Chiltern Cross Country League – December – Stopsley, Luton

 

December’s Chiltern Cross Country League fixture came around surprisingly fast since the last one with only 3 weeks since the soggy conditions at Tear Drops in MK.

This month, our usual exceptional turnout of runners was hampered a little by the Lanzarote trip clashing and so we were without a number of the team, but that didn’t by any means stop the performances coming.

 

In bright, sunny conditions if a little chilly, up on top of Stopsley Common in Luton the crew set up the LBAC gazebo in time for junior after junior and senior after senior to prepare for the third and middle race of the season.

 

As with last month, the standout performance was from the women, with this time special mention in particular to the veteran women. The scoring team of Laura Brine, Gail Duckworth, Lynn Boddy and Coralie Anderson stormed round the course to finish in 3^rd place for the day leaving them in 4^th place overall, just ahead of Aylesbury and MK but with every chance of catching Tring in 3^rd place if they can continue their fine form for the remainder of the season.

 

The Senior women also finished well, in 7^th overall, which is exactly the same position as the senior men. More big performances from Charlie and Billy Mead as well as an excellent run and finish from Stuart Read saw the team just sneak ahead of Chiltern Harriers on the day and as they are the team closest to us, this could be vital come February. The overall table for the senior men is looking very tight with LBAC bottom of a group of 4 with only 133 points between them.

As always the juniors are the first on the course in probably the coldest of the conditions and as always, every single one gave it their all and ran excellently.

The Under 13 girls’ team finished 7^th for the day and in a league that’s even tighter than the senior men (there are 4 points separating 3 teams!) so with everything to play for the girls’ team. This week the team were led home by Niquole Carter followed closely by Zara Brooks with Katy Dixon, Daisy Giltrow, Julia Bell, Imogen Chesterton and Alicia Down completing the team. This is a great example of how the more people running, the greater the team is, with every single one of the girls helping out whether by scoring points themselves or taking them off other teams.

So overall, this leaves the club in 5^th place in the league, but there is everything to play for with a bunch of teams chasing us down. In the age group league tables we have a great chance of catching teams up in a number of them, so with everybody back and fit after a bit of a break over Christmas, hopefully LBAC can really finish the cross country season strongly.

The next fixture is at Keysoe, near Bedford which is fairly flat and is always good fun to compete in and spectate at so hopefully we will see you there on the 14^th of January!