DUDLEY Kingswinford Running Club have suffered relegation from Division Two of the Birmingham Cross Country League by just a single second.

Prior to the race the league table looked healthy with the blue hoops placed 13th of the 18 teams competing and with a near two hundred point cushion between themselves and the final relegation place.

With Nuneaton Harriers and Centurion RC looking cast adrift, the final relegation place was a straight dogfight between Severn AC, Tamworth, Newcastle Staffs, DK and Trentham.

It appeared that all that was needed was for DK to perform as they had done in the previous three fixtures and keep their fingers crossed that the other clubs wouldn’t pull a performance out of the bag.

Although there were a handful of absentees due to injury or unavoidable commitments, the hoops were still able to field what appeared to be a strong squad.

Ben Foster led the club home in 14th place finishing in 32.30, Rob Sannwald was 79th in 35.46, Kevin Duckworth 80th in 35.47, James Wright was 117th in 37.10, Darran Bishop came 131st in 37.53 and Dave Norman finished in 38.36 in 148th place to give the A team a total points total of 569 and place them 14th on the day.

Of the remaining club members Mark Gatenby was 160th, Brian Preston 165th, Daren Thompson 169th, Gary Bonner 172nd, Mark Gallimore 176th, Simon Hughes 179th, Steve Wood 191st, Graham Wildgoose 194th, Paul Silk 200th, John Andrews 221st and Rory Campbell 228th.

Despite their best efforts this was not enough to secure Second Division status as Severn AC, Tamworth, Newcastle Staffs and Trentham all scored fewer points than DK on the day, and where fewer is better this was enough to put them in peril.

As the dust settled, the final league table showed DK relegated by a single point from Severn AC in 15th place and Tamworth in 14th only five points ahead.

After four races and about 16 hours of racing this equated to just a single place or a single second. If any one of DK’s 24 counters had overtaken one more athlete they would be facing another season in the second tier, as it stands they are down by one solitary point.

The women’s race was far less dramatic with DK finishing 33rd of the 37 teams competing on the day and 20th of 30 in the Second Division of the Midlands League with Carol Fisher finishing in 166 in 30.47, Lynn Sprague in 184th in 31.56 and Marie Latreche in 189th in 32.16 making up the scorers.

Kathryn Sneyd finished in 204th from Karen Doy in 205th, Jane Campbell in 225th, Sarah Cox in 229th, Jacqui Elson-Whittaker in 233rd, Sally McConville in 238th, Alison Whitehouse in 247th, Lisa Newell in 249th, Amanda Dawes in 279th and Suzi Geraghty in 275th.