Lacy and Jackaman in win double

Several Santa's turned out for Cambridge in the
Swanley Christmas Caper on Sunday
Pic: Mark Cross

Other highlights of the day were second and third places for Rob and Alisdair McDonald in the U20 and debuts for several new youngsters. Full results and standings can be found here along with pictures from Mark Cross here.

Kent League round up - Senior men
This was the first fixture this season where the men were able to field a 12 to score team.

Follwing Dean for Cambridge Harriers was Dave Reader. Returning from injury, he finished in 37:08 for 27th position. Training partner Andy Knight was next to finish in 37:36 (32nd).

After a few years away from the sport, Gavin Howes made a welcome return to finish in 38:04 (38).

Other Cambridge Harriers to finish: Clem Dixon, 38:43 (44); Graham Maynard, 39:14 (48); Mick Ellsmore, 41:42 (76); Mark Ashbey, 43:25 (94), Alex Hall, 44:06 (100), Ray Daniel, 44:38 (105); Martin Hawkins, 46:27 (117), Keith Dungate, 48:53 (128), John Murphy, 48:53 (129), John corcoran, 50:36 (138). 148 ran.

U20 & U17 Men
The U20's and U17 boys teams both had a team running for the first time this season in the final Kent League match.

Rob McDonald went in to the race in joint first position in the individual championship. Needing to beat Jason Pricket of Invicta East Kent AC, Rob was pipped in to third place in another close race with his rival to gain second individual spot. Rob finished the muddy 5k in 16:48, with brother Alisdair following behind in fourth in 17:42.

British Pentathlete, Josh Snow, gained 8th place with 18:45 as the team finsihed behind Invicta.

Lee Gambanga made his cross country debut. However, his late arrival after the gun saw him finish behind the field, but worked hard by himself for a time of 23:53 on his watch.

Joe Wood completed his first 5k cross countrysince the start of the season, heading up the Cambridge U17 team in 25th place in a time of 19:16. Steven Tredray was next home in 28th (19:39)

Running in his first ever cross country, Juvenal Iragba gained 31st in 21:10. After the his muddy introduction to cross country, he said it was a lot tougher than he expected but can't wait for the next race!.There speaks a true cross country runner!

U13 boys
Jamie Grain once again worked hard, leading from the front as the only Cambridge U13 boys runner in a team hit by illness.

Jamie finshed his debut Kent League season in 9th place finishing the 3k course in 11:10.

U15 Girls
Megan Williams and Kassia Soards worked well to gain 18th and 21st place respectively. Megan finished in 13:36 while Kassia crossed the line in 14:32.

U13 Girls
Megan Marchant completed her club cross country debut in fine style, finishing 17th from 33 runners in 10:31. Lucy Daniel gained 30th place completing the 2.5k in 11:58.

Thanet 10
Rob Jackaman gained victory in the Thanet 10. Winning soundly by over a minute, he came through the finish in 57:23.

Gerard McCann came through the finish in 1:07:46 to gain 31st place while Keith Miles completed a trio of Cambridge Harriers in the race in 1:27:31 (180th).

English Schools Cross Country
There were five girls who ran in the English schools cross country final in Newquay on Saturday.

Junior Girls:
 
10th Natasha Sinha 9:53
36th Fiona Basham 10:15
 
Inter Girls:
 
7th Sophie Parks 12:02
9th Grace Derome 12:05
105th Johanna Mandel 14:19

Swanley Christmans Caper

Cambridge Harriers, "Santa Clause" finished third in this years Swanley Christmas caper. Removing his beard at the finish, the runner turned out to be none other than Dean Lacy, fresh from yesterday's Kent League win.

Lacy finished the 4.2 mile course in 21:45, 20 seconds behind Peter Tucker (who didn't race the day before) and winner Andrew Rayner.

Mark Penny again finished high up the field,crossing the line 7th from the 526 runners, several of whome dressed up in costume, in 24:45,

Two more athletes competing in the Kent League yesterday who ran the flat course, were, Joseph Wood finishing 15th in 27:45 and Steven Tredray, 18th in 27:28.

Other Cambridge Harriers were Paul Cullern (57th), 30:54, Keith Penny (110) 33:31.
Emma Kirk (247) 40:10, Jane Phelps (248) 40:11, Anna Rowland (313) 42:06, Sue
Barber (336) 42:45, Carlyn Jack (354) 43:19.

Santa Clause also finshed in several other positions for Cambridge Harriers too. Once again, these were all imposters and were unmasked as the following runners all running the course together in 44:19: Stephanie Dungate, Maria McDonald, Monica Grehan, Steven Brown, Keith Dungate and Alex Hall.

See Mark Cross's photos of the event here.

Cardington Cracker Fell Race
The fell runners took a trip up north for the final time this year to compete in te Cardington Cracker.

We'll have the race details next week.