C&C last won this league back in 2011/2012, and in the intervening years our main challenge has been to consistently field a complete team. After finishing 2nd in last year’s truncated series, we had high hopes that we could go one better this year. The most important thing was ensuring a strong turnout for each race.
Unfortunately the odds were not in our favour and we got off to a suboptimal start on this front – the opening race of the season at Priory Park in October was scheduled for the same day as the Cambridge Town and Gown 10k, which severely depleted our ranks for this race. We had strong performances from those who were able to make it (including debuts from Andrew Carrick and Struan Oliver-Jones – regular scorers for C&C this year), putting us 3rd on the day.
Next up was Nene Park in November. Our biggest turnout of the year ensured a better result, but a strong Hunts AC took the victory on the day.
The December race hosted by March AC was cancelled due to storm Darragh, and rescheduled for a week later. Unsurprisingly this affected turnout for all teams, but C&C put together another strong performance, this time pipped to first place by Yaxley Runners. These consistent performances put C&C second in the league by just 1 point at the halfway stage, with 3 points separating the top 4 teams.
Heavy rain followed by freezing conditions led to the cancellation of the January race at Hinchingbrooke Country Park. We had rallied a very strong team to challenge Hunts AC on their home turf, so it was a big disappointment that we weren’t able to race on this day.
February saw a long trip up to King’s Lynn for the new course at Bawsey Country Park. A fantastic course and glorious conditions rewarded those who made the journey, but even more importantly C&C had a stonking performance on the day, taking our first race win of the season and leapfrogging Hunts AC to top the table.
One week later C&C took to Hinchingbrooke Country Park for the rearranged race 4, full of optimism that this could be our year – as one Hunts AC veteran put it before the race, “C&C are out for blood now”. But a gritty C&C performance (in frankly awful conditions) was not enough. Hunts AC deserving winners on the day, leaving us neck and neck at the top of the league with one race to go.
And so it all came down to Jubilee Park on the 2nd March, where we delivered our best team performance of the year by some margin – our 7 scoring men were all in the top 20 and our 3 scoring women all in the top 4 (Club President Ellen Leggate first Lady home).
This impressive result gave C&C the final race win we needed to finish top of the league and claim the trophy!
A huge thank you and well done to everyone who ran this season. You have done us proud.
After a well deserved break from all the mud, we look forward to defending our title next season!
A few C&C statistics:
– 83 runners raced for C&C in the senior league this season
– 5 runners did every race of the series: Alan Pritchard, Andrew Carrick, Ben Chamberlain, Carmel McEniery and Megan Jackson.
– 28 different runners scored points for C&C in the senior league – a true squad effort.
C&C Individual Runners of the Year:
Andrew Carrick, Lucy Drummond