The Senior Ladies and Under 17's maintained their big lead in the team race, though Tavistock and Bideford beat them on the day, with the Devon Championship being incorporated into the race.  Jo Friday led the team home with a fine 6th place, despite getting caught napping/chatting at the start and was backed up well by Sue Ogilvie 19th, a rapidly improving Emma Stallard 29th and a resurgent Kate Maddever 31st.

Bethany Alston hung on well after a very fast first lap to lead home the Under 17's in 32nd and was well supported by Charlotte Hurst in 48th and Debbie Fleming, going over-distance and hanging on in 76th place.

Our Men, as with the Ladies, suffered from a few late withdrawals but still managed (we think) to come 3rd on the day and maintain our battle with Tavistock for 2nd overall behind Bideford.

Dave Buzza led in our "Dad's Army" (Jon Keast being the only non-veteran out of 11 runners!) in 5th, followed by a great run by Ronnie James 9th and Jon's best run yet for the club 19th.  Chris Harry ran his first race for ten months and in his least favourite muddy conditions, hung in well after a typically ambitious start, to finish 27th.  Paul Chesterfield came a gutsy 49th and then there was a battle royal between three of our toughest athletes with Andrew Langdon just beating Dave Angilley and Dave Rowe in 71st, 73rd and 74th positions respectively.

Dave Southby assured us that he was feeling fine after his marathon two weeks ago, proving that where there's no sense there's no feeling and ran surprisingly well for 101st, John Waldie showed good form in 118th and Roger Lock maintained his good placing in the Veterans 50 category with 128th overall, in what is always the strongest class of the Westward League age group fields.

Craig Cadwallader and Ollie Starr ran strongly in the mudbath of the last race for 12th and 14th positions and kept our Under 17 team in 2nd position overall.  We only need to get a third runner out in this age group to do even better.

Pick of the young athletes was Callum Jones who had another excellent run, finishing 3rd in the Under 13 Boys race.  There were top ten places for James Waldie (5th) and Joss Williams (8th) in the Under 15 race.  What a pity we didn’t have a third runner for a team.  Elisha Hurst led a strong Under 15 Girls squad crossing the line in 8th place.

That brings me to my final comment,  which is that the next two Westward leagues, at Bideford on 14th January and Bovey Tracey on 11th February, are usually our worst for turnout.  If everyone can make a real effort to get to at least one and hopefully both of these fixtures, we'll do as well as we should do in the final League tables.  Please, if you've got to drop out, whether before or on the day, let one of our officials know, so that we can make a big effort to get other runners out, particularly if your team isn't particularly strong in numbers. Remember, others are relying on you and the team's whole season can go down the pan with one incomplete result.

CORNWALL AC RESULTS

Senior Men: 5 Dave Buzza, 9 Ronnie James, 19 Jon Keast, 27 Chris Harry, 49 Paul Chesterfield, 71 Andrew Langdon, 73 Dave Angilley, 74 Dave Rowe, 101 Dave Southby, 118 John Waldie, 128 Roger Lock.  Under 17 Men: 12 Craig Cadwallader, 14 Ollie Starr.  Under 15 Boys: 5 James Waldie, 8 Joss Williams.  Under 13 Boys: 3 Callum Jones, 11 Sam Heslop-George, 21 Joss Mortimer.  Senior Ladies: 6 Jo Friday, 19 Sue Ogilvie, 29 Emma Stallard, 31 Kate Maddever, 32 Bethany Alston (Under 17), 48 Charlotte Hurst (Under 17), 76 Deborah Fleming (Under 17).  Under 15 Girls: 8 Elisha Hurst, 12 Amy Rundle, 14 Ellie Starr, 19 Janine Wee, 23 Lauren Whitford, 26 Katie Dunford.  Under 13 Girls: 11 Freya Glover, 24 Anna Ashbridge, 30 Jess Bolton.