This year sees the
Cleethorpes Athletic Club Croxby Crawl reach its 27th year, with
local support from the running community showing no sign of abating.
The first race in 2009 will
be the 100th race on this undulating, Lincolnshire Wolds Course.
Part of the attraction to
the event is that all runners’ best times are recorded on the “All Time
List” and times can be compared with the “Great’s” of Yesteryear.
Rankings are also recorded in the various age groups. These times are maintained
and updated by Steve Green.
Highlights of last year’s
events were mainly in the one-lap event with both Jon Frost (East Hull) and
Lincoln Wellington’s Phillip Williams going sub 24 minutes.
Host club Phil Johnson set new figures in the M55 category, as did Daphne
Ellmore in the F55 Also of note was the increase in numbers supporting the
event.
The first ever race on the
Croxby circuit was first staged on Saturday 26th November 1983. This was a club
only event over two-laps and was won by track specialist Jon Ireland in a
creditable time of 50.45,
The turn out was 32 runners with the ladies electing to run one lap which was
won by the current race organiser, Jenny Clark.
Interestingly only two
month’s earlier Louth AC organised a road race (Wolds Dash) from Hubbards
Hills in the Lincolnshire Wolds and that year also saw the first race in the
annual Rothwell 10
(Now Lincolnshire Wolds 10) take place, and after 27 years all three of
these events on the Lincolnshire Wolds are still going strong.
The race was thrown open the
following year when Grimsby Harrier Nick Goodwin recording 51.26 on
Easter Monday, with Jane Knights from the host club winning the ladies
one lap race.
November of the same year
(1985) saw Diana Otley of Louth harriers win the inaugural Ladies Race recording
63.34
The following year (1985)
saw a unique double, as husband and wife Dennis and Barbara Brown of
Grimsby Harriers, both won in course record times.
Dennis Brown was the first runner to go sub 50 minutes with his 49.27 course
record, with Humber Marathon winner Barbara Brown reducing the ladies course
record to 60.10.
On August of the same year
Liverpool Harrier Kevin Capper set a new course record, which still
stands to this day of 46.15, knocking 2 minutes 13 seconds off the time set only
the previous month.
Kevin finished 3 minutes 34 seconds in front of runner-up Chris Bromfield,
with John Haines setting the host club record of 49.53. The first
and only time 3 runners in the same event have gone sub 50 minutes.
Kevin Capper's opening lap
during his 46.15 course record was clocked at 22.42; only 6 seconds shy of
George Reynolds one-lap course record.
The current Ladies course
record was set in 1992 when Lisa Mawer then running for Cleethorpes AC,
recorded 53.55, knocking 27 seconds off Kim Bennett’s course record
In 1999 William Gristwood
of Ealing, Southall and Middlesex, was the first veteran to win the two-lap
event, knocking 1 minute 24 seconds off Alf Woods' 12-year veterans
course record.
In fact veterans filled the first 3 places.
The record turnout for the
two-lap event is 97 in 1987, with 141 lining up for the start of the 1988
one-lap event.
Vanessa Aisthorpe
holder of the W35 course record is undoubtedly the most successful runner on the
Croxby Circuit, winning the two-lap event no less than 15 times, with 11 of
these in a row.
This sequence runs from 1993 to 1998.
Ian Chidwick
is the only runner to have won Croxby over three decades, his first win was in
1989 and his latest set in June 2000.
He is the fifth fastest on the all time list with 48.21 (1992 and has a record
six two-lap wins to his credit.
In June of 2005 Neil
Farquharson clocked 53.51, the fastest time by an unattached runner, not
previously a member of an athletics club.
Since the sequence of four
races every year, started in 1987, only Vanessa Aisthorpe in 1997 has won all
four events in the same year.
The youngest winners of the
two-lap event are: John Stephenson when on 3rd June 1987 he recorded 48.57, aged
19 years 4 months and 14 days,
and Diana Otley on 25th November 1984, when she recorded 63.34 aged 18
years 5 months 4 days
The most prolific runners at
Croxby are Tony Dann, John Hudson and Barry Dodge who have each
competed in over 50 races each whilst Glenys Hudson is the leading lady with 38
events.
All
time lists and age records collated
by Steve Green
All races are £3.00 each and entry is on the night only Start time is 19.00
Race
1 6th May 1 Lap
100th
Race
TOP
Race 2 3rd June
2 Lap
Race 3 1st July
1 Lap
Race 4 5th August 2 Lap
Race 5 26th August 1 Lap
1 Lap is 4.44 miles = 4 miles 780yds. UKA measured by Steve Green
Profile
