Chiltern Cross Country League 18/19

Fixture 2 – Teardrop Lakes

 

An unusually dry Autumn in the run up to the LBAC’s home fixture of the campaign meant that there was none of the usual boggy or slippy conditions on the course at Teardrop Lakes.

 

Warm, bright sunshine greeted those setting up the course early in the morning (huge thanks to all those involved!) and when the Juniors arrived it was looking like a lovely day for running.

Thanks also to those who gave up their time to marshal the races, standing out there for the entire day but still giving big cheers to all those in Purple and Gold.

 

As always, the U11s set us on our way and charged round their course followed by the U13s. Some of our boys teams are lacking numbers this season, but that can’t be said for the U13s with a team of 5. Oscar Butlin led them home in 15^th position with Tytus Grygier, Sid Mead, Archie Wright and Ash Carter all finishing within a minute of each other to score some points for the club and finish in 8^th on the day.

Further up the age groups, the strong U15 girls team finished in 8th with Imogen Chesterton completing the course in an impressive 9^th place in the division. Zara Brooks, Amelia Butlin, Julia Bell and Alicia Down all ran well and showed what good teamwork can do.

One of the performances of the day however went to Amy Killick who finished in 7^th place in the Division in the tough U20/U17 race. Dana Carter backed her up with an excellent run of her own.

 

 

On to the seniors and having had a morning of warm Autumn sunshine, the wind picked up and it suddenly changed with torrential downpours lashing down as the ladies made their way around the course.

 

With the scoring team up to 6, we were happy to see a healthy 9 ladies out there in Purple and Gold. Andrea Meek has found a new love in Cross Country running and seems to be looking forward to the next one before she’s even finished the next, which is great to see. Andrea had a great run to follow on from her first at Oxford and will be looking to improve again at Fixture 3. Alison Bell and Kas Gardner ran solidly too to take points off other teams. Sarah Keane will have been pleased with her run and to get into the scoring team which it was a welcome return for Jane Sauer who finished 5^th for the LBAC ladies. With 5 of our runners in the top 100 and 3 in the top 50, there is definitely a lot of positivity about our Ladies team for the rest of the season Amy Inchley, Ruth Mitchell and Amy Farnfield made up the rest of the scoring team. Jo Sharples finished off an excellent month of running to finish in 14^th place.

 

The men were glad to see the rain stop to a bit of drizzle for their race, but had mostly all hidden away under the gazebo for shelter so there was a lack of a warm up for many of them!

With a few of our faster runners having moved on from the club, the lead was down to the same two who battled it out at Oxford in Fixture One; Pete Mackrell and Rob Elmore. Now, over the last 5 years we have had 6 different winners of a Chiltern League Cross Country match, none of which were Pete Mackrell! Today was his day however, and he pipped Rob by 1 place and 10 seconds to finish in 32^nd.

Stuart Read and Andy Inchley had their own battle with Billy Mead returning from the Navy hot on their heels. Chris George and Stuart Blofeld were also close to each other and James Bell not far behind to complete an excellent month for the October Performance of the Month winner. Tom Kimber and Sam Dear were the final two scorers, but with 4 runners all coming in within 5 places just outside of the scoring to show some great bunching and teamwork that will have taken quite a few points off some other rivals in the league.

 

Overall the club finished 7^th on the day to maintain our place in 8^th, but with 3 fixtures to come there is definitely everything to play for.

Stand out team performances go to the Senior men who finished in a respectable 4^th, mainly thanks to the fantastic veteran men’s team who finished in 2^nd on the day to bring them up to 6^th overall.

 

The next fixture is on Saturday 1^st December at Luton. Info to come, but we will be missing quite a few seniors who are in Lanzarote, so anybody who can turn out for the club could well be a vital scorer on the day!

Well done everybody at Teardrop Lakes, and special thanks to Richard Inchley and his team as always for putting on an excellent event in front of the national athletic community. See you at the next one!