A. Pyne Wins Harriers’ Title For Third Time

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30497, 20 July 1964, Page 5

A. Pyne Wins Harriers’ Title For Third Time

A. G. Pyne won the Canterbury senior men’s harrier title with ease on Saturday. In doing so, he became the first man since the late 1940’s to win the title in three successive years.

All the individual titles were won by commanding margins, but what these lacked in excitement was made up for by the closeness of some of the teams’ matches. In these, metropolitan clubs were ousted from domination of the senior and junior men’s events by Greymouth and Ashburton.

The new course on the property of Mr H. L>. Spark, at Ashley, was fast, but tough. Earlier in the week Pyne estimated he could run the seven mile and a-half course in 37min 30see and that is just what he did. Pyne forced the issue from the start. Breaking away from the field surprisingly early he surged further ahead with every stride for a 550yard winning margin. Last year D. F. Dixey (Timaru Methodist) pushed Pyne for three-quarters of the distance, but this time he was no match. They streaked out together at the head of the field but on the hill after the first jump Dixey struck a bad patch and slumped quickly to sixth. Recovering, he pulled through to second again at about three miles and a-half, but with no hope of overhauling the flying Pyne. Dixey conceded ground again in the final stages. Team Races . One of the most Interesting aspects of the meeting was the teams’ racing, In which clubs from country centres had wins. The occasion was one that thrilled supporters from Greymouth and Ashburton, both clubs gaining their, first championship successes. The senior match was an absorbing one with Greymouth and Olympic tying with 46 points, but- Greymouth gained the decilion on a count back —its fourth man to count for points finished ahead of Olympic’s fourth man. Ashburton’s win in the junior division was clear cut. In the senior colts Technical

convincingly maintained Its unbeaten record. Toe H took the junior division by a point from Presbyterian. Ladies’ Pioneer dominated the women’s teams’ competition again. The junior three miles and a quarter event gave every indication of being an exciting affair. However, the winner, B Dyer (Christchurch), was content to sit In the leading bunch and sound out his opposition over the first half of the distance. The prospects narrowed down to two, with Marist’s H. Neeson the only one left to challenge. Then Dyer made his break and stretched it out to 19sec by the finish. Women’s Event In the combined senior and junior women’s two mile race its was more than half way before the defending champion, Miss P. Clausen, gained a decisive break, which she increased to 120 yards. After challenging Miss Clausen over the first half, the junior title winner, a 13-year-old, Miss J. Horton, was beaten out of second place in the combined junior-senior event in the finishing dash by another former senior champion, Miss A. Kennedy (Ladles’ Pioneer). Minor placings did follow the pattern of accepted form but several runners may have been trapped by attempting to match Pyne's early pace. This was no doubt their undoing for some of those who finished comparatively well up started modestly and worked through the field.

Pyne and Dixey headed the rush to the first fence with J. D. Macdonald (Olympic), B. Jones (University) and D. Reece (St. Martins) fairly handy. By a mile and a half Pyne had dropped Macdonald and Jones by 30 yards, while Dixey, after his early lapse, was back another 30 yards, with a similar gap to W. K. Kennedy (Christ.church). Then at short intervals came C. McDonnell and E. Gray. (both Greymouth), R. Allen (Presbyterian) and S. Gawler (Technical).

Shortly after half-way Pyne had stretched his lead to 54sec from Dixey and Macdonald. There was another 24sec to the following bunch of Kennedy, Gray and Jones. B. Turner (Baptist) was now sixth with McDonnell, Allen and W. R. Green (Christchurch) close. In the last mile or two there was little change with Technical’s R. Reekie pushing through for sixth. Results were:— MEN Senior

Individual.—A. G. Pyne (Olympic), 37:30, 1; D. F. Dixey (Tlmaru Methodist), 39:06, 2; J. D. Macdonald (Olympic), 39:16, 3; E. E. Gray (Greymouth), 39:40 , 4; W. K. Kennedy (Christchurch), 39:53, 5; R. Reekie (Technical), 40:04, 6; B. Turner (Baptist), 40:10, 7; R. Allen (Presbyterian), 40:29, 8; B. Jones (University), 40:33, 9; C. E. McDonnell (Greymouth), 40:44. 10. Teams. —Greymouth (Gray 4, McDonnell 10, D. C. McKenzie 13, D. M. Taylor 19), 46 points, 1; Olympic (Pyne 1, Macdonald 3, R. J. Stevens 16, T. Preece 26), 46, 2; Christchurch, 61, 3. Junior Individual.—B. Dyer (Christchurch), 17:16, 1; H. Neeson (Marist), 17:35, 2; D. Matthews (Technical), 17:52, 3; A. Sim (Ashburton), 17:57, 4; K. Hamilton (Technical), 18:11, 5; L. Graham (Presbyterian), 18:13, 6; M. Clarkson (Methodist), 18:15, 7; N. Smith (Toe H, Waimate), 18:18, 8. Teams.—Ashburton (Sim 4, J. Mcßrearty 9, R. Franks 21, R. Hood 22). 56 points, 1: Presbyterian, 73, 2; Marist, 89, 3. Senior Colts Individual.—R. Taylor (Tlmaru Anglican), 11:51, 1; J. Tomlinson (New Brighton), 12:15, 2: L. Cane (Technical), 12:22, 3; J. Hansen (Toe H, Waimate), 12:25, 4; A. Searle (St. Martins), 12:37, 5; P. Bartlet (Technical), 12:45, 6. Teams.—Technical (Cave 3, Bartlett 6, W. Lambett 7, A. Gilmore 8), 24 points, 1; Olympic, 56, 2; Toe H, 120, 3. Junior Colts Individual. B. Wernham (Olympic), 12:41, 1; D. Wilson (Presbyterian), 13:18, 2; I. Higginson (Toe H), 13:23, 3; M. Morrison (Presbyterian), 13:30, 4; J. Birchfield (Greymoutli), 5; B. Griffin (Toe H, Waimate), 6. Teams.—Toe H (A. Ameriks, E. Breese, I. Higginson, C. Hill), 61 points, 1; Presbyterian, 62, 2; Greymouth, 93, 3. . Veterans Individuals. F. Sharp (Marist), 1; L. E. Fox (Olympic), 2; T. Bain (Christchurch), 3. WOMEN Senior Individual.—P. Clausen (Toe H), 13:54, 1; A. Kennedy (Ladies’ Pioneer), 14:22, 2; M. Dixey (Ladles' Pioneer), 15:16, 3: L. Fisher (Ladies’ Pioneer), 15:17, 4; D. Dixey (Ladies' Pioneer), 15:55, 5; M. McKenzie (Toe H), 16:11, 6. Teams.—Ladies* Pioneer, 14 points, 1.

Junior Individual. J. Horton (Ladies' Pioneer), 14:23, 1; C. Horton (Ladies’ Pioneer), 15:06, 2; V. Lee (Ladies’ Pioneer), 17:42, 3. Teams.—Ladies’ Pioneer.