LBAC performance of the day at the second Chiltern League fixture certainly went to Sarah Plummer in the U13 girls race. She finished in 21^st place out of 94 runners in the race which was 17th in division one. The rest of the girls in the race also had a great team result with Megan Westrope and Emma Evans battling for 42^nd place and Penny Grimshaw completing the team in 52^nd.

The three girls who had run in the first race all improved their position and this gave them the best result for Leighton by an U13's girls team in a long time as they finished 8^th in the division. If the girls can keep turning out like this all season it will make a huge difference to the club

The only other team who were able to pip the girls for position were the U17 boys who managed an excellent 6th place on the day. Jordan Clay managed to retain all his footwear this time around and it made a big difference as he chased leading member Brian Foulger round the course for 22^nd and 19^th place respectively. Joe McGarry and Charlie Mead both had much improved performances in 35^th and 36^th, just ahead of Tom Boozer.

The day had started as ever with the two U11's races and every one of Leighton's eight competitors improved on their position from the first outing at Oxford, which is not only a credit to them, but also the work of the coaches and volunteers who train them. For the girls, Ellie Rabbits had a tremendous race to finish 20th out of the 77 competitors while Chloe May, Melissa Chapman and Elspeth Eley battled each other all the way round. In the boys race, Dominic Grimshaw was once again the leading runner in 37^th, ahead of Max Rose (58), Harrison Philpott (69) and Joseph Bidlake-Hull (71).

In the U13 boys Henry Mead had probably his best race ever in the league as he came home in 29^th out of 51 and exchanged places with Kieran Philpott who was ahead at the first fixture. Despite there being just two of them, the lads managed to come 9^th in the division and if they can continue to improve it will be fantastic for the club.

The club also had four U15 runners with Izzy Bidlake-Hull and Rebecca Mead putting in their first performances of the season and ran together in the girls race. Lloyd Milliken had an improved race on Oxford, although a miscalculation meant his was still somewhat disappointed with his 32^nd place. Patrick Clay once again put in a valiant performance to finish 48^th.

The seniors ladies race saw a team swap around. Gail was off in Belfast running for England and Lynn was unavailable, but the return of Jo Breslin and Amelia Wallace meant the team wasn't short at all (aprt from Lorraine!). Lorraine and Anna Mead ran almost all the two laps of the college fields together until an incident with the senior men gave Anna the chance to duck ahead at the end. Jo had a cracking run, having been out injured for weeks and was able to finish 28^th out of 71 division one runners.

Amy Inchley, Amelia and Jane Sauer were very close together on the first lap but gradually spread out as the hills started to take their toll, but they all scored very valuable points in 46^th, 51^st and 61^st places respectively. This meant that the ladies team overall finished 11^th on the day.

The senior men saw a much improved turn-out for this fixture around the grounds of the Old Warden Park and the three lap course offered a good variation in inclines and flat running. The return of Ian Grimshaw post Liverpool marathon was a big benefit as he led the team home in a strong 41^st place. The same can be said of Stu Blofeld following Snowdonia as he was third back in 64^th, but they were split by the fast starting Billy Mead (the fifth Mead representing LBAC) whose 58^th gives a consistent start to the season.

In the middle of the scoring team there were some pretty mixed performances but, Tom Inchley and Warren Rose retained their levels from Oxford in 79^th and 108^th respectively. Pete Mackrell, Chris Norman and Andy Inchley filled in the gaps before Nick Clay showed a distinct improvement by finishing thirteen places higher than Oxford. With fifteen men out on the course we had good strength this time around and Dan Webb, Chris Dimmock, Joe Hurley, Jon Hull, Fred Watt and Steve Orlando all put in excellent runs to earn points for the team.

The senior men finished 10^th overall on the day, but with all the contributions from from the juniors and the ladies the club as a whole came 9^th, which leaves us 9^th in the table after two fixtures, but both 8^th and 10^th are not far off!

Now, the next fixture is on Saturday 1^st December. Three of the top seven men are in Lanzarote (many apologies) and one (mentioning no names) has arranged to do a really long jog that day instead. So it is absolutely vital that as people as possible make the trip to the playing fields of Eton for the fixture. It's only about an hour and the course is not difficult so please try to get down there and put in an appearance.