No complaints this year about the East Down turnout in Ballyclare for the Malcolm Cup League Fixture, as several regulars took to the grass again over a fast 4 mile circuit while Francis Tumelty opted for the shorter Masters race over 3 miles and followed up his splendid Seeley Cup run last weekend by taking an impressive 3rd place in what was the biggest field of the day, 150 runners male and female lining up at the start. 
Francis clearly took his example from Mackenzie Murray who earlier set the standard for the day with a fighting 4th place in the under 11 race to be followed quickly by Edie Caroll, 3rd in the Under 13 Girl’s race. Aoife Cochrane finished strongly for 4th in the Under15 race and Ella Carroll also made a top 6 appearance. Mary Jo Tumelty turned in her usual gritty and inspirational performance in the same event.
Daniel Atkinson was the only other East Down boy to compete on the day, taking a good 11th place in a high quality, very competitive Under 15 Boys race.
MALCOLM CUP
The Malcolm Cup race itself is a Cross Country League fixture and East Down had 7 men in the line up. Michael Cultra led the squad home taking 39th place in a field of well over 100 runners with team captain Paul Burns close behind in 44th place and Dee Murray 60th. The scoring quartet was completed by the ever improving Ciaran Denvir in 65th place. Bonus points were secured by Mark O’Connor 69th and Peter Morgan 93rd . Gary Cull made a welcome return to cross country running for the first time since he was a junior and would have picked up another bonus point for the club if he’d had another teammate.
LET THEM SHOP TILL THEY DROP
Anyway perhaps a bigger turnout will be inspired by the fact that the next round is in Gransha Park in Derry on 20th December, traditionally the day that every man wants to help the women in his life by getting offside so she can finish off the Christmas shopping – and his bank balance into the bargain!
BEDOUINS ABOUT – ANYONE SEEN LAWRENCE?
An interesting development on the running front is the appearance over recent weeks of what on Saturday turned into a tented village. Many of the clubs have invested in personalised gazebos to provide some much needed shelter from wind and rain for clothing discarded while owners are running. A colourful Bedouin style encampment was the result and while sun, sand and camels too thankfully, were noticeably absent from the virtual oasis created, the assembling and dismantling led to speculation that there could well be a competition for the quickest putter upper and taker downer with additional disciplines to include the quality of the refreshments provided etc. On which note a personal word of thanks to my friends in the Newcastle tent for the very welcome jaffa cakes. That’s one vote towards the Sports Hospitality of the Year Award already.
NEXT WEEKEND
A 5 Mile Social Timed Run in aid of the charity Saphara 2015 trip to India will be held on Saturday 13th at 9.30am in Tollymore Forest Park. The event is organised by Aisling McCann daughter of Newcastle’s Joe and with the promise of festive goodies and refreshments afterwards I would ask everyone to go along and support this very worthy cause. All proceeds will go to the charity as those travelling to India are responsible for their own expenses. It will also serve as a good warm up, or in my own case as an alternative to, the Cracker Course recce planned for Sunday 14th departing Upper Square Castlewellan at 10.00am.
Joe Quinn
8 December 2014