There were around 80 people from LBAC out on the fields of Wing yesterday for the final Chiltern League fixture of the season. Of those, about 57 were running, which was a superb effort in itself, but really made possible by all the others who sacrificed their Saturdays to marshal and support the club in many ways.

Before I go on and talk about performances on the day and how well we all did there are other things that should be mentioned. Whilst we have to some good runners, at the moment we don't have any world beaters – although Nick's working on it – and as result our performances rely on us getting everyone out at every fixture. This strength sees us win through time and again against much bigger clubs than ours and this season the commitment of many individuals have been far greater than ever.

With all that in mind I felt obliged to point something out. in 2009/10 we had four people that ran all five CCCL fixtures, for the previous two years we had ten and this year we had seventeen. Please stand up and take a bow; Anna Mead, Billy Mead, Charlie Mead, Chloe May, Chris Dimmock, Dominic Grimshaw, Jane Sauer, Jordan Clay, Henry Mead, Kieran Philpott, Lorraine Holloway-McLean, Max Rose, Nick Clay, Patrick Clay, Sarah Plummer, Tom Inchley and Warren Rose.

In addition to this there were a further twelve people who did four races and therefore qualified for the end of season individual results. There was however, one particular performance effort that I have noted today. Jordan Clay has now done 22 consecutive Chiltern League races, stretching back to  January 2009 as an U13!

Moving on to yesterday's fixture. Enormous thanks firstly should go to Richard, who with Pete Watkins and a number of others, spent many hours preparing the course for us to run round before the day. It may not look like much, but is physically hard time-consuming work that needs to be done.

The first youngsters who got to appreciate the course as ever were the U11's and there were 13 of them out representing in force. Sadie Towell was first home in the girls race, just ahead of Chloe May and Melissa Chapman in 51, 55 and 58 respectively. They were magnificently supported by Millie and Jess Hawes, Danielle Taylor and McKenna Keefe as the girls finished 13^th.

The boys had Dominic Grimshaw first back for the fifth time this season with his highest position of 36. Max Rose, Scott Towell and Harry Bell had a battle all the way around their course but finished in that order to help earn the team tenth place on the day with 53, 58 and 63 with max and Scott producing their highest finishes of the season. Jack Atterbury also ran very well to complete the course on debut, just ahead of Joe Bidlake-Hull.

 In all the races from U13 upwards the results are split into division 1 and 2. Here I refer to division 1 positions as that is what counts in terms of points, but in reality everyone is battling every individual in the race. In the U13 girls race, Sarah Plummer finished a great league season with a tremendous 14^th place. She was superbly supported by Emma Evans (54) and Megan Westrope (70), who then spent all afternoon marshalling too.

The U13 boys saw a full team of four boys for the first time this season with Kieran Philpott and Henry Mead continuing their friendly rivalry, with Kieran just pipping Henry as both gained their best results of the season in 23 and 26 respectively. Making their debuts, Jake Robinson (50) and Jamie Howley (56) completed the team to earn 7^th place overall.

In the U15's Becca Mead ran well to complete the course after Izzy Bidlake-Hull dropped out following the loss of both shoes early on. They have both run three races this year and continue to represent the club very well. In the boys race, ever-present Patrick Clay was joined for the first time this season by Sam Nicholas who took 24^th place while Patrick completed his season in 48^th.

We have five U17 boys who run the league fixtures and between them they have completed 21 out of 25 races this year. In a culture where we are constantly being told that teenagers drop out of sport, these five lads along with Billy Mead have been magnificent for the club over the last five years. On this occasion, their team effort earned third place on the day with 10, 14, 18, 21 and 25 representing a strong performance by all. Brian Foulger was first home ahead of Jordan, Charlie, Joe McGarry and Tom Boozer with Brian, Charlie and Joe all gaining their highest placing of the season.

The senior ladies had an absolutely amazing turn-out of nine runners, despite injury and illness affecting some of them. Once more club president Gail Duckworth completed a gold medal winning season in the F55 age group with her highest placing of 14^th. Lynn Boddy (despite planning not to run) chased Amelia Wallace home in 43 and 41 respectively with Jane Sauer battling around the course with a sore back in 50^th. Fiona Towell, Anna Mead and Lorraine H-McLean all gained their highest placings of the season to take points from the other teams and were very well supported by Liz Miller and Helen Crossland as the team finished 7^th on the day.

The senior men were hoping to get somewhere near to their third place from Luton and with 17 men turning up to represent the club on home ground they were in position to give it their best. Into the first corner we were looking at our first ever race victory as Stu Blofeld led the entire field out, he just had to hang on for another 6 miles!

In actual fact it was Billy Mead, whose fast start did not take too much out of him as he had his best run of an excellent season to secure 28^th place for the club and finished 5^th U20 for the league. Pete Mackrell (who "can't run cross-country") was next back after getting the better of Ian Grimshaw and Tom Inchley who all finished in the top 50. Stu Blofeld finished a crazy week of training to cruise past a struggling Andy Inchley on lap three while James Bell was just ahead of the battle between an improving Tim Inchley and Tom May. Warren Rose closed out a consistent season an our scoring team with 101^st place.

With only Milton Keynes and Tring closing ahead of us, this meant that all of our further finishers were taking points away from eleven of the fourteen other clubs with Gary Stratford, Mike Bryant, Joe Hurley, Dan Webb, Nick Clay, Chris Dimmock and debutant Mike Robinson playing an invaluable part. This all amounted to a remarkable fourth place for the team on the day to follow up from Luton and combining all the agegroups, we were sixth.

Before the day started, our vague hope was that we might gain some of the 227 points we lay behind Headington as this would beat our best ever overall position of 9^th. In the end we came tantalisingly close as we finished the season 31 points back and 400 ahead of Wycombe in 10^th. To demonstrate how close this is, our final men's scorer yesterday earned 73 points so that is why we ask everyone to come out as every place counts.

All in all, it is clear that we are by far the best TEAM in the league as we count the people who aren't there, not the ones who are. Huge congratulations and thanks to all those who contributed to the season and bring on next year.