'The Harriers M60+ team made the lengthy trip to Colchester for this race,
and comfortably defended their last year's hard-earned title as East of
England champions for their section.
With the team hit by absences through injury and other distractions,
Maurice Crook, arguably the club's best senior veteran runner in recent years,
was ''invited'' out of retirement. In his first race since this same event in
2002, Maurice ran a smooth impressive race to lead the team home in under 40
minutes for an undulating, muddy course of just over five miles. Next home,
another in-form run by Bill Billington, despite at one point demonstrating how
to descend a short slippery slope by way of means other than staying on one's
feet. Completing the show was Dennis Gound, running his first race since last
year's version of this event, and despite just recovering from suspected 'flu,
hanging in to finish a few seconds behind Bill. Apart form team awards for
10-year age groups, Eastern Veterans award individual medals in each 5-year
group. Maurice deservedly took the winner's medal for the M65+ section, while
Dennis for the second time running took third place in the 60+ section'.
