LBAC's four teams in the Greensand Ridge Relay ran very well on the traditionally hot day as the counties club's raced cross-country from Leighton Buzzard to Sandy in teams of six.

Leighton entered two men's teams, a ladies team and one mixed team, made up of six Inchleys. The event is based on age and gender related hadicapping where each team adds up their "predicted" times from a table and work back from 5pm to get a start time. The four trophies that are competed for are, fastest overall team, fastest ladies, fastest mixed (3 men and 3 women) and first across the line which corresponds to the team who beat their handicap by the most.

The six legs make a 33 mile route and go from Waterside Park in Linslade, through Stockgrove, then Woburn, Millbrook, Haynes, Ampthill, Deadmans Cross and finally to the quaint village of Northill near Sandy. Everyone then piles into the pub, where a barbeque is put on and trophies are dispensed.

The four LBAC teams started just under half an hour apart with the ladies off first, followed by the men's B team, then the mixed team of Inchley's and five minutes later the mens A team started 30^th out of the 31 teams. The first leg is 5.6 miles and familiar to most of us, going along the canal to the globe and across the fields to Rushmere before heading over to the far side of Stockgrove.

In the blazing sunshine the Leighton teams all handed over in the same order but as is the plan, all 31 teams were gradually closing the gaps. With the 3.9 mile second leg heading over to Woburn the mens A team started to make rapid progress with Tom May as the 2^nd fastest overall on the leg. On the long leg three, Andy Sowery ran well to move the B team well up the field and Andy Inchley got the mixed team to within three minutes of both the A team and the ladies as he ran the fastest time of the day over leg 3.

With all the teams closing the gaps, leg four was quite crucial but the heat plays tricks on the mind and unfortunately a slight detour from Jon Hull gave the mens A team and the mixed chance to get past as all four teams finished with 7 minutes of each other. The A team brought in Steve Harrison – a ringer from LFR – and he continued their run as the fourth fastest team overall. Fred Watt and Kate Owens both moved through the field for their respective teams to set-up the final leg to Northill.

The final leg saw the teams all cross the line successfully with Mark Field bringing the A team home first, followed by Mike Bryant for the B team and Amy Inchley for the mixed, just pipping Fiona Towell for ladies team, with all of them finishing well up the overall field.

The final results saw the Mens A team completing the course as 6^th team home and 4^th fastest overall. The mens B team were 16^th across the line and 9^th quickest overall. The mixed team were 20^th finshers and 10^th quickest overall. Finally the ladies were just behind as the 21^st to close out and 18^th quickest. Whilst we were clearly out of the running for two trophies there were still two up for grabs.

There were eight mixed teams that took part out of the thirty that finshed the course but much to their surprise the team of Tom, Bianca, Andy, Tim, Nikki & Amy Inchley won the Flyers Trophy by sixteen minutes. Having been shocked to take that award the craziest result of the day was that of the ladies team. They were the fastest of the four involved by just two seconds over the 33 mile route. Fiona collected the Back Packing Dragon Trophy on behalf of Jane Sauer, Ann Hirst, Jill Richardson, Laura Smith, Kate Owens and herself. Leighton therefore took two of the four trophies on offer. Extremely well done to all involved.

Apologies for not mentioning everyone but full results are available via the results page and a lot more detail about the event on the South Midlands Orienteering Club Website. There are a selection of photo's in the gallery, but if anyone has any more then please feel free to send them to Andy (andy_inchley@hotmail.com) and he'll update the site.