Double Victory for Cambridge at Varsity Cross Country 2006
By Owain Bristow
Saturday 2nd December 2006 will be known as the day that hard work and sheer determination won through to break Oxford's stranglehold on the country. Two years of bitter defeat made the events that unfolded over the mud and gravel of Wimbledon Common all that more sweeter for the Light Blues.
Club Captain Claire Day lead into the 116th Varsity Match two of the most powerful and promising teams that Cambridge have fielded in recent years and, having put so much personal effort and enthusiasm into the Hare and Hounds this year, together with Men's Captain Will George, she was expecting results. The University's runners delivered.
First to step up to the line were the Ladies in the 31st running of their 4 mile event. After the customary steady start, Day and Polly Keen took up the running as the water splash was approached. The rest of the field bunched tightly behind them. Past the windmill and Keen had opened up a slight gap as Oxford's Emily Crowley passed Day to put pressure on the leader. Keen responded superbly over the finishing stages to come home strongly in 24:59 with a five second margin of victory. This was the perfect debut and the first time in a decade that a fresher has won a Blues race.
The battle raged in the wake of the first two down the home straight, only twelve seconds separating positions three to nine. It was the Cambridge runners that found the extra gear, however. Day dug deep to regain her third place, within touching distance of the funnel, from Varsity 5000m second-placer Charlotte Forbes. Harriet Owles closed the team in sixth place, sweeping past several tiring Dark Blues in the process. All four were awarded full Blues. With the individual win and all four scorers in the first six, victory was assured and Cambridge celebrated their first triumph in three years; a product of the Captain's motivation and unwavering belief in her team.
Taking strength from the inspiring sight they had just witnessed, Cambridge's men went into their 7.5 miler with confidence. They were determined to finish the job that had been started the previous week at Wandlebury by our successful 2nds-4ths runners who had inflicted a 3-2 team victory on their Oxford counterparts.
A late withdrawal failed to knock the team's spirits; we all just knew we had to up our game for the win. As it happened, Oxford were similarly afflicted on the day, such is the sport's unpredictable nature. The only question was which university wanted it more.
Certainly, after two years of trying, Paolo Natali and Will George were hungrier than ever and shared the pace at the front to break down the strength of Oxonian Jon Blackledge, last year's winner. With the latter struggling for form after early-season injury, Natali and George were able to get away and Natali's ferocious surge at the halfway mark proved to be decisive. Victory by thirty seconds in 38:39 was his, the first Cambridge man to win since 1998. George hung onto second, up three places on last year, as former Harvard runner James Kelly was the next Cantab home in 5th, some thirty seconds back. The excellent packing of Owain Bristow, Matt Armstrong and Matt Grant a further twenty seconds down in 8th, 9th and 10th sealed the team win and Blues receipt.
As with the ladies, this was the first team victory since 2003 and, with the individual titles in the bag too, it represented Cambridge's finest Varsity Match performance in twenty three years. A product of the Club Captain, the Committee, the competitors and all those who so much as wrote an encouraging e-mail or raised their voice in support during Michaelmas 2006, this truly belongs to everyone who calls him-or-herself a Harey. Cambridge University Hare and Hounds now eagerly awaits the resumption of the century-old rivalry at the BUSA Cross-Country Championships in the New Year.