Springwell XC 2014

Newcastle Stay top of the league
by David McNeilly
Springwell XC 2014 Third round of cross country league took place on Saturday at coleraine.
Newcastle had 9 seniors and 1 lady make the long journey, what a worth while trip it proved to be.

Rita Devlin ran a steady race to finish in 53rd place in the 3 miles ladies race.

The men’s race was a fast start with Seamus hitting the front early closely follow by David O’Flaherty and McNeilly. Carlin wasn’t far behind as the race progressed and going into lap 3 Brendan quail injured his calf and sadly had to drop out. Martin, John, Pascal and Stephen all had solid runs in wet conditions. Seamus Lynch was Newcastle’s first finisher with an impressive 6th place, closely followed by David O’Flaherty in 8th place who was racing his 5th race in 5 weekends! Paul Carlin made 4 places in the last lap finishing in 12th place, with David McNeilly finishing in 17th place. Martin Melville was 52nd, John Kelly was 65th, Pascal Toner was 104th and Stephen Rice was 124th making 8 Newcastle finishers. We were beat by 2 places by Springwell and our 8 runners give us 12 points to keep us 6 clear in the league.

Thanks to everyone who travelled to Coleraine. Next race is Saturday 8th November for the 80th McConnell Shield at Ballyclare. The ladies race is at 1.30pm and is 3 miles and the seniors is at 2pm and is 5 miles. Again we really need 12 runners out this weekend. Anyone interested please get in contact with me via email or 07789937570 so we can make arrangements in good time.