Schools Cross Country
Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland
Race Photos Now Available.
The image galleries for October and November are now available.
I’ve worked with the photographers to show only images where specific consent has been given.
If you spot any images that have sneaked through, please use the email address in the gallery
Hares and Tortoise Photos Now Available.
Kate and Lindsay have provided some fantastic free of charge images of the hares and tortoises.
The gallery password is CX23 The gallery is here
Please credit Kate and Lindsay when you share any of these images.
Camerakaze Photography
L Cook Sports Photography @lcook.sportsphotography
THANK YOU
Thank you to the team behind the scenes – so much work goes in to making this event a success.
SIgnposts, parking, registration, announcements,course planning, course marshals, the token team,the start, hares, tortoises, finish and results.
(If I missed anyone please let me know).
Loughborough Schools Foundation
A massive thank you for their very generous sponsorship which has made a hugee difference to the facilities we have available
A big thank you to the Ashby 20 committee for sponsoring the event high viz had their debut in November!
Contacts
Please can I ask a massive favour? Please only contact me (Mike) via this form rather than email or social media?
I can hopefully help you better as it’s much easier to keep control of replies etc and also cleanly copy any web links which people supply.
I intend to reply within 48 hours.
If the answer is on the website – be prepared for that to be your answer.
If the answer is not on the website – it probably should be and I’ll try to add it (and you’ll get a big thank you).
Race Director,Webmaster and Facebook Moderator
Mike McSharry
Registrations and Results
results@primarycrosscountry.org.uk
Primary National Team Manager (Years 3 to 6. Plus Year 7)
Annie Pointon
atpacecoachingservices@gmail.com
Secondary National Team Manager (Years 8 to Year 13)
Sarah Hatherley
Shatherley.crosscountry@outlook.co.uk
Facebook Group
When you were invited to join this group, you were prompted by FaceBook to confirm that you have seen the guidelines for membership of the group.
Here are the guidelines.
As, and when, these guidelines are updated the group will be informed.
Child protection is paramount. No posts or comments to include picture of individual children and a relevant childs’ name.
Language to be appropriate at all times. This group is open to the secondary community and there may be valid FaceBook users of 13 year olds in this group.
Event result queries need to be directed from group coaches/teachers to the event organiser and will not be allowed on the forum.
Event sponsors may occasionally use the group to promote their services.
Any other advertising to be cleared by event organiser / group administrators prior to publishing on the site.
Comments or posts that are not appropriate may be deleted by group administrators.
Hares and Tortoises
This year we will still be having hares lead all primary school races. However, we are streamlining our operation to have fewer hares at the front.
We will also have tortoises towards the rear of each race to encourage and support the children around the course; this continue their magnificent jobs they have been doing for many years.
Many of these hares and tortoises are children, and in my case adults, who began they’re running at these events and who want to give back. If there are interested parties in helping out in this side of the event, especially the tortoising, then please drop a message to ben.milsom@yahoo.co.uk and I will endeavour to accommodate as many as possible.
Survey Results
Family Survey
The survey has now closed. Here’s what you asked and what we tried to answer..
Hares and tortoises are always amazing
This is one that everyone agrees with!
In order to make their live a bit easier this season, we will also have marshalls at dedicated locations on the course.
In addition, we’re happy to see hares and tortoises from a variety of organisations.
There will be new photographers in place going forward and they’ve already agreed to continue my policy of hares / tortoise pictures to be prepared first and also not watermarked etc.
Seeing course maps before hand very useful.
Thank you to Mark and Olivia for some brilliant work.
Please, please .. the courses are estimates of distances and may need to change at short notice.
Being able to pay for parking with a card so much more convenient, but appreciate it could slow down cars entering.
There will be a new parking system in place and payment for parking will be much more flexible.
Mallory Park has a number of car park locations and it is essential that you follow the car park marshall instructions.
We will NOT be collecting parking charges on entry
Schools having their meeting point in alphabetical order (well, supposedly!) is helpful for first timers trying to find their school flag/group.
Please check out the course maps and we will try to allocate a larger space for the schools whose names start with Saint / St.
Medals for first 5/6 finishers in each race
We will see if funding allows us to continue on this.
Update – medals will be available for frst 3 runners in each category
On this point, any local organisation who would like to chat with me about sponsorship is very, very welcome!
Obviously we need to avoid alcohol, tobacco and gambling related organisations and probably a few others!
Cost of food at burger van is extremely high
I don’t have an answer for this one, yet
Update – this is out of our hands. The food franchise at Mallory means that they are responsible for catering suppliers
Would be great if parents didn’t ‘pace’ it’s not fair on those that follow the rules- could we flag race numbers to officials to help?
This is a major problem and I have seen how dangerous this can be. There is a massive difference between parents / older siblings running alongside leading runners and the ‘accompanying’ of later, distressed, runners.
People who pace will be warned / requested to stop. Failure to stop pacing will result in the relevant runner being disqualified.
Update – you have given consent to UKA rules. These rules do not allow pacing.
Would it be possible to have the results submitted to Powerof10? I know this would be a big job for all age groups so perhaps just for the secondary ages to make it more manageable
These results will not be submitted by the event organisers.
Children are left for a while in start line – if possible to speed up would be great
While planning the new events we are looking closely at how we can work on this. Hopefully the solutions the team are coming up with will help considerably.
Organiser not easy to identify (individual and organiser location)
The layout of mallory may make it easier to locate the organisation gazebo etc. so it is more prominent.
The race Director and “core group” will also be more easy to identify.
Extra Questions
What exactly are these races and do the results count towards any of the other competitions (eg. County Champs and Nationals).
These 3 events are the ‘inter-school’ league races which are open to everyone (school year 3 to 13) who is educated in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. Many schools do take part and some don’t – those runners can enter on their own. We will be asking all entrants to name their school and we will also include ‘Home School’ in the entry lists.
The selection of teams for the County Championships is made by the area managers. Selection for national events is made by County Team Managers.
Announcement from John Skevington
An Announcement from John Skevington
19th April 2023
Twelve years ago, I took on the organisation of the Primary Schools XC league following on from the previous custodian George Smolinski who had led the league for a quarter of a century.
In those days the events were held on the City Parks. Traffic issues along with the council’s concern regarding damage to the parkland led to the need for a new venue.
It was from there that I took it over and piloted the event at Prestwold Hall. What we have had since has grown from there. In recent years the event encompassed the secondary league races and has seen an increase in participation in the older age groups. This will now continue as a natural progression though the sport.
It is sad that due to new contractual issues with other large tenants, Prestwold Hall can no longer accommodate the league. The challenge this year has, in such case, been to locate a venue which can host us with a great course and the all-important space for parking. I am pleased to let you know that this has been located and agreed! Further information will be revealed very soon.
This move to a new venue ushers in a further exciting chapter to the UKs biggest schools mass participation event. Reflecting upon this I feel that this new era should start under new leadership and new direction. In such case I have decided that the 2022 season was my last as event director of the Schools Cross Country League and county Championships. I am thrilled that MIKE McSHARRY, who has had a long involvement with the league dating back to the days prior to me taking over, has agreed to take the lead role from this year. I will be working with him through the coming season in a transitionary role. Please give Mike every support possible.
Some other important news is that to coincide with the move, the events will also see the long-awaited collaboration with Team Leicestershire meaning that the events for both primary and secondary competition now will fall into the school sport calendar.
I want to thank everyone, and there are a great many, people who have given their time over the years to make the events work so efficiently. Without these none of it could have happened! Also rest assured that it won’t be the last that you see of me at the events. I will still be involved in some small way!