PJ forgets his horse as Eugene gallops to the post
by Joe McCann
PJ McCrickard, formerly highly regarded as talented jockey, took to the Downpatrick racecourse like a highly trained thoroughbred for the East Down promoted ‘Rollercoaster’ run. Without his pretty silks, whip, hard hat and mount he was a however bit of a fish out of water, a fact observed by his perennial nemesis Eugene McCann.
Eugene, who was chomping at the bit, had a great run in this two horse race, finishing 11th overall in a respectable time of 18:33 for the undulating 5km course. In the build-up McCann admitted to fearing his arch-rival, especially in light of McCrickard’s pedigree on the course and decided on the tactic of going out hard from flag fall and trying to ‘stay the course’. It would appear that this was sensible as McCann did not waver on the run in and did not have to go for the whip once as he saw off his rival by quite a few lengths as he came past the post, winning their private duel hands down, while his rival found the going heavy. To give credit where it is due McCrickard stayed on well and proved to be more than an also ran, giving those a little further back a good run for their money and proving categorically that he is more than an also ran. Those who were blinkered and had wagered on McCrickard over McCann at the start did come unstuck as their dodgepot came a cropper and proved to be a less than odds on favourite in a 3.12 trip that did not require a photo finish or a Steward’s Enquiry. Unfortunately McCann will be more heavily handicapped on his next outing over the longer distance of 5 miles on a different course. Amid the horseracing puns it would be remiss not to mention that PJ finished 23rd in 19:29. For those of you who are ripping up a beaten docket and do not fancy this pure-bred on his next outing, I have one simple piece of advice – hold your horses!!! As a footnote a horse whisperer tells me that Eugene prepares in the stable for the races by stocking up on porridge with a healthy glug (that is a technical term) of Irish cream liqueur!
Straight from the horse’s mouth
There were plenty of other Newcastle athletes on parade at the Rollercoaster. Anne Sandford was 6th lady in 20:53, while Declan Magee made his debut in Newcastle colours clocking 22:04 and Paul Fegan was a little further back recording 24:54. I was also delighted to see my close friend Mary Knight represent Castlewellan GACAC and finish in 29:19. Mary was the only athlete from that club to make the long trip to Downpatrick. Perhaps Newcastle and Castlewellan could get together and share the cost of the bus for the ‘maybes’. The race was won easily by Brendan Teer from the host club who ate up the 5k and recorded an impressive 15:50, just under a minute ahead of his training partner Liam Venney.
Juniors stay the course too
Patrick Sheridan was 1st in the u15 and had plenty to spare over his rivals while Dearbhla Magee finished second girl in the same race to Shauna Browne from Beechmount. Eoghan Knight was the only Newcastle athlete in the in the U-13 race finishing 6th boy. Caolan Hawkins was 3rd in the P6/P7 race won by Tim Prenter from East Down. Caolan was unlucky to lose out as he battled it out with Caoilin Quinn, who has been performing extremely well in the P6 races in the Junior XC series. Newcastle were also represented by Ben McGuigan (14th), Tom Rodgers (24th), Aidan McCauley (31st)
Michaela Quinn was 6th in the same race for girls and other Newcastle finishers were Eabha Campbell, Kiara Cairns, Lucy Keneally, Aine Rice and Laura Molloy.
Eve Kenneally put in a 5 star performance to finish second in the P4/P5 race, just ahead of her clubmate Kate McCauley 3rd. There were also great runs by Alea Brannigan, Maeve and Kitty McKinney and Ciara McCabe. Connor Murray was also impressive as he stormed to second place in the boys’ race as Newcastle packed well with fine performances from Morgan Steele, Luka Hallissey, Conrad Rice, Rory Corrigan and Louis and Noah Sheridan.
You can please none of the people!
Keeping everyone happy within any organisation or club is never an easy task. When you write about people they complain and when you do not they ask why! This week I have received two requests not to mention some of those who are lampooned more than others. Olivia Brannigan took time out of her busy training regime under the expert tutelage of John Curry to ask me ‘not to write about our fella’. As she was not specific enough I can oblige by not writing about her brothers Paddy and Ian. However her other brother deserves no such luxury! This week he introduced a new distance into the marathon training schedule – the 13.7 mile run. Kendall and Strachan looked on incredulously as the arm went up and D bade them farewell with just over 5 miles of the 18 to run. He has obviously been consulting the Frank Horwell website again! However this mid-run defection is perhaps becoming infectious as on Sunday morning Strachan was more than tempted to follow his guru as after 45 minutes the hand waved and Brannigan strode off in the opposite direction like a gazelle. Strachan incurred the wrath of some of the others before deciding that discretion is the better part of valour and fell back into line. The second claim Tadworth runner is certainly performing well at present as evidenced by the 6:36 average for 18 miles set by himself and Kendall on Saturday morning. Perhaps it was the fact that they were following Brannigan who was desperate to get home early that led to the healthy and brisk pace!
My second request came from Audey McVeigh who claimed that his mother Lilly is complaining that I always write about him, usually in unflattering terms. This week I would like to point out that Audey is a great fella who would do anything for his friends. I would also add that he is a fine athlete and a good man for setting a sensible pace on every run. Regular readers please note that normal service will resume next week!
In other club news
McNeilly returned to his rightful position as organiser in chief of the mountain runs while McCann was chasing the horses. This week only took 2 hours as the intrepid fell men took in Millstone, Donard and Commedagh. I was tempted to join them, but was afraid that Deon would not keep up with me, so I made a feeble excuse and stayed in bed! On Sunday the 8:30 was as it always is, fast and furious, but in the spirit of this week’s article, Audey ran very sensibly at all times and was ever-mindful of the slower runners! The 10 O’clock run saw a tripling of the paltry three from last week, though Eugene claims that he had to go to bed when he got home. Perhaps he had forgotten to take his porridge this morning. Paul Rodgers was one of the 9 and he ‘fessed up’ about his burning desire for this to be a regular occurrence, citing the big plans he has to get it organised! We all look forward to reading about that in the future. The Hill and Dale Committee will be finalising the current draft programme for the 2012 series this week and full details will be in the next issue. Finally with the transfer window closing on Tuesday at midnight there is little time left for athletes to be snapped up. All late moves will be reported next week.