Ronhill Cambuslang Harriers ::Road Racing and Cross Country::

Cambuslang Harriers Christmas Dinner
 
This year we will be holding a Harriers Christmas Dinner at the Rugby Club on Wednesday the 21st of December starting at 7pm. Please contact Robert Anderson on 0141 641 1467 if you intend to come along. This is necessary, to give us an idea of the numbers required for catering.
 
Please select from the following menu.
 
Cost - 2 courses …£10.95 or 3 courses…£12.95
 
Menu
 
Starters
 
Chicken Liver Pate with Salad and Oat Cakes
 
Prawn Cocktail
 
Roast Carrot and Parsnip Soup
 
 
Mains
 
Chicken Breast wrapped in Parma Ham with sweet cranberry gravy, potatoes and vegetables
 
Lamb Shank in red wine gravy with garlic mash and red cabbage
 
Chicken Korma with saffron rice and poppadom
 
Roasted root vegetable Frittata served with salad and a pesto dressing
 
Desserts
 
Chocolate Tart served with a winter berry compote
 
Crushed Meringue, with Raspberries and Cream served in a Brandy Snap basket
 
Christmas Pudding with a Brandy Custard 

With a number of our senior men missing, it provided an opportunity for others to shine for the club and they did not disappoint, not only retaining their title but eventually finishing in both 1st and 2nd team positions. Not to be outdone however, our ever impoving ladies team won the title for only the 2nd time in our club history, and with a very commanding margin over 2nd placed Calderglen Harriers.

Both men and ladies races started together, over the same route, but with only 3 legs for the ladies as against the 4 for the men. It was great to see Caitlin Hendry back after a long term injury, but unfortunately her comeback didn't last and she is on the injury step once again. Arlene Bristow led of for the ladies team and after a steady start, pushed through to finish in 2nd place, nicely setting up Lucy Deeny for the 2nd leg. Lucy took up the mantle and brought the ladies through to 1st place with a comfortable lead. Katie Bristow extended the lead and was looking stong as she crossed the line to see the RHC ladies crowned as Lanarkshire road relay champions. It was also very encouraging to see Vicky Semple run an excellent time for the B team.

Meanwhile, we started 4 teams in the mens race. Ally Campbell was asked to get us off to a strong start and brought the A team home in 3rd place, well in contention. Not too far behind in 6th place was fast improving junior Stephen Paris, could our B team also rise to the challenge? Alastair Murray, in his first post marathon race, brought the 3rd team home in 14th, whilst super super vet David Cooney managed to avoid the irate ned from last  year to record an excellent time for the D team.

Ian (Corky) MacCorquodale, still to return to his best after sustaining a nasty injury during a hill race, didn't take long to sweep RHC into the lead, and kept up his effort right to the finishing line. Gordon Robertson was our 3rd leg runner and was keen to maintain the lead, indeed he extended our lead with an excellent time to hand over to Robert Gilroy, who recorded the fastest time of the day to retain the mens title.

Meanwhile Scott Hunter brought the B team into the bronze medal position at the half way stage, continuing his fine form, whilst David Thom was recording the fastest supervet time of the day to bring the C team into 6th position. Young Anthony Edgar kept the B team in medal contention after the 3rd leg, finishing a close 4th place. Vet Mick O'Hagan took off in pursuit of Motherwell AC and East Kilbride AC, and a very strong leg resulted in him bringing the B team home in 2nd place for an impressive 1-2.

With Frank Hurley maintaining the position on leg 3, Robert Rossborough had a welcome return to form to bring home the C team in 5th place. Walter and Alexander Edgar completed the line up for the D team, with the elder statesman retaining bragging rights over his son with a faster overall time. Well done to all RHC Harriers.

Ronhill Cambuslang Harriers are no strangers to winning UK veteran championships at the Sutton Park, Birmingham venue, the Wembley of UK Athletics.   The 8-man over 40 team had previously secured victory in 1999, 2003 and 2004 while the 6-man over 50 and the 4 man over 35 squads did likewise last year.  However, it was difficult to know how this year’s races would unfold as the BMAF had controversially changed the age bandings which made it more difficult to predict how this would affect the likely contenders. Cambuslang entered 3 teams to contest the new age groups – 8 men over 35, 6 men over 45 and 4 men over 55 with runners being included in overlapping age groups in the event  of injuries and non-availability.  Initially, if all athletes had been available for selection, medalling in all 3 age groups was a distinct possibility. However, this was not to be and with some enforced late call offs due to injury it was decided to collapse the over 45 team and concentrate on the 2 other age groups. Our medal hopes now realistically rested on our youngest age groups composed of 3 over 35 runners, 4 over 40 and 1 over 50.

The daunting and important first leg was entrusted to Alan Ramage who was making his debut in this event.  The team had travelled down on the Friday and had the opportunity to walk the testing course on the Saturday morning before the race started.  It was important that the newcomers and old hands acquainted/re-acquainted themselves with the early and later hills particularly to avoid over-cooking the pace in the early stages as can sometimes happen on this course (and did happen later on to one of the leading contenders). As in previous years the first leg was hotly contested with several clubs putting out their stronger runners to opt for early exposure at the race front.  Paul Ward of Telford, the UK vets bronze cross country medallist, was first home in 15.16 with Alan coming in a creditable 25th with a 16.33 clocking which shows that he is coming back well after an injury curtailed winter.  This gave leg 2 runner Johnny MacNamara, who had not raced since February through injury, the opportunity to charge through the field and advance the Cambuslang cause to 10th spot with an encouraging time of 16.12 which was the 5th fastest on this lap.  RHC’s momentum continued up to 8th place thanks to Mick O’Hagan’s steady 17.01.  Mick, our travelling reserve, was drafted into the team on Thursday evening when Eddie Stewart failed a late fitness test. He wisely resisted the temptation to go with the early fast pace of the Morpeth runner who was to pay for his premature overzealous efforts at the top of the hill and was to drop back through the field from 8th to 31st.  This was a good psychological lift for RH Cambuslang as Ian Hudspith who had run 29.42 the previous week for 10K was about to be unleashed on leg 4 for the North East contenders.  New vet Robert Gilroy, recent winner of the Lochaber marathon, (15.28 and 2nd fastest on the leg) showed he was up for the challenge by taking the Lanarkshire team into 2nd place and reducing the deficit on the leaders Wells City to 58 seconds.  Meanwhile the lead over the other main rivals Salford had been extended to 48 seconds.  However, not surprisingly Hudspith flew round the course in a record breaking 14.08, a 3 second improvement on Salford’s Martin Cox’s 2010 record.  This was a remarkable run by the Morpeth athlete in the very windy conditions and on a course which many athletes felt was slightly longer than previous years. Colin and Kerry’s GPS watches seemed to confirm this. This could be explained by the cones at the turn being positioned further out than normally. Greg Hastie, the Scottish vets 800m champion, then did well to maintain 2nd place while clawing back a further 16 seconds on Wells with a 7th fastest leg clocking of 16.25. Salford, however, had edged into 3rd place only 25 seconds behind although Morpeth lost ground by 22 seconds.  The in-form Kerry Wilson was now given the task of putting RH Cambuslang into the lead and the Scottish veteran over 40 marathon and cross country champion did exactly that. His fastest leg stint of 15.12 which was to be the 3rd fastest of the day put the club in pole position from Salford with a healthy 1 minute 51 seconds lead. Neil Wilkinson’s 2nd fastest leg of 15.42 kept Morpeth in the chase in 5th spot. The experienced Iain Campbell ran a lonely but strong 7th leg to increase RH Cambuslang’s lead over Salford by another 22 seconds with Morpeth now 3rd. The 51 year old Iain ran with the same determination he had shown both in training and racing as a young East Kilbride schoolboy and as a junior and senior Scottish internationalist.  Going into the final leg the leading 3 teams had strong representatives. Pick of the bunch was Salford’s Martin Cox who had just seen his course record taken from him by Ian Hudspith. Although Cox gained 22 seconds on former Scottish marathon and 50K champion Jamie Reid the final outcome was never in doubt as the club captain ran a very controlled and impressive 15.33 for the 2nd fastest final leg and for a 1 minute 53 seconds victory. This was the 2nd successive year that the reliable Jamie had anchored Cambuslang to a UK vet relay title. Terry Wall (15.45) took 3rd spot for Morpeth. The dynamics of relay running, where every runner plays his part in the overall result, was exemplified in full. All 8 runners certainly did their bit as did the support from the other runners in attendance along with life member and former Scottish steeplechase champion and UK internationalist Gordon Rimmer.

The over 55 team of Dave Fairweather (20.07), Barnie Gough (19.49), Tam McPake (19.14) and Frank Hurley (18.12) finished a respectable 11th in their age group competition. Colin Feechan (18.10) ran the opening leg in the over 45 grouping to hand over to David Cooney (21.13) which then allowed both of them to lend their support to the other runners.

A huge thanks is due to Colin for the unstinting administration work he did behind the scenes both in organising the team and making the travelling arrangements. Club captain Jamie too was a great help in helping with the team selections and running order.  Hopefully we will again be up for the race next year and be able to mount a challenge across the 3 age groups.

With an unprecedented number of call offs and injuries beforehand, RHC fielded only 2 full teams at the Scottish Senior Road Race championships at Livingston on Sunday 3rd April 2011, to compete over the 6-stages in dry but breezy conditions.

However it is in times like these that the club spirit has time and time again come to the fore, and both competing teams responded superbly to the challenge, resulting in the senior men’s team picking up the bronze medals and the masters team lifting the coveted gold medals, beating many other senior teams in the process to finish in 7th place overall, the highest position that a masters team has ever finished in this race.

Club captain Jamie Reid continued his return to form, finishing an excellent 7th position for the senior men in a hotly contested 1st leg, with DJ Mcauley finishing in a superb 12th place, showing that he’ll be pushing for 1st team scalps next season. Robert Gilroy was next away for the seniors and brought the team into the medal positions with a great run, finishing yards behind Central AC in 3rd place, with eventual winners Shettleston Harriers ahead in 1st place, and Edinburgh AC & Kilbarchan in 4th and 5th places respectively. Next up was Joe Kealey who, despite an unexpected detour (too much information Joe!), slightly increased the gap on our nearest rivals in 4th place, whilst Central AC went clear in 2nd place. Chris Wilson, on his return from his recent international debut in Ireland, was sensing medal prospects for the team, and pushed the gap on 4th place Kilbarchan to over 90 seconds. With only 2 legs remaining, Davy Munro took over, and despite recent injuries threatening his participation, Davy had no intention of letting up and showed great determination to maintain the 90 second gap, handing over to Iain “Corky” MacCorquodale on the glory leg. Corky set off steady over the tough 2 mile start, and handled the teams expectations well as he was never at any time troubled and finished just under 1 minute ahead of Corstorphine AC to the great delight of his team mates.

Meanwhile the masters race, incorporated over the same course and number of legs, saw the club hoping to go one better than last year when they picked up the silver medals, despite ever increasing competition.

Colin Feechan ran the 1st of the 3 short legs (3.1 miles) and came in as 3rd overall vet, behind Fife AC and Shettleston, and  handed over to Greg Hastie to cover the 1st long leg of 5.8 miles. Greg soon made inroads on the leaders and moved the team into 2nd place, only 45 secs behind Fife AC, who still held the lead. Mick O’Hagan, returning to his early season form, then ran a great short leg (2nd fastest vets short leg) and took the vets into a 30 second lead over Fife AC, whilst Shettleston and last years winners Carnegie were battling it out for 3rd place, ahead of last year’s bronze medallists Calderglen AC. Kerry Wilson, Scottish Vets XC age group champion, then ran the 2nd fastest vets long leg of the day, not only to build up a 4 minute cushion over our nearest rivals, but also to propel the team into 8th place overall after 4 legs. Neil Wilkinson, in preparation for his participation at the upcoming Vets European road Race Championships, proceeded to run the fastest vets short leg of the day to further increase the lead and to consolidate 8th place overall. Alan Ramage, in his 1st race following a long term injury post his Berlin marathon pb, but with his local knowledge of the course, was tasked to bring the team home, and in doing so finished the race in 7th position overall, not bad for a team consisting of 5 over 40’s and a 52-year old.

Team manager David Cooney and club captain Jamie Reid had selected 2 well balanced teams beforehand, and coupled with great team spirit, determination and camaraderie on the day, the club once again enjoyed a very successful national championships.

All RHC members, young and not so young, are encouraged to come along to the Rugby club this Saturday evening for a get together. Starting at 7:30pm, there will be a finger buffet supplied, cost to Seniors is £3,  £2 for young athletes. Please come along and enjoy yourself and support your club. 
 

This weekend saw the RHC masters competing on one of the most challenging Scottish Masters XC courses of late. With 11 athletes from the club competing, we eventually took home 5 age group medals as well as the 2 big team titles (overall team, 4 to count and M50 team, 3 to count). 

The club prides itself on its team spirit and camaraderie, and this was exemplified by the efforts to get our athletes on the start line. Davie Fairweather would have been a strong candidate for the M65 title but injury prevented him running, however he turned chauffeur for the day to ensure others got to the venue in Kirkcaldy. 

Team manager David Cooney’s contribution, time and time again, year after year, ensures that our strongest teams are on the start line, athletes are fully prepared and catered for via numerous phone calls and Emails, registration, and the important distribution of numbers on the day ensures the athletes need only concentrate on the race. With the foundations in place, it’s over to the competing athletes on the day to deliver the goods, and despite the exclusion of M35 athletes in today’s race, today’s haul of 2 team titles and 5 age group medals confirmed once again our place as the leading Masters XC club in Scotland. 

Kerry Wilson has not had his troubles to seek this season, a knee injury in Q4 2010 sidelined him for months, and more importantly a health issue for his younger son Kalle has led to a worrying time of late. So the performance by Kerry was dedicated to Kalle and to finish in 2^nd place overall only 19 secs behind the classy Robert Quinn of Kilbarchan in a time of 31m22s was a superb effort (1^st M40). He worked his way through the field in an extremely measured way, as did our very own Eurostar Eddie Stewart who was next home in 5^th position overall in 32m34s (1^st M50), a truly remarkable performance by anyone’s standards. Only 12 seconds behind Eddie in 6^th position was Neil Wilkinson to finish as 3^rd M40, an excellent effort as Neil is also picking up after an injury ravaged season. 

Iain Campbell (2nd M50) gave it his all from the gun as we’ve come to expect from Iain, and was rewarded with 2^nd M50 in 9^th place in 33m10s. 4 in the top 10 - these lads easily won the overall team award - 4th year in a row. Next in was evergreen Frank Hurley in 35m29s (1st M55), after an epic battle with defending M55 champion Doug Cowie of Forres AC. Those weekly club Hampden runs certainly proved dividends for Frank who is having a superb season. Next in was the fast finishing Frankie Barton in 36m29s, 2 seconds ahead of Mick O’Hagan who is returning to form after his recent bout of flu. A few places behind came Gerry Reid in 36m38s, an excellent run in only his 2^nd race for 12 months to secure the inaugural M50 title for the club. Colin Feechan followed in 36m59s, and then Jimmy Zaple made the long trip north to finish in 40m27s, whilst 3^rd M55 from last year Archie Jenkins (41m41s) was still suffering some jet lag from his recent Canadian trip.
Apart from the obvious individual abilities, our club spirit was there in abundance at these championships, and will be required to ensure that we remain at the forefront of Scottish and British Masters Athletics. If anyone had thought that our hunger at Masters level was waning then they will have to think again.

Stuart Gibson got his 2011 race schedule underway at the Beith Harriers
4.8mile Road Race in Kilbirnie. It attracted a good quality field
including Inverclyde trio Chris Mackay, Craig Ruddy and Mark Pollard.
Stuart finished 3rd in a huge course best of 22:55.
Stuart stated, " I was amazed but delighted to be leading after the first of the 4 laps (1.2 miles each). I got pulled back in a little but stayed with the pack for the next 2 laps.Going into the final lap, myself, Ruddy and Mackay were side by side. I moved into the lead and tried to surge away.Unfortunately I lost out in a sprint finish in the last half mile."
The race was won by Chris Mackay in 22:43, beating his own course record by a second, followed by Craig Ruddy in 22:49, Stuart Gibson in 3rd and Mark Pollard in 4th.

Results can be found on our RHC Results page

Due to the 3k/10k routes being ice and snow bound and with so many races in December being cancelled or postponed, the races were switched to cross country around the perimiter of the rugby pitches to ensure that everyone had a chance to work off any Xmas excesses, with the re-arranged courses being approximately 3k and 7k in length respectively.

With a small but very enthusiastic crowd having successfully negotiated the car park which had turned into a new ice rink, both races were set off together, with the 3k race competitors only having to complete 2 laps compared to the 5 laps for the longer race.

First home in the 3K race was local lad and fast improving Jack McGregor in a time of 9m 57secs, ahead of Stuart Tytler in 10m 22 secs. 1st Female home was Uner 11 Rona Tytler of Kilbarchan AAc in 11m 13 secs, 1 second ahead of Rachel Black of RHC.

The 7k race was warming up nicely meantime with the RHC trio of Stuart Gibson, Johnny MacNamara and Iain Reid breaking away whilst setting a very brisk pace. The following group turned out to be a battle of the vets with Denis Williams of Shettleston, Paul Thompson of Helensburgh and Frank Hurley of RHC all working hard. A little further back and Claire McCracken was running well to lead the ladies from Michelle Hetherington of Helensburgh, with Clare Barr of Motherwell and Kirsty Grant of RHC having a great battle for 3rd place.

Stuart Gibson had upped the pace on a number of occasions to open a gap on 3rd placed Iain Reid, but Johnnny MacNamara was proving somewhat more difficult to drop in 2nd place. However a small but decisive gap opened up as they both entered the last of the 5 laps, and Stuart ended up finishing 9 secs ahead of Johnnny, with Iain 25 seconds further behind. Paul Thompson and Denis Williams had a ding dong battle throughout and a final push for the line saw Paul (1st V50)  get the better of Denis (1st V40) in 4th and 5th positions respectively, with Frank Hurley having an excellent run not far behind. In his 1st race as a V60, Tam McPake of RHC had an excellent run to pick up 1st V60 prize.

Claire consolidated her fine run to finish over 1 minute ahead of 2nd place Michelle, whilst Clare got the better of Kirsty for 3rd place with only 2 seconds to spare. Maureen McVey of Giffnock was next lady home to claim the V45 prize, with youngster Mairi Brown of RHC running well to be 1st junior lady. Julie Fitzpatrick of Bellahouston was next home to collect 1st V35 prize, and Jan Fellowes of Helensburgh joined husband Paul Thompson as a prizewinner by scooping 1st F55 prize.

Some hot complimentary food and drinks were laid on post race in the clubhouse, whilst after the presentation of prizes some of the runners were seen partaking of some stronger refreshments to help touch the parts that were missed.

A special thank you must go to our sponsors of both races (MacDet, Achilles Heel, Barnie & Freddie), and to all at RHC who helped to put the races together and who helped on the day.

We look forward to welcoming everyone back for future races.

Ronhill Cambuslang Harriers triumphed at the UK vets road relay championships when winning the over 35 and over 50 team titles.  The Cambuslang athletes were continuing the proud record which the club has in this prestigious event. 

The over 40 men had previously won gold in 1999, 2003 and 2004 as well as silver in 2001 and 2002 and bronze in 2000.  The over 50 squad had also achieved bronze medals in 2002 and 2003.
This year the over 35, 40 and 50 athletes competed together; with the younger age group doing 4 legs, the middle group 8 and the older group 6 legs. 

It was touch and go whether the club would be able to field an over 35 team as Alan Ramage had suffered a calf injury while training in Tenerife only 4 days before race day.  However, Kerry Wilson kindly agreed to step in at the last minute to support Greg Hastie, Charlie Thomson and Jamie Reid.  Greg and Charlie who are both over 40 vets were up against some younger rivals.  Greg (15.58) ran a well measured opening leg over the tough 3 miles and 8 yards trail to finish 10th in the over 35 age group.  Charlie (15.43) provided his usual gutsy performance to advance the team 3 places.  It was great to see Charlie back in serious competition after a lengthy spell of injuries over the last 4 years.  Kerry, the Scottish vets cross country champion, proceeded to run a stormer (15.08) and catapulted Cambuslang into the lead ahead of Liverpool Harriers.  His time was the 2nd fastest on the day by an over 35 and confirmed that he is running better than ever.   The experienced Jamie (15.21) who had major Achilles surgery last winter ran strongly from the front to anchor the team to a 27 seconds victory over Trafford with Preston a further 7 seconds adrift.  This was an impressive performance by the quartet who were only 10 seconds outside Salford’s course record.

Colin Feechan had the difficult task of launching Cambuslang’s over 50 challenge against the two younger age groups.  Colin (17.20) paced himself well to finish 17th in his age category.  Our rivals were lined up nicely ahead for Frankie Barton to majestically slice through the field to prise open a lead for Cambuslang.  His time of 15.49 was the 2nd fastest of the day in his age category.  Archie Jenkins (18.17) was now the target man for the opposition and although he lost some ground the club was still in close contention.  Dave Thom who only turned 50 prior to the race restored RHC’s lead with a strong 16.26 stint which was the 2nd fastest for this leg and Iain Campbell with an impressive 15.59, the fastest on leg 5 and 5th fastest time overall, consolidated the club’s position at the head of the field.  This allowed Frank Hurley (17.05) to run a hard but relaxed final leg which gave Cambuslang a decisive 86 seconds victory over Clayton Le Moor with South London Harriers 18 seconds further behind.  Like the over 35 squad this was a well balanced team effort and the second best club performance ever behind Oxford City.  Interestingly Frankie, Archie, Frank and Dave had previously won gold in the over 40 race and Frankie had previously competed in all of the 6 medal winning teams while Archie had been in the two over 50 bronze medal teams and Frank in one of them.   These statistics speak well of the longevity of the athletes concerned and of their commitment to the club and the sport.

Cambuslang also fielded an over 60 team for the first time.  This race took place before the main event and was combined with the men over 70 and all the female age categories.  The club finished 24th team through Davie Fairweather (21.15) who had recently returned from an extended holiday in Australia and New Zealand, David Cooney (20.16) and Robert Anderson (21.39).  However, the Cambuslang trio were overshadowed by former title holders Clydesdale who were 12th team thanks to Peter Cartwright (19.16), Brian Campbell (20.09) and Bobby Young (19.06).

Davie Fairweather M60s

Frankie Barton M50s

Robert Anderson M60s

This UK event is unique in terms of atmosphere, excitement and quality of athletes taking part and it is surprising that so few Scottish teams have participated in the past.  Certainly Cambuslang hope to return again next year and contest all male age groups from over 35 to over 60.

David Cooney