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Detailed report, regards from Finlay Dowell
ADVERTISIGN DIRECT AYRSHIRE HILL RACE CHAMPIONSHIP
The Championship came to a conclusion on Saturday 23rd August at Craigengower hill race. Throughout the series Irvine runners were vying for top positions in the Championship. At Kaim hill, where the first Ayrshire runner was to be awarded the David Miller memorial trophy, Arran’s Nick Emsley took the honours with Keith Haining (Kilmarnock) 2nd, John Moore 3rd, Tom Begley 4th and Tom McCulloch (Ayr Seaforth) 5th. With the exception of Keith Haining, who took no further part in the Championship, the above mentioned runners would go on to dominate the top positions as the series progressed.
However, with Nick Emsley deemed too young for Goatfell, the door was left open for others to take the lead. First and second were Andrew McGhee (Kilmarnock) and Colin Miller but they were destined to copy Keith Haining and take no further part in the series. Tom McCulloch also missed Goatfell leaving Irvine’s Tom Begley (4th) and John Moore (5th) to jointly lead the table with 8 points with Tom given the nominal lead on overall time.
The Saughhill race would prove to be a bit of a spoiler for those runners doing the series as it had the most Ayrshire club runners involved, a lot of them only doing Saughhill out of the series, but increasing the points total for the regular hill runners. This included Stephen Wylie, running for Girvan, being the overall race winner. But with Tom Begley missing through injury, John Moore’s 6th position was enough to claim the overall lead as one of only 4 competitors to have done all 3 races so far. The others were Alex Drain (Troon), Roddy Pugh (Kilmarnock) and Irvine’s Ian McManus who now occupied 2nd, 3rd and 4th places respectively. Loitering with intent were Nick Emsley in 5th (3rd at Saughhill) and Tom McCulloch in 8th (5th at Saughhill).
The Merrick, being the longest and toughest race of the series, was almost the opposite of Saughhill as far as the number of Ayrshire runners involved was concerned. Only 6 Ayrshire club runners completed this race (as opposed to 25 at Saughhill) . 2nd, 3rd and 4th after Saughill became 1st 2nd and 3rd after the Merrick. This meant that 1st and 2nd were over 50 vets and 3rd was an over 60 vet. Tom McCulloch (also an over 50 vet) was 1st Ayrshire runner and he now loitered with menace in 4th overall and only 11 points from 3 races. Although they missed the Merrick, John Moore, Nick Emsley and Tom Begley all remained handily placed in 5th, 6th and 7th respectively.
David White (Kilmarnock) was 1st Ayrshire runner at Cairntable but as he only completed one other race in the series, he would not feature in the Championship. Alasdair Murray (Kilmarnock) was 2nd Ayrshire runner in this race and as he had now done 3 races, moved into the handily placed category with 15 points and 7th place overall. Tom McCulloch’s 3rd place moved him to the top of the pile while Tom Begley’s battling 5th place also promoted him to 5th overall. The leaderboard still had a somewhat “experienced” feel to it with 3 vet 50s and a vet 60 in the top 4 . Alex Drain, Roddy Pugh and Ian McManus would gradually be pushed off the leaderboard as more runners completed their 4 counting races. Unfortunately this would be Tom Begley’s last race due to family commitments.
Tom McCulloch’s 3rd place at Urie Loch kept him in the series lead and John Moore’s 2nd place jumped him to 2nd place overall. Nick Emsley’s 1st place on home soil was a stark reminder that he probably only had to complete the final race to win the Championship. Eighth place at both Cairntable and Urie Loch meant that Alex Drain could drop the 9 and 11 point scores from Kaim Hill and Saughhill and slow his slide down the table. Likewise Ian McManus’s 9th place meant he could drop the 22 points from Saughhill.
Nick Emsley as expected secured the Championship victory with 2nd place at Craigengower. With a relatively large number of irregular hill runners competing at Craigengower, only Irvine’s Finlay Dowell and Arran’s Paul Emsley managed to lower their total score, moving to 5th and 7th positions overall. In the end it was a fairly comfortable Championship victory for Nick Emsley but with Craigengower 1st Ayrshire runner Alan Cherry (Ayr Seaforth) also coming 2nd only to Stephen Wylie at Saughhill , he may have tougher competition in years to come.
Final placings were Nick Emsley 1st overall and 1st Junior; Tom McCulloch 2nd and 1st vet 50; John Moore 3rd and 1st vet 40. Ian McManus was 1st vet 60 and 8th overall. Sadly only 3 Ayrshire ladies did one race each during the Championship.
