Lewes, Hailsham and Hastings athletes excel in cross country and on the road

It allows clubs like Lewes AC to test themselves against more highly-regarded county clubs. Along with individual placings, a team competition accumulates the places of the first three – or some other fixed number – runners for a club to get an A team score.

The points for the second set of three runners can then be summed for the B team score – and so on.

The team with the lowest summed places wins.

In the first match, at Goodwood near Chichester, Rex Hastings, younger brother of Barney Hastings, national schools javelin champion, kept up family ways by winning the under-11 2k boys’ race in 7mins 25sec.

The Lewes under-13 boys had all six runners in their 3k race in the top half of finishers. The U15 girls’ first team was fourth out of 23 teams

The U17 women run with senior women in the same 5km race. They appear in separate results for the U17 women and an overall U17, U20, senior/veteran women’s competition.

The U17s contributed decisively to the Lewes results which landed the overall Lewes women with second, fifth and ninth team rankings.

In Division 1 Lewes women were second to Crawley AC, but ahead of the Brighton clubs. In Division 2 Crawley overcame Lewes by just six points.

Gratifyingly, even the Lewes AC C team were ahead of the Brighton Phoenix and Brighton & Hove AC teams.

The Lewes veteran women teams were second and fifth out of the 26 teams, beaten only by Eastbourne Rovers.

In both the men’s Division 1 and 2 Lewes came second.

The Lewes vets’ top team came third after Brighton & Hove AC and Haywards Heath Harriers.

This is but the first instalment of an ongoing competition.

The next Sussex League meeting takes place tomorrow at Ardingly and others follow later in the winter.

Hailsham Harriers were out in force over Beachy Head Marathon weekend – the latest in a hectic schedule that has kept members busy this year.

A total of 25 Harriers took part at the iconic location – across four different distances.

Running in the Beachy Head 10k, Frances Delves (1:01:26) and Katie Manley (1:06:01) had superb runs.

Taking on the Beachy Head marathon distance of 26.2 miles were Lianne Leakey in 4:09:13, who was third lady home, Chris Little 5:43:07, Adam Davies 5:57:55, Samantha Neame 5:57:56, Michelle Hollands 6:11:48, Hannah Deubert-Chapman 6:11:48, Victoria Little 6:11:48, Pete Daws 6:16:55, Shaun Webster 6:16:55 and Darren Gillett 6:57:52.

For Samantha Neame and Darren Gillet, it was their first taste of the marathon distance, and they both crossed the line with beaming smiles.

Completing the Beachy Head Ultra Marathon distance of 32 miles were Gavin Watson-Jones 6:22:05, Lisa Goldsmith 6:25:48, Charlotte Long 6:30:31, Wendy Robson 6:31:54 and Roberto Proietti 8:45:55.

For Charlotte Long this was her first ultra-marathon and for one of the club's legends, Roberto Proietti, who ran the first Beachy Head Marathon in 2001, he now completes the full set of medals as he adds the ultra medal to his Beachy Head collection … at the young age of 73.

Meanwhile thunderstorms and lightning had to be contended with by the runners taking part in the Beachy Head Half Marathon on the Sunday. With slippery conditions, 200 runners took part in the event.

Running for the Harriers, Ross Brocklehurst crossed the line to finish in second place with a time of 1:29:08 and partner Aislinn Darvell 1:42:55 finished as third placed female.

Carl Barton 1:48:47, Annette Feakes 2:01:21, Steph Bassett 2:19:00, Mark Bassett 2:19:00, Kelly Tattum 2:27:00 and Ros Thomson 2:51:46 completed a very brave and strong Harriers team.

Well done to all who ran!

HASTINGS RUNNERS

A total of 52 Hastings Runners – almost a third of the field - braved the heavy rain at the Beckley 10k.

Anxiously primed for the start, the marshall counted down 3 – 2 – 1, squeezed the wet klaxon and… deadly silence.

But off went the runners anyway, with no need for a recall.

First Hastings Runner home was Will Withecombe in 7th.

There were age category wins for Andy Knight (MV55), Neil Jeffries (MV60) and Ruth Spiller, who timed her F55 race superbly, winning her category by just 10 seconds. Yockie Richardson took home the FV75 award.

Before that, a tough, wet, hilly and muddy Bedgebury half marathon was won by Matt Edmonds in a superb time of 1.19.38, almost 10 minutes quicker than his time the previous year. There was an age category win for Kevin Blowers (MV60).

At the Sussex Grand Prix Hove 10k, Paul Lambert got a PB in 40.01 and Andy Knight ran 42.51. Nina Lambrou, Rob Thomas and Sarah Bendle all completed the Maverick South Downs 50K.

HY RUNNERS

HY Runner Penny Braker took on the South Downs Half Marathon.

After completing it in 2hr 13mins, she said: “The run was great. So muddy, I loved it. It’s the longest I have run since the ultra so I was really pleased to get back out there.

"It was a slow start due to downhill on the clay hills for the first mile or so, so all runners had to be really careful.”

HY Runners also took to the rural lanes of Beckley. The undulating course was particularly challenging – and weather conditions were atrocious.

The HY men were unfazed, however, claiming four places out of the top five spots, ensuring they won the men’s team prize.

Results: David Ervine 34:58, 2nd overall, William Carey 35:38, 3rd overall, Stuart Piper 35:51, 4th overall, Carl Adams 36:25, 5th overall and 1st MV45.

Ivy Buckland was third lady home achieving another PB of 43:58 with James Gladstone first junior male crossing the line in 47:59.

Other results: John Ralph 39:02, Dan Isted 39:40, Benji Symes 41:10, John Badrock 42:51, Richard Benn 45:15, Rachel Wigmore 46:44, Danny Cornford 47:14, Fiona Norman-Brown 47:14, Stewart Ide 49:02, Claire Martin 53:54, Rebecca Wilson 56:12, Sharon Mayhew 58:27.