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Cross Country 2009
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45 students chose cross country in the spring term. The season started well enough with an extremely cold trip to Oundle (-4 C) and our first League race. Josh Dixon was in the leading group after 1 lap, then made a break and was well clear at the end. He was ably supported by Chris Braithwaite (4th) and Phil Roberts (6th) we were well in control of the team race, which we eventually won comfortably. Antony Broadfoot, Ben Horsley and Sam Scott made up the first team. In the girls race Ffion O’Connell was just ahead of Emma Hall, with Rebecca Thomas and Alexi Reynolds next home.
Our home match fell on the day our captain Dixon was competing in a representative race for Wales, and so in this home match we were not as well placed, finishing 3rd, with Wrekin and Uppingham ahead of us. Good performances from those above plus Chris Cornes and James Flanagan. The girls were injury hit, Emma Hall being first back, and there was a good run from Heather Crossley.
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The third race we could not attend because of Exeat, and the 4th race was at Nottingham, where only our Lower 6th students could run because the Upper 6th were on Exercise. There emerged two very good performers in Scott Lacey (10th) in the boys race and Alice Roberts first back in the girls race. In addition Alex Stockbridge ran well for the third race in a row.
As a result of so few appearances from our best runners, we finished 4th in the boys League and 7th in the girls.
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Our last trip was a 3 hour journey to Sedbergh with the boys team competing in the Midland and Northern Independent Schools championships. We had high hopes as our best runners were all available, including Matt Milsom and Kevin McCool. Dixon ran well from the start but was eventually beaten into second place by a very strong fell-runner from Manchester School. The team were backing up well with the usual strong performances from Braithwaite and Roberts, and with Milsom and McCool also up there. Milsom had an injury problem and gamely hobbled home, and the rest of the team kept going on a muddy hilly course in the Lake District. Sedbergh won with the home advantage, but our boys were a comfortable second in the end. Since we have only won this competition once in our 55 year history, this was no mean achievement.
Paul Hardern
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