Senior Ladies and the Under 17's get under way

It was a great day for the club on Sunday at our home Westward League match.  Our teams won five of the seven team races and finishes second in the Under 17 Men’s event, only missing out in the Under 15 Boys race, where  Sam Williams was our only runner.  If anyone knows of any 13-14 year old fit lads, get them to the track on Tuesdays!

Ollie leading the Senior Men's field

The men’s team won comfortably, despite missing the likes of Dan, Ronnie, Chris, Jon and Matt Pullen being absent.  Bideford and Tavistock are going to be better from now on though, so we’ve got to get the numbers out throughout the winter, particularly as the final match at Bicton in March clashes with the Bath Half Marathon, where we always send a strong team.

Ollie looked good, though apparently struggling to keep his shorts clean, before narrowly missing out on first to a strong Kevin Toher for first place.  Dave Buzza got round okay for 4th, closely followed by Noel Kindon, tackling his (not) beloved cross-country again and having a great run to place 8th, despite having to resort to his puffer.  Matt Cleave had a fine run to break into the top ten, nearly catching Noel on the last lap and Chris Dobson ran well to make the top twenty in 16th and finish off the winning A team.  There’s going to be a battle royal over the winter for those A team spots, as Matt Lewis, Tony Dunn and Adrian Ball, all regular first teamers, finishing in 20th, 21st and 24th positions respectively.  Special thanks to Tony for competing having only just begun training again.  Mind you, he’s getting old, so that might be as good as it gets this winter!  Tony and Adrian were 4th and 5th in the Veterans standings and next in, Dave Rowe, was 8th Veteran home in a fine  32nd position.

Dave and Ollie negotiating one of the climbs

Craig Cadwallader was a bit disappointed with his 34th place but the hills of Redruth favour the endurance of the older athletes and he’ll go better on the flatter courses to come.  He brought the ‘B’ team home in 4th, with only Bideford and Tavistock’s ‘A’ teams ahead of them.  It was good to see “The Ghost”, Nathan Jolly, putting in a rare appearance on the country in 45th position, with Daniel Murrant, healthy again, not far behind in 49th.  Ollie Starr, another youngster turning out with the “big boys”, ran well for 58th and Dave Angilley just held off John Waldie by 4 seconds to take 65th to John’s 67th.  Martin Cleave was looking good in a yellow and green vest in 84th to finish off a very strong showing by the men, with the Veterans team winning as well.

Now there's style for you

Our Ladies matched the men in all but the Veterans team placing, with the ‘A’ team first, ‘B’ team 2nd and Jo Friday and Bethany Alston in 2nd and 4th positions, matching Ollie and Dave!

Great run from Bethany

Jo had the classy race we’ve come to expect from her and Bethany was the revelation of the day, after missing from the racing scene for a while.  She finished a magnificent 4th overall and 2nd Under 17, probably her best ever race.  New recruit Sarah Jarvis had a great debut, moving through the field smoothly to place 9th, with Emma Stallard improving rapidly again in 12th close behind, also placing 3rd in the Veterans 35-39 category.  Elaina Gard looks to be regaining her zest for racing and she just finished stronger than Suzy Bosustow in 19th to Suzy’s 21st.  Suzy didn’t run quite as well as in the Newquay 10K the week before but it was her firstcross country race since her dim and distant school days race and she acquitted herself well on those hills!  Jenny Almey finished a lot closer to Suzy than she had at Newquay but looked like she may have had a recurrence of her stitch-type problem.

Excellent debut from Sarah

Our Under.17 Boys look very strong this year but Plymouth are too and we had to settle for 2nd in the team race.  Ryan Cleave had a good battle with James Waldie, before pushing on for 3rd, with James hanging on for 5th.  After his fell running exploits, he must have been one of the few for whom those hills weren’t a problem!  Felix Coates had a solid run in 9th and Daniel Drew’s track speed just gained him 13th place by three seconds over Adam Woodward.

The Under15 Boys race was the only major disappointment of the day and certainly not due to Sam William’s sterling efforts.  He capped a good race with an impressive turn of speed to hold on to 7th place on the run-in.  Unfortunately he was our only runner in this race, so we’re all on the lookout for fit U.15 Boys!

Our Under 13 Boys have got some talent and were led home by a commanding performance from Callum Jones, who led from the start for a comfortable victory.  Tom Rowet had a fine race, just missing out on 2nd place by three seconds and the team victory was confirmed by excellent finishes of Connor Kitts and Liam Littlejohn in 8th and 11th positions respectively.

Callum, the club's only individual winner on the day

Tom running well for third place

Connor Kitts, a part of the winning team

Liam, the fourth member of a strong quartet

The Under 15 Girls race produced CAC’s best result of the day as our girls took 1st and 2nd team places.  All the CAC girls are closely matched and it was fascinating to see some starting fast and suffering later and others moving through the field.  Freya Glover looked very strong, timed her effort well and was rewarded with 3rd place, getting the better of Amy Rundle in 4th on the last lap.  Not far behind was Hannah Isles in 5th, getting the better of Olivia Ballard to claim the final ‘A’ team slot.  Anna Ashbridge had a good run for 7th, just losing out to Olivia’s fast finish and Ellie Starr and Caitlin Mulroy finished off a very impressive team effort in 9th and 13th positions.  These seven girls are evenly matched and there will be some great battles between them over the winter.

CAC's strong Under 15 Girls squad, with
Freya, Amy and Hannah fly the club colours

...along with Anna,Caitlin,Ellie and Olivia

The Under13 Girls weren’t far behind the Under 15s’ performance, with their ‘A’ team winning and the ‘B’ team finishing 5th.  Alice Vage showed a real turn of speed to clinch 3rd in the final field.  Jess Bolton, Finlay Bray and Melissa Kevern had a real dust-up for the remaining two team places, with Jess and Finlay prevailing in 8th and  9th , closely followed by Melissa in 10th.  Lucy Jones held off Tamsin Gummow for 14th, as they brought home a very strong ‘B’ team.

Alice, third in the Under 13 race

"Thank goodness that's all over"
The collective response of the Senior Men's 'A' team