Chiltern Cross Country League – Match 1 at St Albans

It was a great start to the Chiltern League season on Saturday as the club took a narrow win at Verulamium Park, St Albans. It was the first visit to this park from the league for 14 years and the host club put on a good match on challenging hilly courses. The weather was still and increasingly warm as the afternoon wore on. It was the best attended league match for some time with over 1200 runners taking part overall, ninety-three of whom were Chiltern Harriers.
 
There were individual wins from U13 Chloe Willson, U17 Tom Ford, and V50 Nick Hughes, and team victories for U17 Men and Veteran Men.

More photos from Mark Easton    https://markeaston.zenfolio.com/f495732361
​
The U11s had their best turnout for several years and the girls kicked things off with the Chiltern team a promising third. Ezrayah Latham made a great debut to be sixth and was joined in the scorers by Martha Stanley (14th) and Marni Ison-Stierer (23rd). Also contributing was Jemima Barnes in 24th. On the boys side the Chiltern team were fourth with Freddy Higgins (11th), Kit Reynolds (12th) and Ollie Dixon (22nd) scoring.  A good-sized team was competed by Evan Atkinson (34th), Ethan Brown (43rd), Oliver Ingham (47th) and Joseph Holdsworth (56th). It was encouraging to see increased overall race numbers in both of the U11s races.
 
In the U13 Girls race Chloe Willson made an impressive debut, second overall and first in Division 1. The Chiltern foursome was completed by Lottie Monnington (13th), Amelia Hanstein (33rd) and Emilia Ingham (40th). The team was fifth. The boys were sixth, newcomer William Clasby leading the team home in ninth. Also scoring were Barnaby Williams (19th), Jack Dalton (22nd) and Thomas Cooper (26th), and completing the team were Jack Dixon (31st), Jonathan Kalibbala (41st), and Charlie Yeoh (69th).
 
The small U15 girls team that came fourth was led in by Maya Davis in sixth. Nia Clarke had a great run to be 11th and Mala Bahia (33rd) and Aiyla Haigh (37th) completed the scoring. The U15 Boys had a much bigger turnout and were also fourth. The scoring quartet were Harrison Lawrence (13th), John Rooney (25th), Isaac McCall (26th) and Colin Miles (28th). Also running well were Jack Rogers (30th), Isaac Taylor (31st), Jacob McCall (35th), Josh Woodward (41st), Hector Gamblen (43rd), Toby Reynolds (44th), Oliver Atkinson (46th), and Kit Dixon (61st).
 
A very good U17/U20 women’s team tackled a tough course featuring two hilly loops. Evelyn Wildman was fourth, Issy Robinson 11th and Alex Whitfield 14th to score in the team that was narrowly third. Also contributing were Roxie Jones (21st), Megan Lockwood (26th), Lara Milburn (43rd), Lydia Cross (45th) and Izzy McFetrich (52nd). Roxie was fourth U20.
 
The most successful team of the day were the U17 Men. In a big race of 70, Tom Ford and Edward Johnson made it a Chiltern 1-2 at the head of the field and the team took a good win. Aidan Suleyman (9th) and James Holdsworth (12th) completed the scoring. Good efforts also came from Thomas Reynolds (17th), James Henderson (22nd), Eddie O’Brien (23rd), Zach Cleary (25th), Felix Danielli (47th) and Charlie De Sousa (51st).
 
Chiltern had a strong Senior Women’s team out who ran well for third. The scoring six were Bev Whitfield (9th), Maddie Hughes (12th), Katie Royals (22nd), Ellie Bates (30th), Camilla East (41st), and Jenny Bizley (44th). Cathy Holloway was 58th, Lindsey Turner 76th, Sue Slade 100th, Heidi Folkard 111th, Miriam Kempson 120th, Caroline Stephens 128th, Helen Hinde 129th, Tamsin Finch 140th, Tyra Bishop 155th, and Fiona Calder 168th. Bev was second Vet 45, and the Veteran’s foursome that was third were Bev, Ellie, Jenny, and Cathy.
 
The Senior Men’s team was the strongest for a while and all ten scorers were in the top sixty. The Green Arrows were second and were led home by Alex Aldred in tenth, who was backed up by Aran Davidson (15th), Nick Hughes (19th), Tim Lawrence (25th), Daire Stack (29th), James Turner (33rd), Daniel Munn (49th), Jack Turner (53rd), Tom Dixon (57th) and Jonny Slade (60th). Completing a big team were Thomas Flechon (78th), Alan Crozier (130th), Ben Hannen (145th), Tom Pinkham (146th), Tom Robinson (155th), Jon Taylor (184th), Glen Martin (206th), David De Sousa (208th), Mark Johnson (225th), Stuart Henderson (227th), and Dominic Shulte (229th).
 
Nick, Tim, James and Tom Dixon were winners of the vets competition, and the U20 duo, Daniel and Jack, scored enough points to be third U20 team. Nick was first Vet 50, Tim was fourth Vet 40, James seventh Vet 40.
 
Chiltern scored 4188 points to St Albans 4161 and there are only 100 points between the top four clubs. So all to play for at the next match at Oxford Horspath on Saturday November 15th.