On Thursday 25th July, 16 LBAC runners made their way across to Stevenage for the annual Fairlands Valley Relays. The event consists of a 3k loop around Fairlands Valley Park with the men's teams consisting of five runners and the women's three runners. LBAC was able to muster up two complete men's and women's teams, mainly thanks to Fiona's nagging! This is normally a high standard event and this year was no exception. Many of the much larger local clubs put out very strong teams but little Leighton more than held its own.

The girl's 'A' team was lead off by the improving Amelia Wallace, who raced around in 12:26 to hand over in 13th place. Jane Sauer gained three places with her leg of 12:27 and Lynn Boddy maintained the 10th place with a 12:47 leg. Out of 47 teams in total, 10th place is very respectable and the team finished ahead of the likes of Ampthill & Flitwick, North Herts, and Bedford Harriers.

Despite predicting they would finish last, the second ladies team consisting of Theresa Keefe (19:12), Lorraine Holloway-McLean (15:10) and Fiona Towell (14:45) battled well to finish 35th overall, which also made them 17th out of the 25 vets teams.

In the men's competition, the 'A' team was probably the strongest it has ever been for the event. Leading off was Simon Coombes who stormed round in 9:04 to hand the team over in 3rd place. His time proved to be the 5th fastest of the evening out of 250 men, and let's not forget Simon is a vet 40 so many of the runners were less than half his age! On the second leg, Pete Mackrell ran 9:55 with the team slipping one place to 4th. Billy Mead and Jordan Clay gave the team a more youthful balance on legs three and four, they both ran 10:06 to ensure the team was 6th handing over to Ian Grimshaw on leg 5. Ian finished in a time of 9:58 to ensure the team held on to 6th out of 50 teams in total. This is an exceptional result for a club as small as ours.

The men's second team also did themselves proud. Chris Norman got off to a flying start, unlucky not to be in the 'A' team, he equalled Billy and Jordan's time of 10:06. This was followed by Chris Williams (12:20), Paul Douglas (10:52), Joe Hurley (12:04) and Jon Hull (12:08) to bring the team home in 27th.

So all in all it was a very productive evening and one which everyone enjoyed, particularly since it was rounded off with beers and cheesy chips in the pub!