The search for suitable Cross Country venues

31 May 2022 - By Elizabeth Prior

Firstly, a little background about Cross Country for the newer members…

Every year the club gets together over the winter to enjoy the local NESS (North Essex and South Suffolk) cross country running events. A series of placed (rather than timed) 5(ish) mile runs through some fun and unusual off-road terrain. Events are hosted by participating clubs, and in previous years we hosted our own until the venue (Notley Country Park) increased costs making it unsustainable.

Now, back to the issue at hand…

We would love to contribute to the league again and host an event this year so we’re reaching out to ask if any of you know of any potential venues.

Requirements of the venue are as follow:

•  Be in/near North Essex
  • NESS stands for North Essex and South Suffolk, so ideally will be as close to this as possible
•  Have a 5 mile XC route
  • This could include laps, as many current routes do
•  Toilets
  • We can look into portable toilet hire if needed
•  Parking for about 200 cars
  • Parking is currently the biggest issue for finding a venue

The NESS committee meeting is on the 23rd June, at which we need to state whether we intend to host or not, so ideally we will have found a venue and scoped it out before then.

Please speak to me or any of the committee with venue suggestions.

Many thanks,
Liz