The final Ladies SCCL event took place at Lloyd Park on Saturday 2 March 2019.  This was never going to be as straight forward as predicted and our standing at the top of the division 2 table did nothing to reasure me that we would be able to stop Woking from taking the spoils, my concern's had turned to expecting a big challenge from Ful-On-Tri.  Whilst, barring an absoulute disaster, we would claim one of the three promotion spots, it was small consolation as we really should have been going up to the top flight as champions.  But as they, every cloud has a silver lining and our's came in the form of a team that probably shouldn't even have been there. It is no exaggeration to say, that our ladies team out performed themselves right through the field in order to secure third place and only 8 points adrift of FOT and in doing so clinched 2nd place in the table overall.

Running through our ladies performances reads as follows :

Sophie Biggs - 4 Races:  (AKA ALDE - Arrives Late Departs Early) Finished 3rd on the day and a fantastic 3rd individuall overall for the season.  Sophie was hoping for a day off due to a very important swimming event in the afternoon and she was also looking forward to running the Middlesex Vets Champs the following day where she would have been amongst the top prizes.  But after just a little persuasion she relented luckily for us and turned up just in time, probably after a morning jog with the dog and then parking her car on double yellows by the course. Sophie set off in determined style, fast and furious and hot on the heals of the eventual winner Paula Ruthrfoord FOT.  Paula is in great form at the minute so Sophie had to battle for 2nd place with Stevie Lawrence, Stevie had beaten Sophie by almost a minute in match 2. Sophie was eventually run out of it by Stevie, only by seconds, after putting in a tremendous performance and showing great courage and determination. Thanks Sophie.

Juliet Cleghorn - 4 Races:  Finished 12th overall on the day, 1st over 50 and a brilliant 1st over 50 overall.  Juliet ran exceptionally well, it was probably in the back of her mind that last time out she fell and broke her glasses leaving her to struggle home, when most would have gone home, in 34th position. No repeat performance today as she produced an outstanding performance, showing all her experience, to finish in her highest position of the season and gaining valuable points for the team.  Thanks Juliet.

Heidi Russenberger - 2 Races:  Finished 16th on the day.  This was Heidi's 1st race back having injured her foot back in October during the first race of the season.  After a long period of rest and a tentative return to training we were lucky that Heidi felt able to run, even though it was off only a small amount of training.  There was no pressure on Heidi to run and a steady run without risk would have done the trick, well if that's a steady run Heidi I cant wait to see next seasons performances.  Thanks Heidi.

Eliza Hawthorn - 2 Races:  Finished 25th on the day, and made the scoring 5 for the first time.  Eliza is fairly new to the club and is making  good progress as one of our better senior runners. Eliza trains hard and is a regular attender at hill sessions and Riverside Drive, one to watch for the future - next season.  Thanks Eliza.

Liz Fraser - 4 Races:  Finished 32nd on the day, and made the scoring 5 for the first time.  Liz is another new member to the team and this was her best performance of 4 and showing again that the Straggler Ladies have good improving seniors to back up our experienced team members.  Liz backed this performance up with a 43 minute 10k the following day. Liz is also a regular attender at training sessions and enjoys the hill training.  Thanks Liz.

Our B team not to be out done by the A team, finished in 12th position overall on the day and 3rd B team.  Finishing the season in 8th overall and 2nd B team. Brilliant running by the B team which gave us the depth to step up today when we really needed some big performances. Very difficult to score consistently well with just an A team and we proved today just how important our B team runners are. So a big well done to:

Alexis Prince - 2 Races: Finished 42nd and 6th Straggler.

Patricia Ronksley - 3 Races: Finished 54th and 7th Straggler.

Julie Howarth - 2 Races: Finished 74th and 8th Straggler.

Ramona Thevenet - 3 Races:  Finished 80th and 9th Straggler.

Mary Hyde - 4 Races:  Finished 109 and 10th Straggler.

Supporting our A and B team were:

Sue Waters - 1 Race: Finished 124th and 11th Straggler.

Mirella Genziani - 4 Races:  Finished 147th and 12th Straggler.

Venessa Lok - 2 Races:  Finished 165th and 13th Straggler.

Chrissie Glew - 3 Races:  Finished 167th and 14th Straggler. Chrissie was 5th overall in the 60+cat

I will put a full seasons report together for Stragmail.

Many thanks to you all over the season for making the effort and getting your shoes dirty.