The skies were blue overhead and there was little wind blowing across Hampstead Heath on Saturday, but a layer of overnight snow was still present on the ground for the early risers to see around the North London park. It didn't last long, and for the 5000 athletes making their way to London it was just that little bit more water to add to the quagmire like conditions that were developing on the heath.

There was a decent contingent of runners and supporters from Leighton who travelled by various means for the iconic race around the fields of Parliament Hill. It has been noted by cross-country officials that the last couple of years has seen a resurgence in cross-country running with leagues and big championship races getting record numbers and this combined with the good weather on the day meant that over 5000 people took part all told. read more

The Glowing Bit i.e. Leaving out most of the plethora of stats

The final league fixture, more than ever before showed what an exceptional club LBAC is. We have less than 50 senior members and a similar number of juniors but have just hosted the biggest and best fixture of the season while still giving everyone the opportunity to run and coming up with probably our best set of results ever.

On a day when it would be easy to get carried away with the fantastic running there are some very important things that should be remembered. Firstly the league itself is only the size and quality it is due the hard work put in by Dennis Orme who sadly lost his life to cancer a few weeks ago but would have been delighted to see the recognition given today by hosting the UK cross challenge.

Secondly, every year LBAC takes on the hosting of a fixture but the reality is that 95% of us only get involved on the day because Richard does all the work in the months beforehand. Now don't get me wrong he loves it really, but you wouldn't have thought that at 10:30 this morning! We've tried to get involved with helping him, and at some point (he's 70 next year) there will be a change of guard but as it stands we (and the rest of the league) should just be grateful that he continues to plan and deliver excellent events.

Thirdly, the reason we can deliver excellent events is because every year we have a fantastic response to our appeal for volunteers to come and stand in the cold/rain/snow all day for nothing more than a few words of thanks. For these people it isn't a short day with some being there at 8am and even the late arrivals turning up at 10:30 to put in a six hour shift on their weekend. Without these volunteers giving up their day it would make life much more complicated for all concerned. I therefore think that I speak for all of us that ran when I say we owe a huge thank you to Dennis, Richard and the thirty or so people who did that today.

We come on to the running. There is a huge amount of detail that can be gone into in terms of how people have performed today and across the season, and believe me I can't resist entirely but will cover it later so those not interested can stop reading at the appropriate moment, so in more general terms these are the facts of the season.

• We have now been in division one for five consecutive years. Two was our previous record!
• The U11 girls achieved their highest ever team position
• The senior women achieved their highest ever team position
• The U20 men took a bronze medal in achieving their highest ever team position
• The senior men took a bronze medal in achieving their highest ever team position
• And more cakes have been baked this season than the infamous 1983 season when we recruited Mary Berry as ladies captain!

For those that want to stop now there is just one more thing. We didn't make a big deal out of our overall club position as the men were focused on the team competition and we looked pretty set in 8th place but the amazing running by the whole club meant on the day we overhauled a 300 point deficit on Luton and took 7^th place out of 14 overall in the division, our best ever and the first time we've ever beaten our two near rivals of Luton and Aylesbury.