The first South-West League was combined with the Westward League and, eventually, with some prodding from Becky Vage and others, our Penair School runners were allowed to count for CAC in the Westward and Penair in the SW League.  As the SW League results aren’t out yet this report focuses on the Westward League results.

The U.13s boys and girls race was first off and we hoped they were going to get us off to a good start.  And boy, did they!!  As the race developed, it was looking good for us, with a group of  four breaking away, with three yellow and green vests in there.  As they neared the finish, Callum Jones increased his narrow lead to win, with Sam Heslop-George and Tom Rawet coming past the other runner to record a fabulous 1-2-3.  Well done lads.  Needless to say they won the team race and the B team came a very good 4th, led in by Edward Alston in a fine 8th place.  Liam Littlejohns ran well for 10th, one place higher than at Redruth, Connor Kitts hung on for 19th after a fast start and Rob Glading, on his debut, stormed down the last hill for 23rd.

Our U.13 girls weren’t far behind and they too won their team race, with Jess Bolton moving up the field from Redruth in 7th position and Daisy Dunn getting over her stitch problem at Redruth to finish close behind in 10th.  Finlay Bray was only one second behind Daisy in 11th, Tamsin Gummow moved up one place from the first league race (in what is usually the strongest field of the season) for 14th and Sophie Allen hung in well for 25th. 

Next race up was the combined Mens and U.17 boys and, with the youngsters hyped up and running one lap less, it made for a very quick start.  Too rapid for some ageing bodies!  Our leading two men didn’t catch two of our over-enthusiastic youngsters until nearly the mile mark, but Ryan Cleave hung on well for 3rd position  as did an even faster starting James Waldie in 5th.  Daniel Drew’s usual gutsy effort in 14th and Adam Woodward’s 16th gave the club a comfortable 2nd team placing.

Meanwhile, Ben Tickner of Wells AC,  fresh from one of the fastest legs in the National 6 stage road relays, blasted off with the U.17s, but just kept going as they slowed and won by a big margin, though not counting in the Westward.  Ollie Shilston looked to be in with a good chance of 3rd early on, despite not feeling 100%, but started to struggle and Dave Buzza going past him looked to be the final straw (who can blame him!) as he dropped out.  Further back our U.20 men were going well, with Matt Cleave and Chris Dobson leading the way and a great turnout of 15 in this race helped ensure we won the team race again and the Veterans too.  Dave ended up 3rd in the Westward League behind Kev Toher and Marc Jenkins, and was followed in, with fine runs, by two of our young guns Matt Cleave (7th) and Chris Dobson (10th).  Old lag Tony Dunn showed he’s quickly gaining fitness again after returning from his cruise in the Caribbean (yes, we know it’s very hard work, Tony!) with 14th (5th Vet.) and Adrian Ball struggled a bit with the fast start and firm conditions but came through the field for 26th, just ahead of Matt Lewis in 28th who thought Exeter Arena was the Westpoint Arena and only just made it to the race! 

Dave Rowe ran his usual gutsy race for 33rd and Paul Chesterfield ran well in a sprint for him, for 48th.

John Waldie wasn’t tempted to hare off with his son – well he might have been, but the legs weren’t willing and he just finished ahead (in 78th) of long-time member and famous actor Jason Squibb (The Bill, BBC music, etc.) in 79th – good to have you back Jason.  Martin Cleave, without those steep Redruth hills to bring on his Sciatica, went much better this time and placed 93rd, with Ollie, Craig Cadwallader and Ollie Starr the drop-outs (Jenny gave Ollie a kiss on the start line, so maybe his mind was elsewhere!).

The men won their team race and the Vets and the B team were 7th, despite the drop-outs.

Next up were the combined boys and girls U.15 races.  Again, we couldn’t get a complete team out for the boys, but there was great consolation with Sam Harry having a storming run to win by 5 seconds over another of the very short Exeter courses.  Harry Allen also had a superb race to finish 4th and with another runner it would probably have been an easy team win – keep a look out for U15 boys!

In contrast we’ve got plenty of U15 girls and they’re talented too.   Freya Glover had another excellent race to finish 3rd, with Olivia Ballard, running much better again, just pippping Hannah Isles for 5th by one second. All our girls finished within 65seconds of each other and Ellie Starr was next in 7th, closely followed by Caitlin Mulroy in 8th, a big improvement from Redruth.  Amy Rundle didn’t go so well this time, in 10th, just ahead of Anna Ashbridge’s solid 12th, with Jenna Kistle going well in 17th in her first x-c for the club.  Our A and B teams were 1st and 2nd and C team 6th, underlining our strength in this age group, even without the excellent Annabel Gummow, now running for Bristol who ran well for 2nd overall in the combined race. 

We were down in numbers in the womens race, but their quality won the day and first team award, with Jo Friday having probably her best ever race to win the Westward League and nearly catch the winner of the combined race.  Bethany Alston continued her outstanding form with 4th (and 2nd U17) and Emma Stallard carved her way through the field for 15th.  Jenny Almey still struggled to run freely downhill, but ran up them pretty well for 28th and it was good to see Lesley Dobson back in the yellow and green on the country in a very respectable 42nd out of 74 finishers.

All in all a very good day indeed for the club and with one or two more U15 boys and senior ladies we’ll be looking even better!