Well another club Winter League over. A successful one with the off-track competition dominated by XC fixtures. 

In particular, the Men's team pushed Neath Harriers to the wire West Glam XC league, led by individual winner Matt Harvey. A core group of scorers supported him, and with the last fixture we just missed out on the top spot to Neath by just one league point.

The ladies had a good season too, only dropping a couple of points at Kenfig with a plethora of other races also on that day. The team finished 3rd. 

The Gwent League produced a strong start, and both teams assured their continuing status in Division 1. Senior athlete participation was at times a little scarce for stronger placings overall, but SH held their own across a range of categories. 

Mens Overall 7th, Women's overall 5th. 

Now onto the Club Winter League. Dewi Griffths led strongly early on with some superb times in the lead up to marathon training. It is the masters of the club who end up with the higher placings, however, Alan Davies once again producing some world class age graded times. At this rate we'll have to tweak the formula! Well done too to Martyn Hughes-Dowdle (2nd) who had a consistent season, placing high in the Gwent, National XC and West Glam. Owen Davies just managed to hold onto 2nd place by virtue of 100% attendance at the Gwent and West Glam. Mentions too for Pat Tudor, who completed every Gwent ( along with Simon Merrick and Owen D) - despite injuries, Patrick finished high up the V35 Gwent League too. All others in the top 10 have all contributed to team scores and keeping Swansea Harriers in the limelight in national competition.

In the ladies, Congratulations to Kristy Smith (3rd) who completed her first season for the club. She was keen from the moment she joined to take part in all the XCs. The only blip was Pontypool, where she will never forget the mud-caked trail shoes the course produced. It was bad enough in spikes. A consistent run of races from Diane Brownhill ensured 2nd place, also winning some medals along the way, specialising in anything from 100m through to Ultra distance. In the end, Sian Phillips showed her most consistent season for some time, performing at a high level in all competitions and representing Wales at the British Masters International. Congratulations Sian. Similar to the men, all others in the top 10 have all contributed to team scores and kept Swansea Harriers at the top level in all categories. 

Mens:

1st Alan Davies 232 points

2nd Owen Davies 184 points

3rd Martyn Hughes-Dowdle 176 points

Ladies:

1st Sian Phillips 213 points

2nd Diane Brownhill 194 points

3rd Kristy Smith 190 points

There were team and individual members receiving medals in other competitions covered elsewhere, but all-in-all it reflects well on the participation this year by all age and training groups. As you can see, both top 10s show a good spread across ages, with this year, dare I say it, a greater number of fixtures run by our masters runners perhaps swaying the results. Nevertheless, let's hope we can continue with the team effort into the next season. 

For full info on all league age-graded results this Winter go to https://sites.google.com/view/shwinterleague2324/home