For someone who has been involved with the club for 25 years it is difficult to get across the feeling that was had last Saturday after the results were published for the final Chiltern League cross-country of the 2010/11 season.

We are a small club, with around fifty active senior members and something similar on the junior front and compete in a league with some clubs that have in excess of 400 senior members. In the past we have had some great acheivements both as teams and individuals (they are listed on the cross-country page) but this season we had just one individual triumph, yet gained our highest ever position in the league and once more hosted the best fixture.

The reason for this is the fantastic team attitude that is developing in the club, at training, at races and certainly at social events. Everyone is made to feel welcome and valued and on Saturday almost everyone went out of their way to contribute. We had nearly forty runners out on the course and none of them had to do any marshal duties because 25 others had given up their Saturday afternoon (and morning in some cases) to help out. We had everyone dusting off wellies. Former members, vice presidents, injured members, parents of juniors, parents of seniors and some who give up their time every year help out our little club.

For the majority of the last five to ten years there has been one or two people each season who have competed in all five Chiltern Leagues. It's quite a big commitment to make sure you've got them all in your diary, avoid illness, injury, family challenges and the uninviting winter weather to run them all, yet this year we had eleven members who did exactly that. Particular thanks and congratulations should therefore go to Mathilde Sammons, Jake Irvine, Jordan Clay, Charlie and Billy Mead, Amy Inchley, Tom Inchley, Mark Field, Nick Clay and Pete Mackrell for making each trip around each course. The fact that this is split between six seniors and five juniors also says a lot. It should also be mentioned that only bad traffic at Watford prevented Jane Sauer from being on this list too.

However, this league is five different team events nothing should be taken away from the nine people who did four races, the fourteen who did three or the twenty-five who did one or two as every single point counts and each extra person gives a better atmosphere for everyone. Fifty-nine different people coming out to represent the club shows how far we have come in the last two years. So congratulations to everyone involved and bring on next year.

There are a great number of photo's now in the gallery from Saturday, and thanks to Mark Sammons for taking them all year. If you want to read the report on the actual running just click below!

Mathilde Sammons embodies what our current crop of youth are like. She is pleasant and chatty, helpful, fun, a real team person and ten (I think)! On Saturday she ran in the first race of the day and yet took on the team management of the ladies three hours later with a big smile. We need to do some work on her competitive side, but that will come in time. She has run every race this year, often as the only U11 and I have not heard her whinge once (Mark may disagree of course!).

Mathilde was joined on Saturday by Jade Landers and Bryony Nelson who all took on the mud with great determination. Jade gradually worked her way through the field to finish a creditable 56^th while Mathilde stopped to help Bryony around the course as they came in 67^th and 68^th. The next LBAC athletes out were the U13's with Beth Tippite having her best run of the year to finish 51^st in the girls race before Jamie Stancombe and Billy Hoskins took to the course. Jamie has run the last two league fixtures and is already making serious inroads. His 17^th position on Saturday earned some great points for the team and with Billy's support in 49^th gave us a good result without our two regular lads.

Alison Gosbee ran her first race at Stowe in December, remarkably was not put off and has now done all the last three fixtures. She has improved her position each time and looked like a different person on Saturday from Stowe, as she sprinted over the finish line in 31^st without any shoes on, having left them at the first patch of mud! If she continues on her current path then there will be a lot more great runs next season.

As the course got more churned up, our six U15 lads headed out on a couple of laps of the notorious Wing route. Once more Brian Foulger lead the team home in 19^th with Jordan Clay, Joe McGarry and Charlie Mead all producing their best runs of the season in 24^th, 28^th and 34^th respectively. Luke Pratt looked like all the training was really starting to pay off as he finished in 39^th, just ahead of the ever present and highly amusing Jake Irvine in 41^st. As a team, these guys had their best finsh in 6^th out of 12 and with only Brian moving up an age group next year it all looks very healthy.

The U17 men saw Leighton with two competitors for the first time this season. Billy Mead has run them all and for the first time this week made the top ten in division 1. He was possibly encouraged by new member Steve Fuller who chased him all the way around the course to finish in 13^th on debut and as a result they were also the 6^th team. They are also threatening to come down on Wednesday and get a few more miles in so the senior men better watch their backs!

The senior men's race saw Leighton get sixteen runners around the horrendously muddy three laps of this traditional final fixture, with the club closing the team of ten in just over 100. We do not have any stars so what we have done well all year is get numbers out and pack people in together. On this occasion only Bedford & County closed their team significantly in front of us and it showed with a second consecutive 6th place finish, ahead of Luton, Oxford & Windsor.

Ian Grimshaw is getting the hang of this cross-country malarkey and chased Andy Inchley all the way around the course as they lead home a very tightly packed group again in 43^rd and 32^nd respectively. Pete Mackrell (50th) and Stuart Blofeld (52^nd) had a ding dong battle through the entire course ahead of Mark Field (56^th) and Tom Inchley (59^th). Craig Nelson, Nick Clay, Warren Rose were all well inside the top hundred before Ian Roberts completed the scoring team in 102^nd after a tough race with Mike Bryant (104^th) and Tim Inchley (108^th).

We always say that the more runners we get out the more points we take from other teams. Nothing highlights this more than on Saturday when every single one of our team would have scored for six of the other clubs so Rod Lopez, Ian Hosley, Steve Orlando and Jon Hull all played a crucial role in the teams overall score.

The final race of the day saw Leighton with a record number of Lady runners bravely taking to the course after 263 men and a few hundred juniors. Gail Duckworth simply had to complete the course to gain the club's only individual title of the year in the V55 women but her 22^nd place ends another great league season for our president. Jilly Richardson ran with a perma-smile as she dashed through the mud not far adrift of Gail to finish a cracking run in 31^st. Amy Inchley completed her 7th cross-country of the season in 37th and just in front of the rapidly improving Lynn Boddy (41^st) and and Jane Sauer (44^th). Ann Hirst (60^th), Fiona Towell (64^th) and Liz Miller (66^th) completed a fantastic day on the course for LBAC as the ladies team took 8th place overall on the day.

In summation then, the club moved up one place on Saturday from 10^th to 9^th with 7110 points, just 34 behind Oxford in 8^th. At the start of the season, 12^th was the target to avoid relegation so really no more needs to be said, particularly as much was said in the pub on Saturday night…………! Well done everyone and bring on next year. Hopefully we'll see everyone for a great celebration on the 7^th May.