Nopesport

LORDSTONES SPRINT/PARK RACE – SATURDAY 15 OCTOBER 2005

As a prelude to their training session, the CLOK Juniors Team organised the inaugural CLOK Sprint/Park race at Lordstones Country Park, near Carlton-in-Cleveland, on Saturday 15 October 2005.

Senior winners on the 2.5km ‘Long’ course were CLOK’s English Internationals Duncan Archer (11:40 mins) and Karen Heppenstall (14:55 mins), with the Junior winners being CLOK’s GB Start Squad members Robbie Unsworth (14:39 mins) and Jenny Thornton (17:56 mins).

The area used for the event is a flat plateau perched 500ft above the Tees Valley on the edge of the Cleveland Hills, sandwiched between Cringle Moor and Carlton Bank, and traversed by the Cleveland Way National Trail. There are fantastic views over the Tees Valley across to the Pennines and along the north-facing scarp slope of the North York Moors! The owner of Lordstones Café has created a smashing recreational area – ponds and clumps of trees set in an area of rough grassland with a network of mown paths and larger mown ‘lawns’.

Following the races, 35 CLOK juniors and friends (together with a handful of adult novices and parents) took part in a variety of training exercises put on by CLOK’s band of coaches, including Gilly Hale, Sarah Hague and the newly appointed Community Sports Coach Phill Batts, before adjourning to the Café to sample the lunchtime menu.

Chris Wright