Chingford League Race Three incorporating the Club Cross Country Championships and the Fraternity & Sorority Cups

Saturday 22nd November saw our home fixture at Trent Park in the Chingford League as well as our Club XC Champs and the Club’s Fraternity & Sorority Cups.

It was a triumph of organisation for the Club and huge thanks are due to Rob Scott, Martyn Rowe and the many officials, marshals and volunteers who contributed to making it such a great event. Special thanks are also due from me to the unflappable Mark Laikin whose invaluable help on the day made my life so much easier.

In terms of weather the early arrivals were concerned by the rain and the cold blustery winds but fortunately that had eased off by the time the race started. The course included all the ingredients we enjoy in cross country; grass fields, woods, hills, a stream and mud naturally! It made for such a great race even the cows came over to watch!

In a number of sections the course proved very slippery even for those of us wearing 9mm spikes and there were a number of fallers including Emma McCluskey who fell badly but still managed to be our first finisher in the women’s race and therefore our women’s senior Cross Country Champion. Ed Fraser probably spent as much time changing his spikes as racing but that attention to detail combined with great speed and determination enabled him to lead our men home and become the men’s senior Cross Country Champion. Nehal Lavey-Khan, a late entrant in the race, took advantage of the opportunity to secure our men’s Vets Cross Country title while the ultra-competitive, Jana Jilkova, had a great race and won the women’s Vets Cross Country title. They are great champions!

In the women’s race our 2nd finisher was Charlotte Caplan, who has been a revelation since joining the Club four weeks ago. Kathryn Ellis, beset by niggles and the cold, was in low spirits at the start of the race but finished it in high spirits such is the power of racing with the Stags while Kathy Dominy and Emma Champion both made their Chingford League debuts having not raced cross country since their school days and they were great. Kate Phillips, clearly feeling the cold, had a great run while Anneli Sydenham had by far her fastest race at Trent Park.

In the men’s race our 2nd finisher was one of our terrific U20s, Noah Clarke, who had a great run and was only 11 seconds behind Ed. Richard McCormick, you will not be surprised to hear was the first M60 finisher and continues to lead the Individual Points Trophy in that category with maximum points. He was one of our scorers too. Nick Scott had a fine run as did Adam Mattiussi who deserves credit for racing after such a tough introduction to cross country at Parliament Hill and it was great to see Kerry Rochester competing so well in a Barnet vest after a long absence from racing.

A fantastic 45 Stags competed which combined with the large numbers of members volunteering in some capacity goes to show why Barnet & District AC are the envy of so many other Clubs and proving so successful at recruiting new members.

In the Team competition our men were third and our women fifth on the day which is fantastic given the stiff competition. After three races our men are sixth and our women are fifth while our B Teams (the men are third and the women fourth out of 22 teams) and our Vets Teams are doing great too. Not bad for a relatively small Club!