Chiltern Cross Country League - Match 1 at Oxford

Chiltern Harriers made a great start to defending their Chiltern League title with a good win at the opening match of the season at Oxford Horspath on Saturday. It was a warm, sunny day and dry courses meant a choice between trainers and spikes. There were many team wins and several individual wins in a very strong showing by the club. There were 107 Chiltern athletes taking part.

The Under 11 Girls were first on the programme and a brand new team did well to finish fourth. The scorers were Soraya Roughton in an impressive fifth, Mala Bahia in 15th and Emilia Ingham in 23rd. The Under 11 Boys were second thanks to good runs from Thomas Living in eighth, Hector Gamblen 13th, and Jack Rogers 17th. There was also a good run from Jack Dixon in 29th.
 
Chiltern’s Under 13 Girls this year are a small but talented squad and all had good runs to provide the first of the club’s team wins. Kara Gorman won the race with Maya Davis third, Nia Clarke fifth, Evelyn Wildman eighth, Megan Lockwood ninth, and Carys Jones 18th.
 
A further win came from the Under 13 Boys. The scorers were Tom Ford in second, Charlie Quantrill eighth, Jacob McCall 14th and Isaac McCall 15th. Also running well were George Mawby 16th, Luke Coultate 19th, Vadym Poltorak 22nd, Kit Dixon 24th, Lenny Brooks-Klingenschmid 30th and Theo Roughton 31st.
 
The Under 15 Girls kept the team wins coming with great runs from Division 1 winner Emily Ford, Lily Jessop-Tranter third, Olivia Clarke sixth and Katie Allsop 11th. A good team presence was completed by Issy Robinson (13th), Lucy Wilkinson (15th), Jocelyn Davies (16th), Alice Peckham (21st), Rebecca Lawson (23rd), Keya Kara (37th), Genevieve Donald 41st and Lydia Cross (50th).
 
More great packing resulted in a team win for the Under 15 Boys. In-form Alex Hughes scored a strong win with Daniel Munn second, Rory Hilton sixth and James Holdsworth eighth. Aidan Suleyman was 13th, Max Roughton 15th, Danny Carruthers 27th, Charlie De Sousa 32nd, Soren Fox 40th and Mattie Gemmell 41st.
 
There was a great turnout from the U17/U20 Women and another team win. Maddie Hughes secured another individual win and Frankie Baxter in fourth and Ellie Shield in 11th completed the scoring. Also contributing were Lesedi Nkoane (14th), Maddie Rae (15th) Marea Logan (16th), Hannah Ashby (18th), Jo Snelling (27th) and Ellie Gowers (36th).
 
Thomas Redmond looked good in winning the U17 Men’s race and leading the team to another win. Also scoring were Archie Pinder second, Ash Finch sixth and Sammy Bennetts seventh. More good runs came from Matt Evans (14th), Euan Pinder (16th), Leon Doran (19th) and John Nickless (22nd).
The Senior Women had a great turnout and were second in both Senior and Veteran categories. Hannah Wardley ran well for fifth and the other scorers were Katie Royals (15th), Fiona Kelleher (19th), Finola Watkins (28th), Sarah Quantrill (29th), and Cathy Holloway (31st). Vet scorers were Sarah, Cathy, Abigail Askey (37th) and Tessa Passey (45th). Others in action: Alex Gray (52nd), Caroline Stephens (70th), Miriam Kempson (76th), Tamsin Finch (82nd), Kathy Jessop (100th), Hannah Ryan (106th), Ella Watson (108th), and Fiona Calder (127th).
 
The Senior Men’s result was amazingly close with Milton Keynes on 2069 points, Chiltern 2057, and Bedford 2050. There was an excellent showing from the Chiltern scorers led in by Richard Slade in a great second place. Will Brown was fifth, George Brown sixth, James Palmer 17th, Alex Aldred 18th, Nick Hughes 25th, Louis Peterson 27th, Tom Dixon 30th, Adam Shute 60th and James Repper 63rd.There were Chiltern wins in the U20 Mens’ category thanks to James Palmer, Alex and Louis, and in the Veteran category: Nick, Tom, Adam and James Repper. James and Alex were first and second U20s and Nick Hughes was first Vet 50. Completing a big team were Tom Askey (72nd), Neil Turner (78th), Alastair Melville-Smith (106th), Ian Lawson (112th), Henry Webb (128th), Chris Gloster (144th), Matt Hipgrave (149th), Jonny Slade (168th), Ben Hannen (169th), David Williams (172nd), Chris Lower (173rd), Ed Wright (180th), David Howells (206th), and Trevor Brawn (226th).
 
The second match is at Teardrop Lakes on November 12th.