Thursday evening, July 3rd at Kedington, near Haverhill: In the 4th of 6 fixtures of the Arkwright & Co/Turners 5K League Newmarket Joggers (NJ) women’s team put on a dazzling display to finish 1st of the 8 clubs in the league. Our top 5 female finishers (Kirsty McDermott 18:39, Isabelle Talbot-Price 19:15, Sarah Osborne 19:49, Cerys Bithell 19:56 and Carol Cienna Carter 21:05) came home in 1st, 3rd, 6th. 8th and 10th position in a total field of 119 female runners, just ahead of the league leaders Cambridge & Coleridge AC (C&C). This win puts our women’s team up to 2nd place in the league, while C&C still retain their lead in both women’s and men’s competitions after 4 fixtures. However, it could be a close call by the final fixture at Cambridge in August, if the current momentum can be maintained.

Above: Joggers at Haverhill Arkwright/Turners 5K League fixture. Thanks for team photo.

NJ men’s team finished 6th of 8 clubs at Haverhill and now stand =5th of 8 in their table. Our top 5 male finishers (Mark Hayward 16:43, James Smith 17:39, Paul Holley 18:20, Jason Bevan 18:37 and Jack Imrie 19:09) came home in 13th, 30th, 38th, 42nd and 55th positions in a total field of 234 male runners. They put in good efforts, but were up against an extremely high standard of running, especially from C&C, who had 8 finishers in the top 10 places. Overall, NJ had a turnout of 23 female and 32 male runners, who all helped to reduce the total aggregate position scores of their top five women and men respectively, by one point per runner. Thus every partaking club member, no matter where they finished, helped to improve the score of their team.

In the Junior 2km race at Kedington, we had 3 Joggers competing. Sophie Blundell (08:16, 5th of 36 overall, 2nd F of 21, 1st girl aged U13) put in a great effort, as did Esther Eaton (09:48, 7th F, 1st girl U11). Oliver Hilton (11:17, 30th overall, 4th U11B) put in a good effort as third Jogger to finish. We look forward to the next fixture at Carver Barracks, Saffron Walden on Thursday evening, July 17th.

Above, from left: Wendy Ancill, Olivia Carter, Sarah Osborne, Jimmy Smith; Jeremy Reader walking behind.

Above, from left: Chris Underwood and Mark Hayward with Kirsty.

Above, from left: Helen Hilario, Paul Holley, Kirsty McDermott, Cienna Carter, new member Isabelle Talbot-Price(?); behind are Jo Bouttell, Chris Aylmer, Andy Fryatt, Liam Elvidge and one or two others. Thanks to Kirsty for the selection of excellent photos taken at the Arkwright/Turners 5K at Haverhill.