Stopsley in the Snow

After being cancelled for the last 2 years the pre-Christmas cross-country looked all set for fair weather. That was until we arrived and a blizzard suddenly turned up at Luton. The snow fell, the wind blew, and the fields turned to white, ready for our team of 22. Gloves, hats, and leggings were dug out of bags and more than a few had to be pushed out of the door.

The huddle of penguins quickly dispersed once the starting horn sounded and thankfully the snow eased off. The snow on top of a frozen course made it a treacherous skating rink of a track and there was many a tumble taking place amongst the field.
Alan Burgess and Peter Moor enjoyed good runs making it into the scorers.
Tony Letts and Mark Nightingale excelled in the snow and were well chased by Gary McDaniels, Stuart Cressey, and Dave Whatton whilst Mark Garrett managed to fall over twice due to the lack of street lights.

Jocelyn Granger and Wendy Parker were welcome additions on the fun bus and were the club's first two ladies being closely followed by Jo Smith, Elaine Palmer and Mary Kingsnorth.
Claire McDaid, Jo Cummings, Keren Irving, Kirsty Turner and Carol Whatton ran fine races and had little left at the end for the uphill slog back to the race HQ.

Their we had the welcome sight of Denise (Stephs mum) loaded up with cakes to aid our recovery.

The team performed their usual heroics and hopefully we can get some more to join us for the final round this season on Sun Jan 15th at Delapre Abbey so no excuses that it is too far away. However we will not be able to offer a day out on the fun bus for this one.

Ladies
41 Jocelyn Granger
53 Wendy Parker
62 Jo Smith
66 Elaine Palmer
67 Mary Kingsnorth
81 Claire McDaid
82 Jo Cummings
102 Keren Irving
103 Kirsty Turner
111 Carol Whatton

Men
15 Tony Letts
37 Mark Nightingale
51 Gary McDaniels
75 Stuart Cressey
92 Dave Whatton
123 Pete Moore
126 Alan Burgess
137 Ronnie Ambrose
145 Mark Garrett
148 John Fleming
151 Tom Sullivan
190 Jim Anderson

Ladies 10th on day, Men 10th on day, Combined 10th on day (out of 14 teams)