Nopesport

Sheffield played host to the final round of the Nopesport Urban League on Saturday 22nd November, and it proved to be a fitting end to a long season which started 10 months prior in Edinburgh and spanned 11 events.

A chasing start, using two seperate areas, allowed a wide variety of terrain types to be used, with two university campuses along with parks, streets and buildings of varying complexity all providing competitors with a significant challenge. This was particularly evident in the heat of the chase, where close times in the prologue meant head to head racing around the whole course and minor errors severely penalised.

Matt Speake came from almost a minute behind Dave Schorah in the Men's Open class to take victory by nine seconds after a scrappy prologue left him displeased with his performance and in fourth place. Jenny Johnson, with Sabine Hauswirth chasing her, missed a control in the heat of competition but would have struggled to match the pace of the young Swiss international.

In the veterans Martin Ward had a convincing lead from the prologue which he managed to maintain comfortably, taking his third Urban League race win of the season, while Jane Halliday comfortably took her sixth Urban League race win for the year in the women's veteran class - winning by over five minutes.

In the super vetsSteve Whitehead won by a couple of minutes from Urban League champion Pete Gorvett, while Liz Godfree taking the women's super vet class by a couple of minutes from Hillary Palmer.

                                                Race 1       Race 2
  1  Christopher MacKenzie (M16) CLOK    19:05      8:42(1)     10:23(4)
  2  Elizabeth Parkinson (W16)   NOC     19:54      9:17(2)     10:37(5)
  3  Craig Thomson (M14)         FVO     20:38     10:43(3)      9:55(2)
  4  Michael Adams (M12)         SYO     21:25     11:33(5)      9:52(1)
  5  Timothy Martin (M18)        SYO     21:29     11:07(4)     10:22(3)
  6  Lova Chechik (M14)          EBOR    23:00     12:02(6)     10:58(6)
  8  Amy Kimberley (W14)         DVO     32:43     18:29(8)     14:14(9)

                                                Race 1       Race 2
  1  Matthew Speake (M21)     EBOR    39:03     17:15(4)     21:48(1)
  2  Dave Schorah (M20)       SHUOC   39:12     16:21(1)     22:51(2)
  3  John Rocke (M20)         SHUOC   39:57     16:39(2)     23:18(3)
  4  Peter Hodkinson (M18)    NOC     41:32     17:34(5)     23:58(7)
  5  Robert Baker (M21)       SYO     42:23     18:26(8)     23:57(6)
  6  David Abrams (M18)       ShUOC   42:26     18:46(11)    23:40(4)

                                                Race 1       Race 2
  1  Sabine Hauswirth (W21)   AIRE    39:17     17:29(2)     21:48(1)
  2  Karen Poole (W21)        CLOK    41:31     18:11(3)     23:20(5)
  3  Jessica Halliday (W21)   OD      41:40     18:30(4)     23:10(2)
  4  Alice Leake (W18)        EBOR    42:22     18:54(5)     23:28(6)
  5  Laura Daniel (W21)       SYO     42:36     19:22(7)     23:14(4)
  6  Clare Baker (W21)        SYO     44:51     19:22(7)     25:29(11)

                                                Race 1       Race 2
  1  Martin Ward (M40)        SPOOK   39:15     16:48(1)     22:27(2)
  2  Jonathan Emberton (M45)  EPOC    40:34     18:02(3)     22:32(3)
  3  Steve McLean (M45)       SROC    40:49     18:46(6)     22:03(1)
  4  Colin Smith (M40)        SYO     40:53     17:45(2)     23:08(6)
  5  Colin Lynch (M40)        SYO     41:29     18:45(5)     22:44(4)
  6  Maurice Calvert (M50)    AIRE    41:48     18:12(4)     23:36(9)

                                                Race 1       Race 2
  1  Jane Halliday (W45)      OD      41:01     19:35(1)     21:26(1)
  2  Delia Kingsbury (W40)    WRE     46:30     22:42(2)     23:48(2)
  3  Carol Edwards (W50)      TVOC    49:33     24:19(5)     25:14(4)
  4  Janet Adams (W45)        SYO     49:56     25:34(7)     24:22(3)
  5  Amanda Cooper (W40)      EBOR    51:23     23:59(4)     27:24(8)
  6  Janet Leake (W45)        EBOR    51:26     25:31(6)     25:55(5)

                                                Race 1       Race 2
  1  Steve Whitehead (M55)    EBOR    38:47     18:38(1)     20:09(2)
  2  Peter Gorvett (M60)      SYO     40:38     20:54(4)     19:44(1)
  3  Steve Brockbank (M60)    DFOK    42:44     20:18(3)     22:26(5)
  4  Richard Payne (M55)      EPOC    43:07     21:33(6)     21:34(4)
  5  Mike Hampton (M60)       OD      44:13     21:28(5)     22:45(8)
  6  Roger Edwards (M55)      LEI     44:56     23:40(11)    21:16(3)

                                                Race 1       Race 2
  1  Liz Godfree (W60)        DVO     44:59     20:03(1)     24:56(3)
  2  Hilary Palmer (W60)      NOC     47:00     22:07(2)     24:53(2)
  3  Judith Guillaume (W55)   OD      48:00     22:15(3)     25:45(5)
  4  Jean Lochhead (W60)      EPOC    48:44     25:09(4)     23:35(1)
  5  Viv Macdonald (W55)      DVO     54:37     26:52(5)     27:45(7)
  6  Judith Goodair (W65)     EPOC    60:15     32:49(7)     27:26(6)

So after all that, the final urban league standings ended up as follows:

Junior Women (W18-)                 races best 5
Alice Leake              EBOR  W18      6   493
Elizabeth Parkinson      NOC   W16      7   486
Amy Kimberley            DVO   W14      6   456
Kirstin Maxwell          RR    W16      4   385
Karen Maxwell            RR    W14      4   358

Junior Men (M18-)                   races best 5
Craig Thomson            FVO   M14     10   476
Stuart Thomson           FVO   M18      6   473
James Allison            LOC   M12      8   435
Stewart Allison          LOC   M10      7   429
Michael Adams            SYO   M12      5   419

Open Women                          races best 5
Blanka Sengerova         SHUOC W21     10   453
Joanna Halliday          OD    W20      5   453
Jayne Sales              SLOW  W21      5   398
Rachel Findlay-Robinson  SHUOC W20      5   392
Lesley Ward              SPOOK W35      7   389

Open Men
Nick Barrable            SYO   M21      5   475
Dave Schorah             SHUOC M20      5   456
Steve Watkins            AIRE  M35      7   453
John Rocke               LEI   M20      5   452
David Alcock             AIRE  M21      8   433


Veteran Women (W40+)                races best 5
Jane Halliday            OD    W45      8   500
Delia Kingsbury          WRE   W40      7   475
Jane Campbell            DEE   W50      7   457
Carol Edwards            TVOC  W50      8   454
Janet Adams              SYO   W45      5   447

Veteran Men (M40+)
Martin Ward              SPOOK M40      8   489
Steve McLean             SROC  M45      9   465
Roger Thetford           TVOC  M45      6   461
Maurice Calvert          AIRE  M50      7   459
Paul Thornton            CLOK  M45      5   428


Supervet Women (W55+)               races best 5
Susan Stevens            AIRE  W55      6   476
Jean Lochhead            EPOC  W60      6   474
Liz Godfree              DVO   W60      5   469
Glenys Ferguson          SROC  W55      6   466
Judith Goodair           EPOC  W65      6   451

Supervet Men (M55+)
Peter Gorvett            SYO   M60      5   483
John Britton             MDOC  M55      6   482
Bill Hanley              SYO   M55      5   468
Tony Carlyle             AIRE  M55     10   454
Jonathan Howell          WCH   M55      5   451


Full standings can be found here for the men, and here for the women. Big respect to Wendy and Tony Carlyle who both attended all eleven races!

Keep checking back for details of next season's series, while if your club would like to stage a Nopesport Urban League race click here to find out more.