Well, we thought we did okay last year with the slam of the four team trophies, with our ‘mob’ ‘B’ team finishing 3rd but it was topped this year as the ‘B’ team, amazingly with 12 to score, came 2nd behind the ‘A’ team, beating all the other Cornish road running clubs.  Fantastic!!  And slightly embarrassing to be honest, though we can live with that!  We had 44 starters and 2 non-finishers – bad luck to Jason Squibb and Ian Wright who both succumbed to existing problems which they hoped to nurse around.

The big four power ahead

The other bad news was that the course has been changed slightly and now includes another tough hill!  Great.

The good news was that our boys and girls coped with it and the other two hills superbly, with most running quicker than last year despite the slower course.

The men’s team led the way with six in the first seven places.  Ollie Shilston made his move up the Docks hill and never looked threatened,  as Noel Kindon and Dave Buzza fought it out for 2nd, with Noel doing a lot of work before succumbing to Dave’s kick (imperceptible increase in pace!) with half a mile to go.  Matt Pullen had a slightly below par run, after a storming session on Tuesday night, though he still ran quicker than last year in 5th, with Tony Dunn, getting fitter all the time, just failing to catch him in 6th and ‘Mr Consistent’ Jon Keast close behind in 7th. 

Great running from Ollie

Good to see Tony getting back to form.  Must 
be something to do with those shoes!

The suntanned lycra boys came in next, with only James ‘not-so Brown’ Waldie to split them.  Nathan Gosling competed in the World Duathlon Champs. in Florida recently and Will Collins and Matt Lewis were also in Florida for the World Triathlon Championships.     Congratulations on qualifying for those, lads.  Anyway, Nathan was 10th, James, who globetrots regularly on a smaller scale, had a great run to finish 12th, with Will and Matt going reasonably considering their half-ironman exertions in 13th and 17th.

Will, another strong asset to the team  

Shaun Tozer’s proving a real asset to the club when his shift work allows him to race and here he finished close behind big Matt in 19th and Phil Tugwell, whose brother James had to pull out on the day ill, ran a solid 30 minutes for 23rd, completed the first scoring 12.  Justin Thomas didn’t have his best race ever, after a break but supported the club as ever and came a steady 26th and it was good to see Terry Timms on the scene again, finishing in a pleasantly surprising (his words as well as mine!) 39th and making our winning Veterans team.  

Shaun, adding even more strength to CAC, with
young Ryan, wearing his Falmouth vest, sticking
like glue

Good to see you back Terry

Daniel Murrant just got the better of Neville Whitham for 43rd position, with Neville ensuring our Veterans team won their team competition, just beating off Dave Angilley (48th) for the final team spot.  Dave Pell and John Waldie, more of our talented Veterans, were not far behind in 54th and 57th positions, with John just holding off two of our promising youngsters, Dave Norton and Ollie Starr, with Dave beating Ollie by a second for 58th place.

Neville, looking a much better runner in this vest

Dave, who has had a brilliant first year at the club
 
Ken Curtis came 61st to bring home  Veterans ‘B’team in 5th place and next in for the men was a forlorn looking Viv (Graham was off racing up the line WITH Yvonne!) in 113th, closely followed by Roger Lock in 119th, who loyally journeyed down from Torpoint to support the club – thanks Roger.  New man Rob West, in his first ever race, had a stormer to finish just outside 7 minute miling in 137th and Andy Reynolds went well in 171st position.  Simon Williams cruised around looking  untroubled for 183rd and our supervet Norris Kington impressed after a period of injury with 209th place.

Long standing CAC member Roger is a
regular at the Mob Match

Simon making a promising race debut, with
young Charlotte, who did really well over the
long distance

Our Ladies won their team race comfortably.  Young Bethany Alston continued her fine form and in the enforced absence of an injured Jo Friday, took the Ladies race by the scruff of it’s neck to win and lead our girls to  team victory. 

The Ladies champion.  Top notch Bethany.

We’re developing some real strength in depth now and there was a battle royal between our next six girls to finish in the 1st team.  Emma Stallard was 6th and Sarah Jarvis, in a 3 hour break from work - thanks Sarah - ran well for 8th.  County runner (!) Suzy Bosustow was still a bit  worse for wear, but hung in for 11th and Sarah Keast had a blinder after a lot of injury to come 13th and 102nd overall.  Jenny Evans had a great first race for the club in 17th, ahead of the loved-up Jenny Almey who was 22nd and 146th overall. 

Sarah, who fitted her run into an extended coffee break!

Jenny said she really enjoyed her first race - honest!

Charlotte Hurst had a good run to close in our 5th placing Ladies ‘B’ team in 182nd overall and younger sister Elisha also went well in 238th, both running considerably further than their usual distance.  Then came our very own ‘shock and awe troops’, the Thursday night stormtroopers!  They’re improving fast and all showed a bit of grit and fight to pass someone in the finishing straight – even that nice Jo Sawyer!!  Nikki Coleman was first in with 273rd place, pulling away from Jo in the last mile and digging deep to just pip someone on the line.  Jo too sneaked a place on the line for 280th, as did a fast finishing Sam Alexander in 282nd.  Jill Curtis didn’t quite get the same runner, so was two places down and Hannah Griffin had a good club debut, beating over 60 runners with 305th position. 

The 'shock and awe' trops on parade.  They can be seen in action every Thursday night (or should it be evening)