Junior News Section
Anglian Schools Cross Country - Sleaford 4 February
The Anglian Schools Cross Country event took place at Sleaford, Lincolnshire where pupils from Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridge, Northampton and Lincolnshire were represented. Junior Bungay Black Dogs represented both Suffolk and Norfolk in four races. In the Minor Girls, Lucy Emmett (Norfolk) was 29th (10:29) and Amy Spear (Norfolk) was 39th (10:47). Ted Oldman (Suffolk) was 5th in the Intermediate Boys. Luke Spear (Norfolk) was an impressive 3rd in the Junior Boys in 13:32 with Benn Walker (Suffolk) 55th (15:34). In the Senior Boys, Kieran McMorran (Suffolk) was 9th (23:50) and Marcus Sladden (Suffolk) was 45th (27:42). Ted, Luke and Kieran qualified to represent their counties at the English schools event.
National Cross Country Relays 3 November 2012
| Time | Pos | No. Teams | |
| U17B (3k) | 35:01.10 | 65th | 89 |
| Ted Oldman | 10:06.95 | 43rd | |
| Troy Douglas-Collow | 11:23.30 | 57th | |
| Chris Oven | 13:30.85 | 65th | |
| U13G (2k) | 28:08.00 | 66th | 99 |
| Lucy Emmett | 8:57.80 | 71st | |
| Jessica Sparkes | 9:24.35 | 74th | |
| Amy Spear | 9:45.85 | 66th | |
| U15G (2k) | 114 | ||
| Lauren Howe | 8:14.45 | 53rd | |
| Hannah Barnes | 9:17.90 | 76th | |
| U15B (2k) | 25:27.85 | 81st | 105 |
| Benn Walker | 8:16.40 | 98th | |
| Nicky Sparkes | 8:47.40 | 91st | |
| Tommie Williams | 8:24.05 | 81st |
Suffolk Winter League Cross Country - 30 October 2011
Sunday 30th October saw the first round of the Winter League Cross Country Championships. The Juniors did extremely well, securing four category wins, two overall race wins and the boys are now leading the league.
Sixteen Black Dog Juniors participated. As the main junior race disappeared into the woods, the U11's set off for two laps of the field. The four Black Dog runners settled themselves into a comfortable pace and by the time they reached the hurdles at the end of the first lap eight year old
Finn Spear had moved into the lead overtaking the fast starting youngsters from other clubs. Both Lucy and Amy also began to move through the field showing maturity in their pacing. At the line, Finn was comfortably ahead of the second placed runner and Lucy had moved up to 4th place to secure the Girls victory. Amy finished in a respectable 15th place, (4th Girl) and not-quite-old-enough-to-be-a-full-member-yet Ella Spear (7) came home in 37th. For the U11 RESULTS click here
In the main Junior race, Kieran McMorran sat on the heels of the leading two runners for the fast first mile with Luke Spear, Ted Oldman and Harry Wilson struggling to keep up with the fast pace. Rounding the tricky technical sections before the bottom of the moat which includes two stiles, Kieran pushed on and opened a gap at the front. Luke and Ted also moved forwards to overtake some of the tiring fast starters. In the end it was a comfortable victory for Kieran with a very fast time. Luke romped home in 5th place easily winning his age category and Ted held onto 7th despite pulling a muscle in the final stages. Harry, Marcus and Robin also posted fast times, finishing in 12th, 18th and 19th respectively. As the younger runners came in there were some excellent times from Thomas Cookson, Nicky Sparkes, Bailey Bendix-Hickman and Jessica Sparkes. Campbell McMorran struggled round to equal his 60th place from last year and Nathan Oldman
still recovering from illness jogged home in 74th place.
Individual results as follows:
U11's Race
1st Finn Spear Excellent well paced run.
4th Lucy Emmett (1st Girl) Excellent well paced run.
15th Amy Spear (4th Girl)
37th Ella Spear
Main Junior Race
1st Kieran McMorran 1st U17 and 40 seconds faster than last year
5th Luke Spear 1st U13 Excellent first time effort
7th Ted Oldman 3rd U15 and 1"46 faster than last year
12th Harry Wilson 6th U15 Good first time effort only 20 seconds slower than last years winner
18th Marcus Sladden 8th U17 and 20 seconds faster than last year despite just coming back from injury
19th Robin Bendix-Hickman 9th U17 and 1"31 faster than last year
44th Thomas Cookson 11th U13 Good first time effort
49th Nicky Sparkes 13th U13 and 1"38 faster than last year
54th Bailey Bendix Hickman 15th U13 and 2"56 faster than last year
57th Jessica Sparkes 4th U13 Good first time effort
60th Campbell McMorran 19th U13 Same position as last year
74th Nathan Oldman 27th U13 Recovering from illness
The top 8 runners were all faster than the winning time for the last two years, so competition was very fierce. For the FULL RESULTS click here
Great Yarmouth Performance Meet - 9 August 2011
3 Junior members of the club competed at the rescheduled Gt. Yarmouth Performance meet on Tuesday 9th August
Luke Spear won his 200m race in a time of 28.6s. Marcus Sladden was next up finishing 4th in his 200m race in 26.4s. Finn Spear ran an excellent 2:17.6 in the U11 600m race. In the Long Jump Finn was 5th in the U11's recording 2.90m. Finn was in action again in the 80m recording 14.6s to place 3rd in his heat. And finally Luke ran 2:28 in the 800m event against some very tough competition.
Great Yarmouth & District Track Meet - 21 April 2011
On Thursday 21st April, several Black Dog Juniors attended the first track meet of the year at Great Yarmouth. Each was allowed to compete in a maximum of 3 events.
Results as follows:
Cambourne 10k - Cambridge 3 April 2011
Having turned 15 last month and now eligible to run in 10k races, Kieran McMorran ran his first official 10k race at Cambourne in Cambridge. With 990 finishers, Kieran wanted to get off to a quick start to avoid the crush at the first corner, just 100m from the start. He ended up running the first mile too quickly in 5:15, but held on bravely to finish in an excellent 10th place in a time of 36:41.
Norfolk Schools Cross Country Championships 18 January 2011
Luke Spear competed in the Norfolk Schools Cross country championship where he won his age group. He has qualified for the Norfolk and Suffolk inter schools championship which is being run in Norwich on Wednesday 26 January. The top 12 then qualify for the East Anglian Championship which is a feeder into a National Championship being held in Birmingham. Based on his run last week he should at least make the East Anglian Schools event.
Suffolk County Championships 9 January 2011
Six Black Dog Juniors competed at Ickworth Park. In the U13 Boys race (3k)
Campbell McMorran
finished 26th in 16:35, shortly followed by
Bailey Bendix-Hickman
in 31st (17:20).
The U15 Boys ran 4k. Kieran McMorran achieved his goal for the year taking an excellent 2nd place in 15:19. Ted Oldman was 10th (17:22) and Robin Bendix-Hickman 12th in 20:18, securing 3rd place in the team event for Bungay Black Dog U15 Boys.
Marcus Sladden ran the 6k U17's route in 24:48 finishing a well deserved 12th in a very strong field.
Assistant Coach Ellie Sprake, running in her UEA strip, and returning from a 2 year break due to illness, won the Senior Womens (6k) race in an excellent time of 24:47.
Suffolk Schools Cross Country 13 January 2011
Seven Black Dog Juniors qualified for the Suffolk Schools final last Thursday. In the Intermediate Boys (U16) race,
Kieran McMorran ran an excellent race to finish 4th and qualified to represent Suffolk in the Anglian Schools event next month. Marcus Sladden finished an excellent 27th in the same event.
Ted Oldman also posted an great result of 11th place in the Junior Boys race (U14) to secure the last qualifying place in next round, the Anglian Schools event. Also in the Junior Boys race, Harry Wilson did well to finish in 55th place.
Archie Winter (36th) and Jake Sewell returning from injury (79th) also ran well in the Minor Boys (U12) event. In the Minor Girls Jessica Sparkes managed an excellent 37th out of 114.
Great Yarmouth & District Track Meet - 19 August 2010
6 Black Dog Juniors competed in the 2nd Gt. Yarmouth Performance Meet
U13 Boys:- Luke Spear won the 100m in 14.5 seconds with Nicky Sparkes coming 5th in 16.8 seconds. Luke also won his heat of the 200m race in 30.4s and Nicky was 4th in the same heat recording 36 
seconds. Luke jumped 3.98m to win the U13 Long Jump and Nicky jumped 2.92m to finish in 6th place.
U11 Girls:- 80m: Jessica Sparkes came 5th in the second heat in a time of 15.2s and Amy Spear was 2nd in the third heat in 13.6s. 600m: Jessica, 9th in 2:28.7 followed by Amy in 11th 2:45.0 Turbo Javelin: Jessica threw 7.00m to finish 7th while Amy managed 5.48m to finish 10th.
U11 Boys:- In the 80m Nathan Oldman was 5th in 13.9, just beating Thomas Cookson (6th) in 14.0 seconds. The 600m saw Thomas coming 5th in 2:22.6 beating Nathan in 6th (2:29.1). Thomas was 5th again in the Turbo Javelin throwing 11.63m and Nathan 7th with a 9.03m throw.
U11 Girls: Amy Spear: 75m (Race 1 of 2) 12.9s (1st) 600m 2:40.9s (6th) Long Jump 2.44m (9th)
U11 Boys: Nathan Oldman: 75m (Race 1 of 2) 12.9s (4th) 600m 2:32.6s (7th)
Finn Spear: 75m (Race 1 of 2) 14.0s (5th) Long Jump 2.59m (10th)
U13 Boys: Campbell McMorran: Long Jump 3.16m (8th) Javelin 13.08m (3rd)
U15 Boys: Ted Oldman: 3000m 10:36.8s (2nd)
U17 Boys: Marcus Sladden: Marcus competed in the 300m, leading round the bend, he was overtaken in the home straight and stumbled in the last ten metres falling to the ground and badly grazing his legs. DNF. The winner finished in 39.4. It's a shame because Marcus would have recorded sub 40 seconds had he been able to cover the last 5 metres upright.
Great Yarmouth & District Track Meet - 15 April 2010
On 15th April, six Black Dog Juniors took part in the Great Yarmouth and District warm up track meet. The weather was pretty cold and there was a head wind in the home straight.
First up was the mile. Kieran McMorran ran strong to just beat GY runner Dominic Oliver on the line in a PB of 5:18.7. Marcus Sladden competing in his first track event came home in a respectable 6:02.3. William Oldman restricted himself to the long jump, finishing 3rd in the U13's with a 3.5m jump and Campbell McMorran, again competing in his first track meet, also managed 3rd in the U11 age group jumping 2.52m. Lucy Emmett was 4th in the U11 75m event coming home in 14.7 seconds. Not bad for an 8 year old. In the next heat Nathan Oldman ran the best that I've ever seen him run to finish the 75m in 13.07 seconds in 3rd place. In the 600m, Nathan started strong but faded in the end to come home thrid in the U11's in a time of 2:37.6. Campbell, running in his first ever race showed good promise by starting slowly and overtaking most of the field on the last lap to come home 3rd in the race and 2nd in the U11 boys in a time of 2:28.7. Likewise Lucy ran a good race, finishing strong in 4th place just behind Campbell to come home 2nd in the U11 girls in a time of 2:35.2. Marcus finished the evening off with a 150m blast in 21.2 seconds.
Suffolk County Cross Country Championships
Five Black Dog juniors took part in the postponed Suffolk County Cross Country Championships at Newmarket on Sunday 14th February. The weather was cold but otherwise fine. The course was uninspiring and a bit disappointing after the excellent Stowmarket event the week before. First up was Ruby Oldman coming home in 15:26, 15th place in the 3k U13 Girls event. Next to go were the U13 Boys (3k), Ted Oldman was first Black Dog back in a respectable 12:46, 11th place, followed shortly afterwards by William Oldman in 14:53, 18th place.
The U15 Boys had a longer 4k run. Kieran McMorran came home in an excellent 4th place (16:00) beating several of his regular competitors for the first time. Miles Kingston managed to complete the course in 22:25, 14th place which was an excellent effort considering the amount of training that he'd missed in the last couple of months.
Juniors Watford Trip 12 August 2009
A number of Junior Black Dogs accompanied Club Chairman John White to a summer trackmeet in Watford on August 12th. This high quality open event was a chance for some of the juniors to experience running on a proper track and to compete with and watch the very best runners from eastern England. All runners achieved personal bests. Rory Lacey ran the 100m (13.82) and was narrowly beaten in his heat in the 200m (28:06). Amongst the 17 heats in the 1500m, were two Black Dogs - Kieran McMorran (5:04) and Miles Kingston (5:44). Rhys Spencer finished the 3000m (11.57) which didn’t start until 10.30pm!.
Juniors Trip to Watford
We left Bungay Sports Centre at 4.30pm and fortunately had clear traffic all the way to Watford arriving at 6.45pm into a packed car park. First event was off at 7.00pm, so by the time we'd parked up and registered Rory only had 5 minutes before his 400m race to prepare. The temperature was in excess of 25 degrees as well, so not the ideal start. Rory ran a slightly disappointing 1:08.5 which was undoubtedly down to the rushed preparation.
Kieran and Miles both had more time to soak up the atmosphere and warm up properly before their races and both ran really well. Miles ran 2:48.8 beating his PB by 7 seconds and Kieran came home in 2:30.9 knocking 9 seconds off his previous time. Unfortunately there were nearly 200 runners entered into the 800m resulting in 17 heats, so the 200m started over half an hour behind schedule, but Rory ran a very creditable race, taking it easy over the first 100, then powering through the final 100m to come home in 29.03.
We left Watford at 9.30pm and arrived back in Bungay at 11.30pm.
Important Phone Numbers:
Welfare Officer: Paul Seary 01986 896824
Junior Coordinator: Margaret Burton 01502 710626
Junior Coach: John White 01728 668968 (h) or 07712836209 (m). johnfrederickwhite@yahoo.co.uk
