Twenty six CAC runners travelled to the snowy edge of Dartmoor in fairly miserable conditions at the weekend,  to compete in the season’s fifth Brooks Westward League fixture.  There were some excellent individual performances and a couple of great team victories, take a bow the Under 15 Boys and Senior Men, who both turned out two full teams, of six and ten runners respectively.

The Senior men took Tavistock by surprise with a good turnout, unleashing the reluctant “Shortcut Shilston” for the first time this season in the league!  Ollie ran a very cool race, following the leader ‘til the last mile and then leading to the final 300m, when he was jumped by Jim Cole and Kevin Toher (great to see the Newquay boy back after Achilles trouble) and had to pull out another big finish to triumph in a four way sprint to the line.  Dave Buzza pulled his finger out too, getting the better of Tavistock’s third scorer on the last lap to place 6th and the Cleaves, Matt and Ryan, both had superb runs to finish in 8th and 9th positions.  We were waiting on our important 5th scorer and hoping he was in before Tavi’s and fortunately John Telford did the business in 16th, despite not being happy with his run, ensuring our team victory on the day, with all to run for at Redruth on March 22nd and only a few points between us and Tavistock.  

Nathan Gosling was next in with 18th and did his bit by also beating the fifth Tavistock scorer, adding another point to their total (it’s going to be that close!) and is getting fitter again, as is Dave Angilley who again scored well for the “B” and Vets teams finishing 37th overall.  John Waldie (46th) has been super-consistent this winter and again put in a good effort.  You could tell he meant business as he even took off his thermal hat to race!  Barry Frost took “hero of the day” award for returning from the Twickenham rugby at two am and after a quick turn around drove an hour and a half in the rain back up for the cross country.  Many thanks, Barry and a good run to boot, 60th as a  V50.  Barry’s close V50 rival, Ian Wright, is coming back from a lay-off but he wasn’t too far back (about 40 seconds) in 67th place.

Our Senior Women were missing the, up to now, ever-present Emma Stallard (on duty for the county next week in the 10 mile Peninsula Challenge against Devon) but Bethany Alston made sure we had someone right at the front end, with a fine 9th overall, mixed in with the Under 17 Boys and we think Bethany was the 3rd woman home.  Then, not for the first time this season, we were rescued by our magnificent Under 17 Girls, who turned out yet again and made sure we still have a chance of overall victory with a big team performance at the last fixture.  Olivia Ballard was 20th (5th Under 17), with Kate Parry (6th Under 17) only two places down and Ellie Parkin (9th Under 17) hung in well, after a very quick start, for 37th.  The girls are all in the top ten Under 17’s overall and leading the ‘unofficial team race’, a reward for their team spirit and determination.  Well done all, including Esme Kerton, Amy Rundle and Ellie Starr.

James Waldie, enjoying his best ever form, won his second successive Under 17 race, finishing twenty three seconds clear of his closest challenger.

The Under 15 Boys have dominated the league all season and they guaranteed victory with our home fixture still to come by easily winning here.  Conor Robinson has been meaning business since his (only!) 5th in the South of England Championships and the increased training is already paying off.  He won his fourth league race of the winter to virtually assure himself of overall victory if he can finish at Redruth.  He was ably backed up in 5th by first year Under 15 Tom Rawet and by Aaron Jose, having his best race so far in 7th.  The ever improving trio of Edward Alston (10th), Luke Willis (13th) and Rob Glading (17th) confirmed this Young Athlete age group as the club’s strongest at present.

We didn’t have full teams in the other age groups but there were some classy individual performances.  Sam Heslop-George maintained his league lead in the Under 13 category with a solid 3rd position, though it might have been higher but for an extremely fast start.  In the Under 15 Girls, Freya Glover had possibly her best race of the winter to place 2nd, strengthening her thrid overall in the league and Anna Ashbridge had another solid run in 15th, oh, for another Under 15!

Melissa Keveren is also in the frame for a high individual placing in the Under 13 competition and was right up there again at Bovey Tracey finishing 4th in the mud.