Newcastle & District AC Top of the League for Christmas

15 Unlikely Lads

15 Unlikely Lads

“At last the monkey is off my back” said Newcastle & District AC’s cross-country captain David O’Flaherty after victory at the North West Cross-Country in the Gransha Grounds in Derry. Having taken over the captaincy for this season from David McNeilly, O’Flaherty had led his team to 2nd place at each of the Bobby Rea Memorial (Rostrevor), Comber Cup (Dundonald) and Malcolm Cup (Ballyclare) but finally it was victory and a sweet one at that, over the hosting club City of Derry Spartans.

The tradition over the past couple of years is for the club to take a bus (in the infamous words of club stalwart Billy McNeilly, ‘you could fill a bus with maybes’) to the North West Cross-Country. This year was no exception and the aim was to reach the end of the calendar year top of the league. Lying 2nd to North Belfast Harriers after the first 5 races of the season, a victory in Derry was all that was needed to reach the summit, but that is never easy in the back yard of City of Derry plus the strong outfits of Foyle Valley and Springwell (Coleraine) who always turn out in numbers at their ‘local’ race.

The first aim is to get 16 runners across the finish line to secure maximum ‘participation’ points. As ever it is a massive joint effort to ‘get the team out’ and this week it looked tough at times. With Joe’s Road Disciples having ‘taken one for the team’ a fortnight earlier, wild horses wouldn’t have seen any of them on the bus to Derry and so instead the team captain looked east – no not for 3 Wise Men as that would have been an even more futile task – but for the London and Oxford Branch of the County Down club. As chance would have it, and sometimes luck does play a part, Brendy Donnelly turned 30 on the day of the race and planned a birthday shindig that evening at home in Newcastle. The even better news was that his two mates (just to be clear, he has more than two, but these two also happen to be runners and members of Newcastle AC) Fergal Smithwick and brother-in-law Damien McDaid also volunteered to race too as an appetiser for the party. Marooned in Heathrow on Friday evening it looked bleak for Donnelly and Smithwick as the plane for their flight to Belfast was still somewhere in France. Eventually the eagle landed in the early hours of Saturday morning and the chirpy bunch decided that the relative luxury of the Airport Hotel at Aldergrove would be the destination for the night, sure ‘it was on the road to Derry in the morning’.

The effort proved very worthwhile with Smithwick making the scoring four in 12th place overall in 19:30 for the 5.9km distance with Donnelly celebrating his birthday in style in 46th in 21:21. The Oxford part of the London & Oxford branch, Eoghan Totten, had a much less eventful journey home earlier in week. Making progress all the time since his return to competitive racing during the summer Totten had a solid race in 6th place overall in 19:03 (5:12mile pace).

Billy McNeilly is right you know and by Friday the ‘bus full of definites’ was rapidly degenerating first into a ‘bus full of maybes’ and then despondently ‘a bus full of no shows’. As the captain despairingly looked around and searched his address book, there are always the reliable few that can be depended upon – Stevie Rice (149th in 25:54) and Gary Cairns (166th in 26:36) were definite definites and they were joined by Declan Magee (172nd in 27:07) – struggling with a knee injury almost all year, he offered his invaluable services and when he says he’ll go he will be there. As does Paul Fitzpatrick, working from long before dawn, he jumped in the car and drove to Gransha arriving just in time to toe the line (183rd in 27:37).

Seamy Lynch - home in 4th

Seamy Lynch – home in 4th

Rory McMullan had been off secret training over the past few weeks and returned to the Derry bus confident of gaining a season’s best and he didn’t disappoint with 76th place in 22:42. John Kelly turned up not just to take one for the team but to claim victory in his £20 bet with Seamy Lynch – back 12 months ago Lynch took on the challenge of lapping Kelly in a cross-country race but having failed to do it he had one final opportunity in Derry. Kelly was confident as the lap was 2k and he knew that Lynch had miscalculated. It was a sure thing and Kelly came home strongly in 69th in 22:23 and seemed to be a little bit happy at receiving the £20 note in Wetherspoon’s Diamond on the Diamond.

David McNeilly, the former captain is showing an improvement in form and he came home in 30th in 20:25 and will look to rejuvenation in 2017 on the mountains. It’s worth reflecting that in getting to the top of the league for Christmas in the quest to get 16 runners out in 4 races a total of 34 different runners have competed for the club. Alas though, it wasn’t to be 16 for Derry – no, only 15 made it across the line….poor Pascal left his city centre hotel (albeit for some reason he had left it a little late) and got stuck in the ‘city side’ vortex – ‘I’m at the Brandywell, is that close by?’ Nope, not even on the right side of the river. Eventually, the sight of him turning up in the Diamond still in red and yellow vest and shorts with not a bit of mud anywhere to be seen, was priceless.

O’Flaherty gives it all for 7th

O’Flaherty gives it all for 7th

There were 226 finishers in the race and back at the front end, the boys were doing the business well. The fast-improving Neill Johnston (Springwell) had taken charge ahead of affairs ahead of North Belfast’s Mark McKinstry with Foyle’s Scott Rankin and Seamy Lynch locked together going into the final lap. Johnston won in 18:31 (just outside 5:00 mile pace for the 3.66miles and in plenty of mud) with Lynch losing out for 3rd (4th in 18:52). Totten was 6th in 19:03 (5:12mile pace) with Captain O’Flaherty, seemingly fresh from his debut half-marathon in Lanzarote the previous weekend, close behind in 7th in 19:09 (5:14mile pace).

So with the top 4 scoring, 29 points, Newcastle & District AC ran out easy winners over the host club City of Derry in 2nd and Foyle Valley in 3rd.

The club is top of league 4 points clear of North Belfast Harriers. The 5th scoring race in the league is the Antrim International at Greenmount on 14th January with the final race (worth double points) being the NI & Ulster XC Championships on 5th March in Lurgan Park.

Happy Festive Season
BOGBOY

Photos courtesy of Paul Fegan

North West Cross Country 2016 – Team

1  Newcastle & District AC 29
2  City of Derry 49
3  Foyle Valley 53
4  North Belfast 65
5  North Down 77
6  Springwell 85
7  Acorns 109
1 Neil Johnston MO Springwell Running Club 18:31
2 Mark McKinstry MO North Belfast Harriers 18:43
3 Scott Rankin MO Foyle Valley AC 18:45
4 Seamus Lynch MO Newcastle AC 18:52
5 Craig McMeechan MJ North Down AC 19:00
6 Eoghan Totten MO Newcastle AC 19:03
7 David O’Flaherty MO Newcastle AC 19:09
12 Fergal Smithwick MO Newcastle AC 19:30
30 David McNeilly M35 Newcastle AC 20:25
46 Brendan Donnelly MO Newcastle AC 21:21
56 Francis Tumelty M45 Newcastle AC 21:41
69 John Kelly M50 Newcastle AC 22:23
76 Rory McMullan MO Newcastle AC 22:42
99 Richard Rodgers M50 Newcastle AC 23:29
133 Damien McDaid M40 Newcastle AC 25:05
149 Stephen Rice M45 Newcastle AC 25:54
166 Gary Cairns M45 Newcastle AC 26:36
172 Declan Magee M50 Newcastle AC 27:07
183 Paul Fitzpatrick M45 Newcastle AC 27:37

North West Cross Country 2016 – Individual