Selwyn Relays: Jesus demolishes long-standing Girtonian rivalry with conclusive victory
By Leika Gooneratne
With the men's cross-country College League left as a tie between Girton and Jesus college in the penultimate race two weeks ago, tension was running high in the final College League race held last Sunday: the Selwyn Relays.
The build up to the day graduated from gentle goading and well-nurtured team fraternisation to ferocious challenges and high-flying braggadocio. In the end, it was hard to decide whether it was a silver studded shield at stake or a matter of pride in which victory must be achieved, at Pyrrhic costs if need be. The year's worth of rivalry was not just between the two colleges but had culminated in a whole club battle, with members taking sides and placing bets... a nameless couple even putting their relationship on the line in the name of competition.
With this atmosphere in play, all eyes were on the two college teams. Standards were more or less on par, with ever improving runners Jamie Brunning (Jesus), Liam Richardson (Jesus) and Brendan Murphy (Girton) as well as the more experienced runners, ex-Captain Si Rutherford (Girton) and Blues' runner James Kelly (Jesus), not to mention the young up-and-coming talent of Jimmy Appleton (Girton). By the third leg, there was still no indication as to an obvious winner, with Rutherford having a mere 300m lead over Kelly, a situation that was almost exactly reversed by the end of the 4km stretch. All eyes were on Andrew Duncan (Girton) to save the day, faith lying in his exponential improvement over the past 18 months and his unmatched enthusiasm as this year's Girtonian captain. Unfortunately, the donation of a pint of blood three days earlier seemed to have proved detrimental to his performance, which was noticeably below his usual alacritous pace and marked by a ghostly pallid complexion. Notwithstanding, Jonathan Cook, anchorman for Jesus, had a remarkable race, despite being a 1500m man usually more comfortable on track. He had no trouble at all covering the extra distance, and was ultimately the 7th fastest man in the field, casting some doubt onto the absolute certainty of a Girtonian win had Andy Duncan had a few more red blood cells.
James Kelly ran quickest, clocking a sub-13min timing, and Owain Bristow (Churchill) gained the second and fourth fastest times, running twice to make up a team, with Matt Grant (Queens) being the interposing factor in third place.
Although Selwyn was tipped to win the College League for the women, the eponymous relays were actually won by the Girtonian team of Blues' runner Charlotte Forbes, Liz Howse, winner of the IIIs at the Varsity Match, and modern pentathlete Cat Wilson. Trinity came second, followed by Selwyn. However, these rankings did not elude Selwyn their deserved overall win in the League thanks to the united team of Harriet Owles, Jane Mackey and Alex Bell.
Captain Claire Day proved her worth having a nicely timed apogee in this, her final college league race in 3 years of running in Cambridge. She not only won the race, she ran twice to gain third position as well! Swift runs by Charlotte Forbes and Polly Keen (New Hall) gained them second and fourth place respectively.
A big thank you to all the people who have helped out in this race and over the year. League Organisers James Gill and Ali Connell have put in huge amounts of effort shown by the consistently smooth running of races. Mark Coley effected a new registration system and an ingenious computerised time-keeping program and always produces results with lightning speeds. Marshals have put in their time to watch people run, which is not the most fun job when injured, so a huge thank you goes to the old regulars, Will George, Claire Nance, Tabitha Steel, Owain Bristow, Aidan Brown, Si Rutherford and those who helped fill in gaps, Carol Schweichler, Alice Tozer, Jennifer Leggate* and others. Also thanks to Dr Thorne for regularly lending his experience and skill in time-keeping and to Captain Claire for great leadership!
*probably the youngest marshal ever.