CROSSCOUNTRY RUN.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 30 July 1928, Page 8

CROSSCOUNTRY RUN.

N.Z. CHAMPIONSHIPS. GREAT RAGE DOil WANGANUI. On August II the New Zealand crosscountry championship over a bf-mde course is to be held in H anganui xor the first time since the war. As a result or the representations by other centres the \v anganui Centre has decided to alter the date from July 2i to August 11. At a meeting oi the Wellington Centre it jvas decided on the casting vote of the chairman to agree to the date now suggested. The Wellington Centre lias decided to pay the expenses of six representatives in this event. The race will start opposite the cattle Btalls on the racecourse, and runners will leave the course by the gate at the Godwin Crescent corner. The first part of the course, over fiat, often boggy, grass country, with five fences to he taken, leads out on to London Street next to St. George’s school. A short stretch on the road and the runners take to the fields again to the right oi Bromiley’s store. The next part of the course, flat and usually ver<® boggy, has six fences as obstructions. Carrying straight on over a hill, a blind road, another steepish hill, sandy Jane, the country steadily rising, the runners emerge on another blind road, follow down it over a stream, jump the fence to the right, and finally, rounding a clump of sycamores, ascend a third steepish hill. The course now drops steeply to a joggy valley and rises equally abrupt iy again to Tayiorth Road, crosses it, ind with several fences to negotiate, ;akes a half-circle sweep and emerges on a blind road overlooking the front j£ BeUuout Golf Links. <

I The home stretch is appreciably , easier, being mostly flat or downhill, with few fences. Three-quarters of a mile of road, grass-bordered, takes the runners to St. Agnes Church, where the trail takes to the fields again on the right, ascends and descends a steep hill, debouches on a blind lane, cuts across a paddock via a gate at the end of the lane, and continues down a grassy lane affording easy running. At| the end a boggy paddock is crossed, then London Street, down another grassy lane, across the stream, past the destructor and into the racecourse again.

The run is across the racecourse, past the stands, through the cattle stalls and Spriggens Park gate, direct to the gate in the playing park area, and once round the enclosure to finish immediately opposite the grandstand. The course has 35 fences, li miles of road, all of which has easy grass running on the edges, and 4f milesof grass country. There are four steepish hills, boggy country about a quarter of a. mile in width, and about a mile of steadily rising country on the way out. Only four of the fences are unjuinpable.