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A gloriously sunny late winter afternoon saw Chiltern Harriers push into overall third place in this final fixture of the season, their highest placing ever.
Third place in the Senior/Junior/Veteran men's category provided the bulk of the points but there were good turnouts from the women and younger athletes to confirm the club's third spot.
The fields behind Wing's Cottesloe School provided the fifth, and toughest, of the season's courses with extremely muddy gateways and long, grinding hills sapping the energy of the runners all afternoon.
Chiltern had a perfect start to proceedings with victories in the girls and boys Under 11 races. These confirmed both teams as team league winners, showing great potential for next year's cross country activities at both under 11 and under 13 level.
The girls ran first, holding back off the fierce early pace and working through the field with their usual great team packing to complete their fifth team win of the winter. Claudia McInerney was fifth, Connie Lewis sixth, and Emma Barraclough eighth to be the counters on the day. Winner and overall league champion was Windsor's Becca Croft. Overall standings for the season ended with Connie in fifth, Emma sixth, Rosalind Firth seventh, Claire Buttivant eighth and Claudia ninth.
The boys race was an exciting classic with, as usual, several of the Chiltern boys to the fore. Round 4 race winner, Bill Hughes, forced a powerful pace through the halfway mark but was gradually overhauled by Andrew Stenning to give him his second win of the series and clinch the overall first place for the season. Second on the day was Joe Cochrane, fourth was Bill Hughes and fifth James McCarthy. Joe, James and Bill finished second, third and fourth respectively behind Andrew in the season's standings, an amazing club achievement. Also ending the season in the top ten were Will Perkin, ninth, and Sam Butcher tenth.
The Under 13 girls continued their steady progress with again Ellie Jones to the fore in 19th spot, with an overall season finish of 21st.
The Under 13 boys continued their excellent winter with a 1, 2, 3 on their tough 3.5k course, Michael Goddard being first, followed by Jack Dutton and Dan Barraclough. Also continuing to improve was George Gillingwater, fourth counter in ninth position. This gave them a win on the day and pushed them up into second overall for the season behind Bedford and County. Michael was second overall for the season, Jack fourth and Dan fifth.
In the Under 15 boys race Alex Watson and Dan Loach had steady runs with Alex finishing in sixth place for the season, Dan in 19th.
The senior men had the longest challenge of the day, an 8.8k course with the muddiest conditions of the winter. Unfortunately, Derek Brown slipped and sustained a nasty gash to the knee and had to retire when well placed but the ten Chiltern counters all finished well within the top 100 to record fourth place on the day and confirm third spot for the season. Eddie O'Gorman topped a great league winter with fifth place and ended the season with the bronze medal for third Senior Man, a great achievement in this high calibre contest. Matt Bennett was an excellent tenth and finished just outside the Junior Men's medals in fourth place. In the overall Vet categories, Paul Manners was 11th Vet 40, and Tony Richardson 6th Vet 50.
Running last in the afternoon sun were the Senior ladies and Laura Butt in 11th led a good Chiltern team to third place on the day, confirming third for the season as a whole. Other counters were Judith Orr in 17th, Cath Holloway 20th, and Louise Barnett 22nd. It was another team vet win for the ladies, confirming the gold medal for leading vet team. Individually Laura ended the season as eighth Senior Lady, Sandra Reynolds and Cath Holloway were second and third respectively in the Vet 35 category, and Barbara Ralph, Kate Loach and Jane Peel were second, third, and fourth in the Vet 45 competition. Brenda King was 2nd in the Vet 55 category.
So a great performance by the club and providing much optimism for the summer track season and more success next winter.
Steve Perkin