OWXC at the Annual Alumni Race 2024
09 October 2024
On Saturday 14th September, OWXC took part in the 72nd Annual Alumni Race on Wimbledon Common, an 8k undulating cross-country course. This is a long-standing challenge amongst the alumni/ae of all the top schools and is as much social as it is competitive. We were again joined by four current College students and the staff member i/c cross country running, Deirdre McDermot, who stormed the course and repeated her triumph of last year – winner of the Old Coventrian Cup.
Of the 33 teams and 199 runners taking part, OWXC again fielded the largest team with our 22 runners, several of whom were making their debut in club colours. There are a number of trophies up for grabs and to the great credit of our ladies (Deirdre, Claire Woolf (Ap 01), Kelly Brick (W 17) & Lauren Woods (Ap 02)) we regained the Old Johnian Cup – thus proving the importance of female OWs joining OWXC. We have won the OJ Cup for three of its four years in existence.
In the overall competition for the King Henry VIII Trophy, our top 4 (Matthew Blagg (S 97) 18th, Deidre McDermot 37th, Simon Martin (Hn 02) 41st, and Alex Barnes (Bl 95) 45th) came 6th out of the 33 teams. Great to see Matthew back with us again.
In the Old Brentwood Trophy (for the over 40s, with 3 to qualify per team) we came 2nd, thanks again to our top three (Matthew, Deirdre, Simon), while the return of Peter Davy (O 95) helped us the 4th place in the Shrewsbury Cup (based on age related times). In the Chataway Cup (over 50s), Richard Llewellyn (Bd 92), Ross Maclagan (hg 92) and James Crawshaw (Hl 92) took 6th place.
With none of our runners in the age range 60-75 (yet!), it was great that Ambrose Scott-Moncrieff (M 65) did us proud in the over 75s, coming 2nd. I hope to be repaired enough to re-join him next year…
My grateful thanks to all who, despite serious traffic congestion, made the journey to Wimbledon, with the hope that we’ll all be back next year – along with many of our current members who couldn’t make it this year, plus the addition of new members.
Any OW interested in running and who would like to join OWXC should contact Gary Lloyd (galloyd2000@hotmail.com or 07880 707120).
Gary Lloyd (M 63, Sec OWXC)