Write up from our very own Patrick Rennison!
“THE FIVE ACRES FLYER
The Flyer has received recent news of some extraordinary results for our very own Forest of Dean Athletic Club at the Liswerry 8 meeting today at which 619 hardy souls battled against the elements to run eight miles across the wind swept plains of Gwent. (And good luck to them I say.) So blessed are we with superb athletes that there are too many to mention in this article. However, we think the details below will give you a good idea of how fortunate we are. We have listed them according to gender (we couldn’t possibly mention sex) and age in the hope that this will clarify the many incredible results. Where two numbers are given, this is for the position of the athlete in relation to the total number of runners in the group. We are sure you will join with us in congratulating the many people who took part in this wonderful event.
MS
Jack Fleet was 23rd out of 125 in class which is all the more remarkable given that most of his competitors were a great deal older and more experienced than Jack. Jack was also 30th out of 619 runners in total and just remember, he’s getting quicker!
MV40
Richard Pegler, Chris Penny (still returning from injury) and Dan Sandford were 7th, 10th and 12th out of 63 in their group.
MV45
Leyton Fleet, John Russel, Dave Lothian, Darren Smith and Julian Boon swept the board in their class with 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th and 7th respectively.
Those Fleets are certainly fleet of foot. We owe an apology to Mr ‘Russel’. We know there should be a second L at the end of your name – its just we thought you are one L of a runner!
MV50
Andrew Kaye came a very credible 7th out of 37 in the class, all the more the remarkable if you consider he would have been 3rd out of 23 in the MV55 class which (without wanting to give too much away Mr Kaye) will be fairly soon.
MV55
Graham Bennetto achieved a credible 11th out of 23 in class.
MV60
Chris Moore and Alan Robertson were 3rd and 4th out of 12 in the class.
FV35
Helen Lipscomb achieved 4th out of 59 in class, a fairly extraordinary achievement considering Ms Lipscomb is a relative new comer to the sport.
FV45
Cherry Fowler came an awe inspiring 1st in class out of 42 – Are you really being honest about your age Mrs Fowler?
Sherryl Hall achieved a very credible 6th in the same class despite a hectic schedule to keep up in ‘her other life’, while Anna Freeman gained 13th place and also won the prize for looking the most tired at the finish line.
FV50
Stef Francis finished 6th out of 22 in her group.
FV55
Margaret Powles, Lynne Park and Jaqui Green finished an amazing 1st, 2nd and 4th in class and this despite Mrs Powles claiming to be ‘Not very good’. We would love to see what happened if she was good.
FV60
Last and certainly not least, our very own Jacqui Wynds finished 3rd in class.
With so much celebrating to be done, we wonder how well our own friendly forest community will be able to function tomorrow morning.”