A December to Remember for Mccrickard

A December to remember for Mountain before descending back towards McCrickard the castle through the Winter Garden. The final run in along the main entrance took The Newcastle AC Christmas Cracker the now weary athletes back to the finish by Bogusboy at the gate Lodge. All in all there were many hills and dales in this arduous 10 The Christmas cracker pairs’ race has been mile course. The ambiance was a long established fixture on the Northern heightened by the talents of local piper Ireland Athletics calendar. In this unique Raymond Kendal, who merrily played his event the pair has to finish together to tune as the runners turned onto the record a combined time. The race was Bannanstown road. Such is his traditionally held in Comber, where since professionalism that he did not draw the 1980’s it proved popular among the breath as his sons Mark and Gary passed running fraternity. Since the venue was by. Later in the race Mark could have done changed to Castlewellan five years ago, it with a little of his father’s immense lung has grown in stature and attracts teams capacity to get him up the steep climbs! from far and wide. The truth of this is best evidenced by the pairing of Ciaran As the race began, McCrickard and McLaughlin from Newcastle and his McNeilly set the early pace and had partner D Hanvey from the USA! opened up what proved to be an unassailable lead by the time they In recent years the event has been contoured Mitchell’s Lake. The Newcastle dominated by the McKibbin twins, but in duo maintained their good form their absence a new kings of the forest throughout the race and stormed home to would be crowned. The pre-race favourite win by a convincing margin of almost two was Eamon McCrickard, who fresh from minutes. Leading the chase were the his maiden victory at Dromore, had trained North East pairing of Eamonn McMahon with determination, resilience and & Nicholas McGuinness who were perseverance, sensing that this could be his holding off the challenge from their year. But who would partner Newcastle’s clubmates Malachy McAteer & Byran very own Mariusz Pudzianowski to secure McCrystal. The McCabe brothers made it the much desired victory? All was a fine day out for the club finishing fifth revealed an hour before the start when the overall and just behind Gareth Grew & evergreen Deon McNeilly handed in an Jim Benson. There were also fine entry form bearing his name and that of performances from the young Omagh lads McCrickard. Ciaran Collins & Noel Collins and Conor Moore & James Speight who took 8th and The course itself took in all the sights that 9th places respectively. McNeilly had won make Castlewellan Forest Park a landmark the race in 1985 partnering Dermot of outstanding natural beauty. Beginning McGonigle on that day, when incidentally in the Upper Square the runners passed the none of these young Omagh athletes had market house before descending Mill Hill even been born! When asked to explain to the Drumbuck road before climbing the the inspiration for the victory McCrickard Bannanstown road. On entering the park replied ‘the big fella threatened to sing all they circled Mitchell’s lake, passed the ten verses of Paddy McGinty’s goat, so I small duck pond, the site of the old had to get away from him.’ McNeilly later brewery, the Spring Garden, the long duck revealed that this was all part of his pond, Finnegan’s Hollow. From there cunning plan to get the best out of his they made their way to the Dolly’s Brae protégé. gate before passing the Moorish Tower and the Cypress pond. This took the A little further down the field there was runners to the lake walk and then the long just as much competition for places and wood before they tackled the final climb every effort was made to ensure that up Fox’s Green to the mountain lake. partnerships were working in tandem to They then contoured Slievenaslat maximise performance. This was most noticeable in the case of Damien Brannigan, a late substitute for Paschal Jim Brown, a regular category winner in ‘Packy’ Toner who had promised to help the Hill and Dale series, was also out in Martina Hawkins win the ‘mixed doubles’. fine style, kitted out with pram, assorted Paschal was suffering from a mystery Mothercare products and of course his virus that precluded him from competing. children. Jim was on childminding duties, An investigation is ongoing to ascertain if while wife Helen had drawn the short this is the same virus (a flat out run and a straw and was racing, narrowly missing dozen pints two days before the race) that out on the F80 prize. Perhaps there will be seriously impeded his performance last crèche facilities and the Brown’s can run year. Irrespective of Paschal’s demise, together and hold hands during the race. Brannigan proved himself a more than adequate replacement and set about his Newcastle AC would like to thank all who task with the tenacity one has come to contributed to making the event such a expect of him. He talked his leading lady success, especially Castlewellan GAC for up every hill with encouragement and was the use of their facilities before and after rewarded when the pair took many ‘big the race and for excellent post-race soup scalps’ in winning their category, finishing and rolls, which truly hit the spot with all in a very credible 19th place overall, almost who needed nourishment after a long and two and a half minutes ahead of their hard run. Finally a word of thanks to all nearest challengers. Rumour has it that who marshalled, took entries and Paschal is committed to ensuring that the processed results; your invaluable help and title is retained next year. Other notable support are appreciated. Newcastle performances came from new recruits Brian Steele, Luke McMullan, Alan Strachan and Jack O’Hare and big things are expected from all four athletes in 2009.

Mourne Runners’ newest recruit, Noel Douglas, was given the honour of running with chairman Willie John Brown and the pair had an excellent result finishing second in the M100-110 category; clear evidence that the aggressive youth policy is starting to come to fruition. Such was Noel’s delight that he was rumoured to have taken the whole family to a local restaurant for a celebration. Unfortunately a spokesperson for Mourne Runners declined to confirm the accuracy of the alleged sighting.

A special word for Michael McLaughlin who had lost his partner Johnny Byrne and was about to declare that his team were not going to finish, when Byrne arrived at the finish and the two were re-joined in an emotional reunion. Michael was then reminded that the purpose of the race is to actually run with your partner during the race!!! Still all was forgiven and this dream team will hopefully take the line together again next year.