National XC Championship 2023 – Bolesworth Castle

The English National XC Championship had a new venue for 2023 and as we arrived by coach we were all eagerly eyeing the landscape. There were no obvious hills but there appeared to be lots of taped sections across countless fields. It wasn’t until we got off the coach that we realised that a chilly, wind would be our main challenge of the day.

Tent erected and race numbers gathered, we had our usual sprint to purchase event hoodies and tops. The “Colver Clothing Rules” normally dictate that you can’t buy kit if you didn’t take part but Rhonda sneaked in a new sub-rule that allows non-runners to buy long-sleeve t-shirts! We look forward to the kit being modelled at the March bowling event (buy your tickets on the Stack App).

The first race of the day for the TBH squad was the U15 Boys. The course was listed as 4km but in most races the organisers had kindly offered us some extra “value for money”! We had three representatives, Freddie Palmer was our first athlete home (91st), followed by Liam Whitelaw (243rd) and Jake Parker (282nd) who was fresh from the Chester parkrun (albeit sensibly preserving his legs as a tailwalker).

Early reports from the U15 boys suggested that the course was a little tougher than a flat field but probably didn’t have the challenges to make it an iconic National XC course. It seems that to achieve that accolade the course needs to sap your will to live – personally I was delighted with the flatter course!

Official event photos are available here: https://pic2go.com/. I believe there’s a way to view these without having to post them to Facebook. If someone finds out then maybe comment on the Facebook post. Bib numbers are available on the official results: https://results.sporthive.com/events/7034530289041792256

We had a fantastic group of girls running in the U13s race. Anna Carr and Eliza Palmer couldn’t be separated over the 3km course and eventually came home in an equal time with Anna being awarded the 193rd place and Eliza 194th. Melina Bourgenot-Lewis was next home in 220th with Florence Snaith (236th) and Poppy Colver (237th) also separated by just one position. Our 6th runner, Kora Howorth, was 248th in a time of 15:40. The team were 21st home, and second North East team, one place behind Durham Harriers.

Next up were the U17 men running over 6km. Zak Kettle was first home for TBH in 165th place in a time of 25:03 followed very closely by David Carr in 169th place, just four seconds behind. Jake Moir was 194th place and closing the team was Luis Nichol in 243rd place. Overall TBH were the 23rd team, and 2nd North East team, behind Morpeth Harriers.

The U13 boys raced next over a 3km course. Henry Pickett and Jack Whitelaw took their summer javelin competitiveness to the XC and swapped positions a number of times in the early stages, Henry ultimately came home first for the TBH team in 215th place with Jack following up in 256th. Aidan Whitfield was next in 268th and then Charlie Kilgour in 279th place. The Bigg brothers were next home with Ernie (283rd) three places ahead of Marcus. Again we managed to close a team, which is a fantastic achievement and came 30th overall, the only North East club to do so.

All of the races were recorded live and the full footage is available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-km0btjSz8. I’m delighted to say that none of our athletes lost any shoes today but fast-forward to 4:18:20 to see how not to cope with losing your shoe!

The last of our races was the U15 girls who were also racing over 4km. Ruby Colver followed up her excellent Thornley XC run with a strong performance, coming home in 207th position. She was followed by Ruby Ditchburn in 274th place and Adeline Bourgenot-Lewis in 284th.

Many thanks to all of the parents who supported so brilliantly. Thanks also to Rachael Perowne for sorting the coach and organising all of the race entries. Lastly, thanks to Claire Whitelaw for organising the meal arrangements at the YHA. Oh, and Happy Birthday to Claire – not sure that a field in Chester would be the way many people would choose to spend their 50th but full marks for making it a memorable occasion!