Race report written by George Evans

It’s wet and cold so it must be cross country season again! The first race of the 2022-23 series took place at a damp, windy, yet beautifully autumnal, Cirencester Park. Despite the recent heavy rain, ground conditions were an improvement on 2021 making for a faster course.

Thornbury fielded a slightly leaner turnout than 2021…perhaps because Jo Plumbley couldn’t make it, so everyone knew we’d be down on cakes.

Holding up the women’s team was Hannah Hamilton finishing in a very respectable 80th position (field of 192) with a time of 34.20.

He has more records than the KGB and Nick Langridge didn’t disappoint at Cirencester, finishing 109th in the combined Ladies and +MV65 race…only narrowly missing out on age adjusted 1st position by 3 seconds!!

The men’s race saw a field of 208 (and a lot of them looked like they could run). Top 3 from Thornbury were led in by Ben Bohane finishing in 48th (41.20) followed by Andy Wilson in 68th (42.38) and David Hobbs 83rd overall and 6th in age category (43.32). Conner Vidal-Cocker notched up a very respectable first cross-country race in 101st place with a very respectable time of 45.22.

Sweeping up the rear for Thornbury was George Evans (107th in 45:46) and a “pretty much straight off the operating table” Jim Godden (137th in 48:22). Given his only very recent return to training, Jim was looking very strong and finished 4th overall in his age category. This season see’s Jim entering the next age category (undisclosed) and based on this performance I suspect we’ll be seeing a lot more age adjusted podium positions this season….no pressure Jim 😉