Chiltern Cross Country League - Match 5 – Horspath

Although it was a mild and sunny day, the underfoot conditions were extremely muddy at Oxford Horspath on Saturday for the final Chiltern League match of the season. Many described it as the muddiest race they had ever done and conditions got progressively trickier as the course cut up.
 
Chiltern Harriers went into the match 550 points behind Milton Keynes and, although the club took the win on the day, it wasn’t enough to close the gap and it ended up 17102 points to 16881 with Wycombe Phoenix 1000 points further back in third. Eighty-one club runners took part.

Emilia Ingham won the Under 11 Girls race to clinch the title for the season. The team ended up in sixth with Emilia often the only Chiltern competitor.
 
There was a full team however in the Under 11 Boys race and newcomers Thomas Cooper and Jonathan Kalibbala had good runs to be 12th and 21st. Jack Dixon was 23rd and the team was fourth. The team was eighth overall and Thomas Living, who didn’t run on Saturday, had already clinched third spot in the league.
 
The Under 13 Girls have been dominant this season and had another great match to secure the overall league win. Kara Gorman secured her fourth win, ensuring the individual title. Juliette MacDougall was second to confirm league silver and the other scorers were Nia Clarke in fourth and Maya Davis in sixth. Also running well were Annie-Rose Quantrill in ninth, Soraya Roughton tenth, Holly Knott 13th and Carys Jones 18th. Unfortunately Bea Robinson had to drop out. Nia and Maya ended up fourth and fifth overall.
 
The Under 13 Boys had a good match and did enough to move up a place into bronze medal spot. Logan Gaskell was seventh, newcomer Toby Reynolds an excellent 13th, Kit Dixon 19th and Jacob McCall 23rd to score as third team. They were well backed up by Isaac McCall 28th, Harrison Lawrence 31st, and Albert Rushton 41st. Logan ended the league season in fifth place with Zac Taylor 16th and Kit Dixon 18th.
 
Good packing has been the key to Chiltern’s U15 Girls keeping in silver medal place behind the MK juggernaut, and Saturday saw good runs by Megan Lockwood 10th, Evelyn Wildman 12th, Issy Robinson 13th, and Katie Allsop 16th, confirming second on the day and second overall. Lydia Cross was 26th and Mimi Daley 41st on debut. End of season league standings saw Issy ninth, Evelyn 12th and Megan 13th.
 
The other team apart from the U13 Girls to excel in the league were the Under 15 Boys, and a fifth consecutive win saw them clinch the league title. Tom Ford had a great run to win on the day and Edward Johnson (third), James Holdsworth (fifth) and Charlie Quantrill (sixth) completed the winning team. Also running well were Thomas Reynolds (eighth), Eddie O’Brien (13th), Dylan Rossi (25th), Charlie De Sousa (28th) and James Malin (32nd). In the final individual standings Tom was second, James fourth, Edward fifth, Thomas sixth and Charlie seventh.
 
The Junior Women have had a tough battle this campaign but won on the day to ensure the league victory. Frankie Baxter was fourth, Emily Ford sixth, and Maddie Rae 14th to score and they were backed up by Jo Snelling 18th, Lily Jessop-Tranter 23rd, Jocelyn Davies 31st, and Rebecca Lawson 32nd. Emily ended up fourth overall with Lily ninth, Roxie Jones 11th, and Rebecca 15th.
 
With fourth place on the day the Under 17 Men confirmed fourth spot overall. Jack Turner had a very good run to lead the team home in ninth and he was followed by Daniel Munn (12th), Callum Powell (16th), Rory Hilton (23rd) and Hari Mistry (26th). Overall Jack was 12th and Hari 18th.
 
By the time the senior women ran at 2.35pm the course was a swamp and even the leading runners were finding it a struggle. The Chiltern team were third on the day and second overall. Jessie Keighley led the team home in 21st with Charlotte Docwra (24th), Fiona Kelleher (25th), Orla Williams (32nd), Katie Royals (35th), and Jess Orr (38th) packing well to complete the scoring. Also flying the green flag on Saturday were Jenny Bizley 50th, Abi Askey 52nd, Sylvia Moss 59th, Claire Mistry 67th, Miriam Kempson 92nd, Harriet Lemon 93rd, Kathy Jessop 114th, Tamsin Finch 115th, and Fiona Calder 121st. The vets were eighth on the day courtesy of Jenny, Abi, Sylvia and Claire, finishing seventh in the league overall. In the final league senior standings Katie was eighth, Fiona ninth and Charlote 11th. Abi and Sylvia were 10th and 11th in the Vet 45 category and Mim fourth in the Vet 55s.
 
The Senior Men were bolstered by cameos from Harry Cox and Angus Wiliams, and Richard Slade recovered from his 5k PB at Armagh to win the race and secure the individual title after four wins in a row. Harry was third, Ash Finch tenth, Adam Shute 18th, Angus 19th, James Turner 34th, Tom Dixon 56th, Jonny Slade 58th, Neil Turner 60th, and Aran Davidson 84th after suffering with a stitch. Those scorers secured second place on the day and the seniors were fourth overall. Other good efforts on the day came from Mike Turney 94th, Ben Hannen 112th, Alan Crozier 124th, Richard Moss 139th, Ed Wright 168th, Frank Gaymond 179th, Glen Martin 180th, Neil Bates 186th, Clive Docwra 188th, and David De Sousa 192nd. Ash was first Under 20 on the day and the vets foursome of James, Tom, Neil and Mike were fifth. The U20s ended up fourth but the vets secured bronze medals for the season. And in the individual vets standings Adam Shute was third in the Vet 40 category, James Turner 7th. In the Vet 50s Neil Turner was second and Mike Turney was a convincing winner of the Vet 60 competition.
 
Chiltern won three of the five matches and completed another very strong Chiltern League season.