James Stockings wins inaugural Frank Webb Trophy
The inaugural winner of the Frank Webb Memorial Trophy is James Stockings (U15B). The winter season cross country trophy was recently donated to the club’s young athlete section by Pam Webb in memory of her husband Frank, who was a long standing member and devotee of cross country.
Young athletes in the under 13, 15 and 17 age groups can gain points according to their finishing time in relation to their race winner’s time in the Metropolitan League and Essex, Southern and National Championships. With the cancellation of the Essex Championships and one of the Met League races this year, the scope was reduced but James Stockings was still a comfortable winner with 161 points.
Sidnie Sales took second place (144) but had she raced at Horsenden Hill, she might have been able to garner the extra 18 points she needed to snatch the trophy. In third place came Liam Blaikie (125) whose end of season was affected by illness, forcing him to miss a Met League and the Southerns.
In total, 29 athletes scored in the league and the likes of Kate Stockings (5th, 115 pts), Lauren Freeman (8th, 91 pts) and Stephanie Smith (10th, 83 points) showed what can be achieved by racing regularly whilst new members Ryan Dunne (4th, 117), Daniel Rowden (6th, 108) and Amelia Barrett (7th 96 pts) scored heavily by placing highly in the Met League or racing in the Southerns. The points system is designed to reward participation as well as high placing and yet being an new U13 should also be no disadvantage. We hope that next year, we will be able to encourage a greater number of runners to take part.
We aim to have the trophy awarded at the Club’s AGM on 16th April.