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The history of PECO part 4, the Ladies Vet’s team
Well, if you have read the Men’s Vet’s blog, I have explained in detail how the scoring system for the Vet’s works (if you haven’t read it and have no idea how the scoring works, I suggest you do, it’ll make this blog a lot easier to read). The Ladies Vet’s teams score in the same way as their male counterparts; however, the composition of the scorers is different to the Men’s Vet’s. The Men’s Vet’s scorers consist of 3 40+, 2 50+ and 1 60+ athletes (until 2018/19), however, the Ladies Vet’s scorers consist of 1 35+, 1 45+ and 1 55+ athlete. This system will endure until the 2018/19 season where I will explain the changes to the composition of the scorers. The Ladies Vet’s league format comprises 1 ginormous league of 15 teams (18 in the Men’s). So now that we have talked scoring and composition of scorers, what is the story of the Ladies Vet’s team? We have seen in parts 1-3 of the blog the Men and a story of steady progression, the Ladies and their roller coaster where literally anything can happen and the Men’s Vet’s which is a story largely of gentle decline. To throw in the spoilers early on and a disclaimer, the Ladies Vet’s team is largely a story of decline and spending time at the lower end of the table. I know this sounds negative but the Ladies Vet’s have largely been punished for lacking turnout in an age category. With only 3 individuals making up the team score, if the team lacks a person for a category the penalty received represents 1/3 of the score, compared to 1/6 of the Men’s (until 2018/19 when the scoring changed and was made equal) this is a massive penalty and will really hold a team back. On a more positive note, spending a large part of the history nearer the bottom then the top does mean it leaves plenty of room for progression and hopefully in a few year’s time some keen person with PECO fever will blog about the Ladies Vet’s history and be able to tell tales of new highs achieved since the last blog.
Enough spoilers, to the story of the Ladies Vet’s team……
The 2009/10 season
The 2009/10 season would see Virgin Active Road Runner Vet’s start their inaugural campaign with a 13th place finish in round 1. Sadly round 2 wouldn’t be an improvement with a bottom of the table 15th place finish even though there were no penalty points. Round 3 saw an improved 10th before dropping back to 14th in round 4. VARR Vet’s finished the campaign on a high with an 8th placed finish in round 5. The 8th placed round 5 results represents the highest round finish in the history of the Ladies Vet’s team. VARR Vet’s team finished the campaign 13th overall, which is also represents the highest overall finish for the Ladies Vet’s team in their history. Sadly this would mean the only way from here was down. The VARR Vet’s team incurred 3 penalties, all 55+ in rounds 3-5. With regards to participation, the VARR Vet’s team had 10 Vet’s from 16 Ladies. The Ladies 10 Vet’s also exceeded the Men’s 7 Vet’s this season. In the Men’s and ladies open team’s the Men largely outnumber the Ladies every season (with a few exceptions). However, with regard to Vet’s it’s roughly 50-50 between which of the Men’s and Ladies teams turn out more Vet’s, which is an interesting thing to note. The highest ranked Vet Lady was ranked 66th overall (V35).
The 2010/11 season
The 2010/ 11 season saw a minor tweak which expanded the league by 2 teams to 17 (this was now equal size to the Men’s Vet’s league). This season also saw VARR Vet’s transform into Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s. Would this metamorphosis transform the results for the team? Seemingly not would be the answer. Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s started the season with a 12th place finish from round 1 before results slightly deteriorated in rounds 2 and 3 with 13th and 14th places respectively. As with the previous season, The Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s were to finish the season better than they had started it, with an improved 11th and 10th from rounds 4 and 5 respectively. This left Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s 13th overall for the second successive season and oddly enough with the exact same points total, which then ranks the class of 2010/11 as tied with the class of 2009/10 as the highest finishing Ladies Vet’s teams. Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s would incur 5 penalties this season, a +55 for each round. Given in the Ladies only use 3 scorers, having any penalty will represent 1/3 of the entire points tally, so a penalty for the Ladies Vet’s is far more detrimental in the Ladies league compared to the Men’s Vet’s league, which uses 6 scorers and thus represent a smaller percentage of the overall score. Participation was up from 10 to 14 Vet’s, this time from a total of 19 Ladies. this would represent the largest Vet to open category ratio of any Vet’s team (male or female) at near enough 75% of Ladies being Veterans. The highest ranked Vet was 5th overall (V35) and was also the highest ranked Harrier Lady. This would also be the highest ranking of any Vet Lady in Hyde Park Harriers history. The Men’s Vet’s achieved a 4th place the highest Vet in the 2012/13 season so on this front the Ladies and Men’s Vet’s achieved fairly equally by comparison.
The 2011/12 season
The 2011/12 season started badly for the Hyde Park Harriers Vet’s, with a 15th place from round 1 Things would improve slightly with a 13th and 14th from rounds 2 and 3 respectively. Sadly, this improvement was not to last as round 4 would see Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s finish 16th, before a 13th from 5th round. The season would end with the team finishing 14th overall. Once again, and it would be a continuing theme, the curse of the 55+ would strike again, with Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s failing to get a 55+ Vet out for any round so incurred 5 55+ penalties for the season. Turnout was the same as last season with 14 vet’s taking part but this time from 27 Ladies. The highest ranking Vet was ranked 72nd overall (V35).
The 2012/13 season
The 2012/13 season would see a slight tweak to the league, with the league expanded from 17 to 19 teams. Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s would start the season very much like the others, with a 14th place from round 1. The low point of the campaign came in round 2 with a 17th place finish. However, the campaign would improve from here. Round 3 would see a joint 13th place finish before a 15th and 13th in rounds 4 and 5 respectively. This would see Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s finish 15th overall. Once again, the curse of the 55+ had struck, with the team unable to field a runner in that category for any of the 5 rounds for the 3rd successive season (meaning 5 55+ penalties for the season). Turnout was actually down with just 5 Veteran Ladies taking part out of 18 Ladies overall. When you consider that there were just 5 Vet Ladies throughout the entire campaign it’s actually pretty amazing Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s finished as high as they did. The highest ranked Vet finished 38th overall (V35).
The 2013/14 season
The 2013/14 season would see a massive change to the league format. The one ginormous league would be split into 2 divisions (Premier and First), with 10 teams per division. Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s had finished 15th overall the previous season, which meant the team would compete In the First division. Unfortunately, since the Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s team had started PECO they have been at the lower end of the table, which meant there wasn’t a lot to play for really in terms of a title charge. Adding the idea of a promotion in a league where they could expect to be mid table gave the team something to aim for that was very realistic…… if they could get rid of the curse of the 55+. Round 1 of the competition would start with a respectable 4th place. Unfortunately, I have to report this would represent the highest round finish in the First division for the team in whilst in this division. I know this all sounds very negative but there is a ray of light, this is an achievement that Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s would reach in the future on more than one occasion. Rounds 2 and 3 would see back to back 7th places before an improved 5th and 4th in rounds 4 and 5 respectively. This would see Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s finish in mid table, 6th overall. Once again, the Ladies Vet’s team would be hampered by the curse of the 55+. The team would not be able to field a 55+ athlete for any of the 5 fixtures for the fourth successive season. Losing 1/3 of your score every round for 4 seasons really has held the Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s back for years now. Turnout was up for 5 to 13 from 25 Ladies. the highest ranked Vet finished an 13th overall (V35).
The 2014/15 season
The 2014/15 season would see a small tweak to the league, increasing the First division from 10 to 11 teams. With a mid table finish last season would Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s use that as a base to build on or would they sink further? Would the curse of the 55+ keep going? Well for round 1 I have some good and bad news. So, the good news was Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s managed to field a 55+ athlete for the round (something the team hadn’t done since the 2009/10 season). But the bad news was that the team finished 8th for the round. Round 2 would see the curse of the 55+ come back but it didn’t make a difference to the result as Hyde Park Harrier vet’s finished 8th for the second round in a row. Round 3 saw a 9th place finish before back to back 8th place finishes in rounds 4 and 5. Unsurprisingly with 4 8th place finishes for the season Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s finished 8th overall for the season. The curse of the 55+ was semi lifted, instead of this being the 5th back to back season of no 55+ Lady athlete, the team got 3 55+ athlete penalties. But unfortunately, the 2 rounds that Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s fielded a 55+ athlete it didn’t make a difference to the results. Participation was slightly down from 13 to 11 Vet’s from 31 Ladies. The highest ranked Vet this season was ranked 160th and it was the first time a V45 has been the highest ranking Vet for the Ladies Vet’s team.
The 2015/16 season
The 2015/16 season saw the small tweak to the league, with an increase in the Premier division from 10 to 11 teams. So this would mean 3 teams would go up from the 2014/15 season instead of just the usual 2. Now this doesn’t really matter to Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s who finished 8th that season…… or does it? Now bare with me on this one as I can’t explain it…. You’d naturally think the top 3 teams in the First division would get promoted. Valley Striders were champions and were promoted. Harrogate Harriers and Roundhay Runners were 2nd and 3rd respectively, so naturally they should go up but they didn’t. Along with Valley Striders, 5th placed Kirkstall Harriers and 8th Placed Hyde Park Harriers were promoted instead. I can’t explain it. Was there bribery involved? Were members of the PECO bigwig’s family kidnapped, with fingers sent back to them in the mail if they didn’t promote Kirkstall and Hyde Park? Did a compromising PECO bigwig sex tape fall into the hands of the Kirkstall and Hyde Park committees and the price of getting the tape back was promotion? What other possible scandal could be involved? Or was there actually some really dull, boring or sensible explanation for this? Genuinely, if anyone knows could they let me know, I’d be interested as to why this was. I’m sure Sam Dooley will have some knowledge; he tends to know things like this. Also feel free to invent your own possible scandals that could result in promotion for Kirkstall and Hyde Park. Regardless of the possible bribery/corruption/rational explanations on the table, 5th placed Kirkstall Harriers and 8th placed Hyde Park Harriers mysteriously won promotion to the Premier division and would compete in it. I don’t think it’ll be much of a surprise to know that a team promoted by virtue of finishing 8th of 11 teams wasn’t going to fare so well this season so you may want to look away now. Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s started the season with a bottom of the league 11th place finish from round 1. You’ll also not be too surprised that although the team scores improved, the next 4 rounds would see 4 back to back 10th placed finishes. This left the team 10th placed overall and doomed to relegation back to where they came from. Kirkstall Harriers in contrast actually finished a mid table 6th and stayed up. Participation improved to 16 Vet’s from 37 Ladies. The highest ranked Harrier Vet was 60th overall (V35), the second time that a Vet has ranked highest overall Harrier and highest Vet in the same season. In terms of penalties the 55+ penalty was still a problem but was only a penalty for 3 of 5 rounds, so Hyde Park Harriers was starting to move in the right direction on the penalty front.
The 2016/17 season
The 2016/17 season saw Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s return to the First division (which now consisted of 12 teams), but would they improve upon the 8th place that mysteriously won them promotion? Well, a 9th place finish from round 1 would suggest that they will likely finish in a similar position. Rounds 2 and 3 saw a slight decline with a 10th and 11th place respectively. Round 4, would see a penalty free performance leading to the best result of the season, 7th place. A 9th place from round 5 would see Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s finish 9th overall, which continued Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s steady decline. Penalties once again hampered the Vet Ladies as was demonstrated by the best result coming due to a penalty free performance. Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s would incur 5 penalties this season (1 45+ and 4 55+). The highest ranked Vet was 39th overall (V35) and participation dropped from 16 to 11 from 33 Ladies. Would Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s slow decline continue into the 2017/18 season? With an 11th place finish from round 1, I am sad to say it was looking this way. What is frustrating about this result is that it was also a penalty free one. Round 2 would be a repeat of this, 11th with no penalties. Would round 3 be any different? Well, the answer is both yes and no. There was a 55+ penalty this time but the result stayed the same. Round 4 would see Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s achieve an unwanted record. It would be the first time they finished bottom of the table in the bottom division (12th ). It’s a low point for the team, but I do have the good news that it would be the last bottom of the table round result in Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s history, so I guess the only way from here is up? Well, yes, but 11th in round 5 wasn’t a massive improvement. This would leave Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s bottom of the table (12th ) overall. This represents the low point of Hyde Park Harrier Ladies Vet’s history, bottom of the bottom league. But, the low for the Ladies Vet’s team was in, it could only be improvement from here! This season saw Hyde Park harrier Vet’s incur 3 55+ points penalties. The highest ranked Vet was 244th overall (V35), but participation increased to 14 Vet’s from 47 Ladies.
The 2018/19 season
The 2018/19 season saw a change to the scoring for the Vet’s. Both the Ladies and Men would use the same scoring system (although this was a bigger change for the men). The system would go from a standardised system to a progressive one. This meant that the original 1 35+, 1 45+, 1 55+ for both divisions was replaced by 2 35+, 1 45+, 1 55+, 1 65+ for the First division and 3 35+, 2 45+, 1 55+ and 1 65+ for the Premier division. It would be interesting to see how this would change the fortunes of the Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s team. Having 5 instead of 3 scorers meant a single penalty would represent less of the overall score so it could help the team. However, Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s always struggled with the 55+ category, so they would potentially have this struggle plus finding a 65+ athlete too. Also, another league tweak was to add an extra team to the First division which took the division to 13 teams. So, with the low point in Hyde Park Harrier Ladies Vet’s history now in, the only way was up…. But how far could the Ladies Vet’s climb? The answer was not very far, but we still saw improvement with a 10th place finish from round 1. This was also achieved with a 55+ and a 65+ penalty. As I have said before, Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s have always struggled with the 55+ category, but this was the only round of the season they would fail to fill that void, but sadly there would be a new nemesis, the 65+ category, which sadly was a penalty every round this season. Round 2 saw an improved 9th place finish before 3 back to back 10th place finishes from round 3, 4 and 5 saw Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s finish 10th overall, an improvement on last season’s bottom of the table 12th. The team incurred 1 55 and 5 65+ penalties, however, it has to be noted that most teams struggled with this new 65+ category so it wasn’t a major burden on the team. The highest overall Vet ranked 125th overall (V35) and participation would decline to 13 Vet’s from 39 Ladies. Would Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s continue this improvement into the 2019/20 season? Would the 65+ category become the latest curse for the team? The answer to both questions would be an astounding yes. The 65+ category would not be filled for the entire season but in spite of this Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s would begin round 1 with a much improved 6th place finish. The good start to the season would continue with a second successive 6th from round 2. Round 3 would see a slight decline to 9th place, with I would largely attribute this to getting a penalty in the 55+ category as well as the 65+. As has been well documented in all the other blogs, the horrendous monsoon of West park for round 4 really shook up the scoring with people dropping out left, right and centre. Of the 13 teams in the league, 4 teams didn’t field a single Vet and their entire score was made up of penalties. 2 teams only fielded 1 Vet, Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s was one of these, with their sole scorer being a 35+. With 4 penalties for this round, this would be the most penalties per round the club has ever achieved. Not a single team in the First division avoided a penalty this round. In spite of only 1 Vet taking part, Hyde Park Harrier Vets still managed an 8th place finish for the round, which when you think about it, is actually quite impressive. As has been documented in the previous blogs, round 5 was called off after Leeds city council prioritised Ed Sheeran over our wonder PECO competition. With the coronavirus impending it was decided not to rearrange the fixture and finish the league after 4 rounds. Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s improved for the second successive season with a 6th place overall. Mainly due to the West Park monsoon this season saw the highest penalties ever by Hyde Park Harrier Vet’s with a total of 8 (4 in round 4 alone), 1 35+, 1 45+, 2 55+ and 4 65+. The highest ranked Vet was 97th overall and was a V45 for the second time in the Ladies Vet’s history. Participation was up from 13 to 19 from 46 Ladies, this would be the highest number of Vet’s to take part in the history of the Ladies Vet’s.
The 2020/2021 Season
The 2020/21 season of PECO was completely cancelled due to the pandemic.
2021/22 Season
It had felt like such a long time since anyone had actually run a PECO. When you consider the last one was the West Park monsoon, I’d imagine a few people would think this is a good thing. Hyde Park Harriers this season introduced the idea of a Vet’s captain for the first time as generally speaking, the Vet’s teams had previously not really been taken too seriously and this needed to change. So, PECO was back and after West Park last time, what could possibly go wrong? Well, actually quite a lot. If West Park will be remembered for its monsoon, then round 1 at Middleton would be remembered as the one ‘where everyone went wrong’. There were actually 2 marshalling errors (please don’t be hard on the marshals, they are volunteers), the first meant everyone in the field did a much longer first loop, the second actually sent the runners the wrong way. This affected the first 100-200 runners, who then had to back track and try and work their way back up the field. This unfortunate series of events saw our very own Paul Sawyer up there with the front runners for short time. Fortunately, this all happened very early on in the race which meant that when you looked at the results, people finished roughly where you would have expected them to, so all in all the harm wasn’t too much. The Hyde Park Harrier Ladies Vet’s team got off to a very good start in round 1, with a 4th placed finish. This was very much helped by avoiding penalties which have hampered previous Ladies Vet sides. 4th actually matches the highest round finish by any First division Ladies Vet’s side. Did this mean a promotion charge was on the cards? Round 2 would see the Hyde Park Harriers Ladies Vet’s team massively improve with a 2nd place finish. This was achieved in spite of a 65+ penalty. However, fortunately for the Ladies Vet’s, 11 of the 13 teams had the same penalty. If there was any question of if the Hyde Park Harriers Ladies Vet’s team were chasing a promotion, this was surely the answer. Round 3 would see the Hyde Park Harrier Ladies Vet’s finish 3rd, just 14 points behind 2nd place Kippax, who would be the Ladies Vet’s main promotion rivals (STAC would go on to dominate the league, putting the title well out of reach for all the other teams). Round 4 saw the Hyde Park Harrier Ladies Vet’s keep ahead of Kippax, finishing 2nd for the second time this season. Unfortunately, they were just 9 tiny points behind First placed STAC, a first ever round win eluding the Ladies Vet’s by the tiniest of margins. Round 4 would see a 65+ penalty, but just like round 2, 11 of the 13 teams had suffered the same penalty. Going into the final round the Hyde Park Harriers Ladies Vet’s team were in second spot and on for promotion, but it was by the tiniest of margins, they could only afford to finish 1 place below Kippax to still get promotion, it was going to be a close one. On a stormy day in round 5, battle commenced, the course was shorted by 0.4ish miles due to a tree that had fallen in the storm. The Ladies Vet’s team battled hard and came 3rd on the day, but more importantly finished 1 place above Kippax, which secured them promotion to the Premier division. The only promotion the Hyde Park Harrier Ladies Vet’s team have achieved (with the exception of the 2014/15 season when the Ladies Vet’s were mysteriously promoted by virtue of finishing in 8th place, so although promoted, I’d be inclined to not count that one). This season also saw every round placing equal or beat the round position of all other previous seasons in the First division, so this Ladies Vet’s side is up there with the best in the club’s history. There were 3 penalties this season, all 65+ (rounds 2, 4 and 5). Participation broke records too, of the 59 Ladies taking part, 20 were Vet’s which beats the previous best of 19 in the 2019/20 season. The highest placed Vet ranked 14th (V35) overall.
Table of statistics below (you may have to scroll right to see them all)
| Season | Division | Highest round finish | Overall finish | Promotion Relegation | Highest individual Vet | Highest Individual Ranking | Number of participants | Penalties |
| 2009/10 | One league | 8th | 13th | Khara Mills | 66th | 10 | 3 | |
| 2010/11 | One league | 10th | 13th | Helen Williams | 5th | 14 | 5 | |
| 2011/12 | One League | 13th | 14th | Brenda Gannon | 72nd | 14 | 5 | |
| 2012/13 | One league | 13th | 15th | Helen Williams | 38th | 5 | 5 | |
| 2013/14 | First | 4th | 6th | Alison Boyle | 13th | 13 | 5 | |
| 2014/15 | First | 8th | 8th | Promotion | Jayne Rodgers | 160th | 11 | 3 |
| 2015/16 | Premier | 10th | 10th | Relegation | Lucy Rider | 60th | 16 | 3 |
| 2016/17 | First | 9th | 9th | Reena Mistry | 39th | 11 | 5 | |
| 2017/18 | First | 11th | 12th | Lucy Rider | 244th | 14 | 3 | |
| 2018/19 | First | 9th | 10th | Nicola Forwood | 125th | 13 | 6 | |
| 2019/20 | First | 6th | 8th | Julie Haddon | 97th | 19 | 8 | |
| 2021/22 | First | 2nd | 2nd | Promoted | Honor Baldry | 14th | 20 | 3 |