshorne (253rd), Phil Richardson (255th), John Searle (260th), Carl Grinnell (288th), Phil Anderson (289th) and Ian Nutter (290th).
Redditch-based athlete Joe Smith represented Tipton Harriers and finished the race in 22nd as he achieved his best position in the division to date.
The first meeting of the Midlands Women’s Cross Country League Division Two campaign took B&R’s women to Newbold Comyn in Leamington.
Again, this is a well known muddy course which lived up to its reputation and included a tough climb around the halfway mark.
Sally Hogan was eighth, Katy Barden ninth, Tamara Freeman 15th, Charlotte Ball 114th, Jane Anderson 116th and Miriam Strbakova 147th.