Wimbledon Common witnessed the Hare and Hounds’ strength in depth in successfully defending the men’s and women’s competition
With the disappointment of being 3-2 down after the 2nds to 4ths races at Oxford the weekend before, the men’s and women’s Blues team headed to Wimbledon Common to contest the decisive races in the overall series. With a mixture of experienced hands and new faces in both the men’s and women’s teams, it was difficult to speculate what the final result would be, but nonetheless the Light Blues took a spectacular victory in the Ladies’ Race whilst also taking an eventually comfortable win in the Men’s.
The 38th Ladies’ Race over four miles was the first Blues race of the day, and even before the start there was a quiet optimism that Cambridge perhaps had the stronger side. After all, three out of the six women selected in the Blues team were former winners. By the river crossing Rebecca Moore, who had finished fifth in 2012 and seventh in 2011, had taken an early lead, but with the teams still locked in together there was little to differentiate between the two. It was to be in the next mile or so in which the winner Lucy Gossage (having won in 2011 and current British Ironman women’s champion) opened up a 10s lead which only grew for the rest of the race. The final result was not yet obvious, a dense group followed of four Oxford and three Cambridge runners: Moore; Alison Greggor (the defending champion); and Polly Keen (2006 champion) – the battle for positions in this pack was to decide the result. Not far behind were freshers Holly Page and Elizabeth Mooney, ensuring that the last two Oxford runners had no one to help them get back into the race. Having completed the notoriously muddy and hilly section just before a fast downhill last mile, it was becoming clear that a Light Blue victory was on the cards, and a rampant one at that. Moore finished 2nd in front of the first Oxford scorer, who was then immediately followed by the rest of the Cambridge team. Page worked well to run herself back into the pack finishing fourth, just in front of Greggor, Mooney and Keen in that order. With only one Oxford runner in the top seven, Cambridge took the women’s race 12-30 (the fact that 10-34 is mathematically the biggest win possible this was indeed a dominant win). Despite perhaps a little disappointment that her form of 2006 was not quite rekindled, it should be noted that this was 2006 champion Keen’s sixth and final appearance at the Blues’ Varsity match after seven years running for the Light Blues that has seen Cambridge take the advantage after years of Oxford victories.
The men’s race had added historical importance with the Blues series tied 61-61 since the first race in 1880. With the absence of Alex Short, who raced the next day in the U20 European Cross-Country Championships in Belgrade, James Hoad had been drafted into the Light Blues’ team. With a fast start, there were small gaps appearing even at the early river crossing. Around a mile later Lewis Lloyd was sitting on the leader from Oxford Tom Frith, followed around fifty metres behind by a five-man pack including Will Ryle-Hodges, captain Matt Leach and third place finisher from 2012 Joe Christopher. At this point the two teams seemed evenly matched, but by halfway Cambridge seemed to be taking the advantage, especially in the middle order where Hoad, former captain James Chettle and fresher Sean Pohorence had broken from the pack including the fifth and sixth Oxford runners. Although trailing in the early stages, Paddy Roddy did not panic and spent the second of half of the race picking off four Oxford runners. With around two miles of the seven and a half mile course to go, Lloyd had taken the lead which was only to increase, taking a comfortable win by thirteen seconds, followed by Frith in second place, and now Cambridge were leading the race 32-49. Ryle-Hodges managed to hold onto third place whilst both Christopher and Leach had overtaken Sean Ledger of Oxford to finish fourth and fifth respectively. Chettle, who had characteristically judged his pace well, finished eighth followed very closely by Hoad who had proven his worth in his debut Blues run, with Pohorence just losing out in a sprint for tenth. Perhaps the most exciting moment of the day went to Roddy, who was involved in a full-on 200m sprint for twelfth ending with Tom Quick of Oxford throwing himself over the line, albeit in vain. The fact that Roddy had beaten four Oxford runners showed that Cambridge did have the better team (eventually winning 30-52), and finally, for the first time since 2006 Cambridge took both the individual and team wins. Mirroring Keen in the women’s race, this was Chettle’s last race in the Varsity match having worked his way up from the Thirds’ team in 2007 and finishing with two Blues races (having previously run in 2011). In all the Light Blues could not have asked for much more, also taking the Varsity 2013 series by four matches to three. Now the focus is onto BUCS Cross-Country in a bid to improve on fourth place for both the men’s and women’s teams.