Round 3 of the Chiltern league saw LBAC worrying about numbers with a number of our fold, sunning themselves in Lanzarote, and running now and again whilst there! The plea to turn out and support this fixture fell on un-deaf ears and with 17 senior men’s names on the declaration sheet it was the best turnout so far this season for this category.

These numbers were boosted with help from two of our new members, James Bell and Mark Haynes in their inaugural run for the club. Mark running in his 2nd run for a number of years, his first being Wednesday night’s training run! Well done Mark.

As always the juniors got proceedings under way and with temperatures of -1 on arrival at Slough they were all glad of gloves and hats. Thankfully, as the day went on it warmed up. Three under 11 girls, Ellie Rabbits, Chloe May and Elspeth Eley had very good runs although increased numbers of runners from the Shuttleworth meeting didn’t reflect the performances given. Ellie led the girls home in 29th Chloe 56th and Elspeth 74th . The under 11 Boys saw their number depleted with other members of the team competing in the network sportshall competition. But, Dominic Grimshaw and Max Rose both running a year young in this age category ran well in 48th and 71st respectively in a large field of 82 runners that finished.

There were over 100 runners in the U13 girls race which is great to see so many at that gender age group competing. Our 3 girls did the club proud with strong runs from Sarah Plummer (who has been selected to represent Bedfordshire), Emma Evans and Penny Grimshaw who are improving every race. Kieran Philpott turned the tables on Henry Mead in the Under 13 Boys race showing the preference for fast flat and hilly courses. Both ran really well to add valuable points to the club tally.

It was great to see Izzi Bidlake-Hull and Rebecca Mead competing in the U15G category, similarly reversing their finish order from the previous meeting with two races to go their individual league placing is identical! So an interesting battle between these two to come, over the last two events at Wigmore, Luton on 12th January and Wing on February 9th.

Lloyd Milliken running consistently along with Patrick Clay in the U15B race had them both running more relaxed. Training and race experience are working, I’m sure their results will improve over the remainder of the league and championship events to come.

Our under 17 boys were the last of the juniors to run and a depleted squad to two runners only saw them drop 1 team place from the previous meeting, with excellent runs from Jordan Clay and Charlie Mead who both improved on previous results which keeps this age group in contention. Perhaps the party the night before contributed to this effort. But, it is not something their coach is adding to their training plans!

Before the U17 boys ran we saw the Ladies race take shape, Gail Duckworth continued her good form finishing 17th backed by Jane Sauer who scared herself as she could still see Gail after the first lap and wondered what had gone wrong; finishing strong in 45th. Anna Mead had her best run of the season finishing in 65th with more to come at Luton and Lorraine Holloway-Mclean completing our scoring 4, having a very good run and the best banana cake and flapjack on the day.

The men’s race as normal saw a dip in the temperature just as it was time to don vests brrr! Simon Coombes lead the team home. However, he had to work hard to get past the speedy Billy Mead who set of at great pace. Ian Grimshaw also got past Billy as the race continued. Although great efforts from all who turned out the extra pace missing of those in Lanzarote was noticed in the results and they can get the beers in when back for holidaying during league events! Our overall standing in the league remains the same in 9th of the 14 teams and you should all pat yourself on the back (if your arms are not too stiff to reach) for a fantastic effort. Our grouping continues to be our strength with the team's 6th to 10th place scorers all finishing within 15 points of each other bringing the team home in 118. The scoring 10 of Ian Grimshaw, Billy Mead, Tom Inchley, Tom May, Paul Douglas, James Bell, Gary Stratford, Warren Rose, Nick Clay and Paul Plummer were very well supported taking valuable points from other teams, by Joe Hurley, Dan Webb, Mike Bryant, Chris Dimmock, Jon Hull, Fred Watt and Mark Haynes.

With Slough being our furthest venue and these numbers making the effort to run, just think what we can do at Luton and Wing to challenge Headington to 8th position in the league. Well done everyone, see you all at the next one.