The club had a good turnout for Watford, for a race in ideal conditions around Cassiobury Park. Of note was the huge increase in ladies running this week for the club. They almost matched the men’s numbers with ten competing over the undulating course. Three runners making their club debut in the league were Kelly Paine, Janet Dashwood and Lorraine Mclean who will all undoubtedly learn how to run cross-country as the winter season goes on.

The juniors were down on team members from the first event, but those that ran had excellent races to help the points tally. The under 13 boys contested the first race featuring Leighton runners and Owen Drabwell and Sam Nicholas had a fantastic battle all the way round with Owen reversing the order from Luton and that continues a great competition going into the next round between these two. They finished 12^th and 14^th respectively, backed up by Patrick Clay and Henry Mead who both improved their league standing by at least 10 places to bring the team home in 6^th place overall.

The under 15 boys were our only other runners out in the junior category and again some outstanding performances.  It was good to see Lloyd Milliken back to form as he gave Tom Boozer a scare right to the line where Tom just had the legs to get ahead. Jordan Clay had the run of his season so far finishing 10^th and with Charlie Mead and Joe McGarry finishing strong these 5 maintained their 5^th position in the league, which is fantastic running by the team.

In the ladies race, Gail led our team home in 18^th with Jane having a good run in 40^th place. It was fantastic to have Laura Smith and Amelia Wallace back in the team as they closed out the scoring four. They were backed up superbly by Fi, Liz, Mandy, Kelly, Janet and Lorraine which all culminated in a fantastic 9^th position overall on the day.

The men were missing three of the top six runners from last month but those that turned out ran very hard (see the photos for proof!) and got some good results. Ben led the team home with a cracking run in 20^th place with Tom, Peter and Stuart in hot pursuit and Warren, Nick, Joe, Dan, Chris Williams and Chris Dimmock in warm pursuit! Chris closed our 10 scorers in 187 just ahead of Gary Stratford, Fred and John Adam who completed the men’s line up to keep us in contention. Overall, well done to everyone, it was a great day out, putting us 10^th in the league with 3 events to go.

The Lanzarote trip disrupts our numbers at St Albans on the 3^rd December so it is absolutely vital to get as many people as possible to St Albans. The venue has not been on the cross country circuit for some years, and will be pastures new for most of us.