This Saturday LBAC hosted the Beds and Bucks County Championships on the famous course at Cottesloe School in Wing. On a glorious January day we were treated to clear views across the open grassy fields of Wing and even some watery sunshine throughout the day.

The first race involving a Leighton athlete was the U13 girls. Sarah Plummer, in her first race for the club had a battle for much of the 3K race with another athlete from Bedford, and whilst she was just out sprinted at the end still cam home in an excellent 5^th place. The equivalent boys race was run over an identical course and Leighton had two representatives in the in-form Owen Drabwell and Henry Mead. Owen took 14^th place in the race and he was followed home by Henry in 23^rd.

In the U15 boys, Leighton had four lads competing for the club around the 4.3K course. Lloyd Milliken, Joe McGarry and Charlie Mead had a battle all the way around the course, as they pushed each other along. In the last couple of hundred metres Joe just managed to pull away from Charlie to try and catch Lloyd who had led most of the way, but as Joe edged towards him, Lloyd managed a final sprint to hold him off as he came home in 10^th with Joe 11^th and Charlie 12^th.

Throughout the race though, Jordan Clay had been pushing on at the front of the field as he battled with one of the boys from Luton. He eventually completed the course in 15.14 to come home in fifth overall and gain a place in the county team for the inter counties championships in March. The results of the four lads gave them second place over all in the team championship and the corresponding silver medals.

Billy Mead and Brian Foulger were the club's representatives in the U17's race, which is always extremely high quality. The 6K course was identical to the one the ladies completed later on and saw them head out to the further extremes. Billy and Brian have been fairly evenly matched over the country all season and this was no exception as Brian tucked in behind the eldest Mead for most of the race. As the finish approached though, Billy strength showed as he pulled away from Brian and one of the Bedford lads to take 9^th place and finished eight seconds in front of Brian who came 11^th.

The senior ladies race saw five of our women competing against a high quality field that contained Louise Peters who won the Leighton 10. Jo Breslin who was representing the club for the first time in 22 years started very quickly down the hill as she led Gail around the first short lap. At the same time Amy Inchley was leading Jane Sauer around the grassy undulating course. The fast improving Lorraine Holloway-McLean was doing a great job of battling with a lady from Luton.

As the second lap developed, Lorraine gradually pulled away from her challenger and Amy's strength just stretched out the gap between herself and Jane. Up at the front end of the field, Gail's experience had told as she picked off a number of athletes in front of her in the last couple of kilometres, including the hard working Jo. Gail was just hunting down 5^th place when the finish came and she settled for 6^th as Jo followed her home in 9^th. Amy felt strong towards the end of the race and was moving through the field as she came home 13^th, ahead of Jane's 18^th. Lorraine also had an excellent run to finish in 26^th and the performance will stand her in great stead for the upcoming races in 2012.

The men's race inthe county championships is always a 12K affair and this year was no different with three long undualting laps being inflicted on those brave enough to take part. As with all the other races, the results were split at the end into Beds and Bucks championships, which generally makes no difference, but unfortunately Andy Inchley lives in Milton Keynes and (unlike Amy) cannot qualify by birth so is unable to count in the team, much to his frustration.

Ben Corfield has set his stall out to do all the cross-countries this year and once again managed to lead the team home with a solid performance to earn 6th place and take the club championship and possibly earn a place in the county team. Andy was next home a minute behind to take 15th in the Bucks championships as he just pipped former member Gareth Edwards. The third home for Leighton was Ian Grimshaw, who completed the 7.5 mile course in under 47 minutes to take 11^th place. Ian was followed home by Pete Mackrell (18^th), Stuart Blofeld (23^rd), Tom May (31^st) and Gary Stratford in 41^st, who completed the scoring team. After a strong start where Dan Webb headed Joe Hurley early on they battled for much of the way around until Joe pulled away on the second lap as he took 47^th to Dan's 53^rd place.

The grand total of the efforts from our senior runners gave us a number of team prizes. The ever improving ladies team earned a fantastic third place while the veteran ladies gained silver medals. The men's team did an excellent job of defending their trophy as they pushed all the way, but eventually came up a touch short to also earn second place.

Finally a huge thank you must go to those who gave up their Saturday to help on the course in the cold while we had the "privilege of running around it. These were Tash Andrews, Ruth Conquest, Dave Adams, Pete Watkins, Tim & tom Inchley, Fred Watt, Chris Norman, Roger Seldon, Pat Neilan and most significantly Richard Inchley, who put everything together for the day.