We went into the race with serious doubts about the number of runners we would have. The panic messages went out for more runners to turn out and the response was amazing. Going into this race we had teams challenging for wins in every category for both A and B teams in all 3 divisions so it was incredibly important to get runners out to fill all the spots and certainly in the B teams they didn’t need to be fast to make a big differecne. How did we get on, carry on reading to see how got on,

The course at Wormwood Scrubs is not challenging with hardly any elevation and largely on grass or paths through the woods. It was a little slippy in places but given the amount of rain that has been falling recently wasn’t too muddy. Both the men’s women’s teams were short of a number of big hitters. The guys managed to pull together a decent team both in quality and numbers. The guys managed to win division 2 on the day by just 1 point and so consolidated their position at the top for the season. Our scoring team were Charlie Bruce, Ben Jones, Joseph Kellow, Paul Brennan, Ben Allen, Dave Kunzmann, Francis Mannion, Carl Redondo, Will Rowley and Stephen Moss. The fact that we can get a scoring team as strong as this out with a significant number of top scorers missing testifies as to how strong we are becoming. The B team did slip back from top spot in division 3 but still sit 2nd. Let’s get the back to top next time out. The vets team fished 2nd in a very tight competition and are still 2nd for the season but have a bit more to make up for the season win. Our Vet team was Charlie, Ben Jones, Paul, Francis, Carl and Stephen Moss. The Vets B team took a big hit and now have much to do to get back challenging.

The women were badly hit by unavailability and we ended up with 7 runners some of which changed plans to make up a team. The Senior A team finished 3rd and still sit 2nd for the season, an absolutely brilliant achievement but they need to work very hard at the last 2 fixtures to get the win for the season. Our scoring team were Anja greenwood, Beata Falkowska, Aimee Jenner, Anna Sikorska and Bo Yu. As all 7 of our runner were vets it doesn’t take a genius to work out that our Vets A team of 4 were the first 4 of the A team. Bo and Linda Grindall and Christine Hawker scored for our Vets B team who were 4th on the day but are still 2nd in division 2. This is outstanding when I don’t think we have fielded a full team of 4 all season. All our ladies did a great job and it shows how well we can do with limited resources.

In the Junior races we had some outstanding performances. In the Junior men’s race which covers U15 and U17 categories we had a particularly strong result with the team finishing 4th of the 29 teams. This team consisted of Robin Greenwood, Adam Falkowski, Dylan Hanks, Kevin Bagate and Cameron Hayward. In the U11 girls the Nelson twins did exellent work. Jack Davies had a great run in the u13 boys race. Safiya Hanks, Mark Ecclestone and Clara Moss also ran well in other Junior races. Well done to all of them.

It was great to see how we all pulled together to cover the missing bodies. We are very grateful to all those that stepped up and not only turned up but put in great shifts to maximise our results. Our special thanks go to Matt Hogsden who returned from a family visit to Hereford to volunteer at the start and then took the camera to take some great photos which can be seen on the Club’s Photo Gallery.

Chas