Committee Profiles (Senior Members)

Prof. Joan Lasenby

Club President

Joan Lasenby is currently a professor in the Signal Processing Group of the CU Engineering Department and a Fellow of Trinity College. Her research is mainly in the fields of image processing, computer vision and computer graphics, with particular emphasis on optical motion capture and analysis of 3D motion. She is an ex-Blue in cross country, twice winning the Varsity Match, and also athletics, having captained CUH&H way back in 1980. She still competes, but these days mainly against the old ladies.

Prof. Neil Mathur

Senior Treasurer

Neil has been with the club since 1996, and does the Sunday morning run more often than not. He has run a few marathons (see right), but his greatest achievement with CUH&H was to meet the inaugural 100-point challenge on September Training Camp 2003. He is in the Department of Materials Science, and a Fellow at Churchill College, where he did his degree and PhD in Physics. His research group studies materials that display notable electrical and magnetic properties.

This page shows the profiles of the senior members of the committee who you may see around from time to time. If you are interested in the junior
members, please click here.

Mr Simon Rutherford – Vice President

Si spent 8 years studying in Cam 1999-2007. This may have been considerably shorter had it not been for H&H keeping him busy; running, eating, drinking and a spot of admin as league organiser, secretary and captain. His running career highlights so far have been winning the inaugural 100 points challenge and the 2006 Chunder Mile. Since leaving Cambridge Si has worked as a motorsport engineer and still runs although is mostly found in the mountains having developed horizontigo after too many miles in the fens. When feeling brave he is most likely spotted at a Varsity Match or Boundary Run.

Dr C.J.R. Thorne – Vice President

Chris Thorne began his athletics life as a hurdler, but joined the CUH&HC in 1955, when its headquarters was still a cottage (with its tin bath) where the University Centre now stands. He is also old enough to have hurdled at Fenners. After returning from a spell in the USA in 1962, to become a Lecturer in Biochemistry, and ultimately the Senior Tutor of St. Catharines, he took up orienteering and the marathon, becoming East Anglian champion in the former,
and running in the first London in the latter. He has been Senior Treasurer of CUAC for two lengthy spells, and continues to interfere in athletics and cross-country as a timekeeper and as a Vice-President of the Achilles Club.

Mr William Bowers – Vice President

Will spent his first year in Cambridge misguidedly involved with the cycling club and doing little running, but fortunately for the Hare and Hounds from his second year onwards he was a stalwart member of the club. As a runner he was most in his element when running the hills of Shotover or the mud of southern’s. Twice part of a victorious II’s team, and 2013 London Marathon hero with a time of 2:43.01, he’s no slouch either. Away from racing he has an insatiable appetite for points, and achieving 100pts in a week is no problem when you’re the (Tom Milburn aside) points-in-one-day record holder. More recently he’s moved focus back to cycling, but once a year the legs (…) get a runout at the Isle of Man Festival.

Mark Coley – Vice President

Mark took up running long distance in 2005 after being challenged to partake in the Freshers’ Fun Run by fellow medic James Gill. He’s since completed two marathons and thinks nothing about running around Cambridge when he has a few hours to spare. When he’s not running he often ends up riding to London for the afternoon with like-minded Hareys, sampling the local watering holes along the way.

James Gill – Vice President

James Gill, a medic with a back ground in triathlon, caught the cross-country bug upon discovering the Hare and Hounds’ unique running formula = passion + lots of fun + amazing people + great cake. Previous committee positions have included College League and Boundary run organiser and Poster Secretary. His running aspirations for the coming season are to avenge the defeat by Oxford at Shotover in the Varsity match and to run the London Flora Marathon, inspired by fellow Graduate medic and mile junky Mark Coley.

Josh Carr – Vice President

Josh first got involved with the Hare and Hounds at FFR in 2012 as part of the infamous intake that year. He quickly became involved with the wide variety of club antics and built up a reputation as ‘one of life’s winners’.First appearing on committee as Boundary Run Officer, the 2014 event went down in history for the notable accomplishment that ‘no one died’, this was followed by (alumni officer and then) club captaincy in 2015-16 where TNTs and Chill Prout dampened the blow of losing varsity xc. After a brief interlude involving visions of mudless American xc, Josh has returned to Cambridge (with a job!) to enjoy the continued conditioning (read: beatings) British xc has to offer him, and hopes the dividends will pay out come track season.Varsity Match Progression: Spartans in ’12 and ’13 then 11th (’14) and 7th (’15) on the Common

Dr Polly Keen – Vice President

Polly splashed into her Hare & Hounds era from the gun with a win in the Blues Varsity XC Match as a fresher. During her 7 years of undergraduate and PhD in Chem Eng, her blood ran light blue and muddy, wearing the Blues vest on the Common the maximum of 4 times, as well as holding multiple CUH&H committee positions, including Women’s Captain twice (and proud editor of the Tabtastic Times on its resurrection). She also relished splashing up the track, with a Blue and several Varsity match wins in the steeplechase, as well as a BUCS medal and an England title.

6 years away from the ‘bridge saw Polly wearing the best UK club vest of Nuneaton Harriers, enjoying a fair amount of success on the cross and the roads, including a 2:49 marathon to her name. Other notable achievements include winning the Isle of Man Easter Festival, being the current European Beer Mile record holder.

Since moving back to Cambridge in 2020, a constant battle with injury has marred Polly’s recent running, so she’s dipping her toes in the world of coaching, and hoping she can still run at least a mile with four beers en route!”

Iain Davies – Vice President

Iain Davies is a club stalwart. He has many achievements in running, with the main one being that he is actually able to run (as of May 2022). A 3:52 1500m and low 15s 5k highschooler, the boy has pedigree and talent. Despite an unfortunately niggly time at Cambridge thus far, he has still made his mark on the varsity match with strong finishes in the 2nds and 3rds match in his early years. Despite his age, will 2022 be the year he finally runs the Blues match? Iain’s own Maths says yes. He has also shared lifts with Olympian Andy Butchart who later winked in acknowledgement of Iain before the start of his diamond league. If that’s not Vice-President material, I don’t know what is.

Joseph Massingham – Vice President

After sampling many of the committee roles over the years, 2020-21 Club Captain and more notably ex transport sec Joseph Massingham returns to the committee as a vice president, bringing a wealth of wisdom from his five harey years. Specialising in the 5000 in the summer months he has multiple varsity athletics victories under his belt, however his true talents lie in floating over muddy Wimbledon Common cross-country courses and wrist dexterity. As a member of the current harey house Joe takes the only-socialising-with-other-runners rule seriously, suffering from far too much fomo to ever miss a harey social. He is currently completing his PhD in the Engineering Department with three more years of running, sorry studying, ahead of him.

Em Bradley – Vice President

Em(ily) Brad(ley) is no stranger to a leadership role. As many of you know, she was the president of the prestigious Cambridge University Hare and Hounds Australian Appreciation Society during her time at university. As well as providing super cool bucket hats, CUHHAAS is the sole reason that members of CUHH know the shape of Australia, due to the special CUHHAAS x TRun Strava route.

More significantly, Em Brad was the Club Captain of this fine club in 2021-22. Em was a strong and dependable leader throughout the year, and this was especially evident when we were in combat against the dark blues during Varsity. As well as organising II-IVs, she competed in the seconds match herself. Em also provided us with fantastic weekly email content, including a diverse collection of AOTWs, which is unsurprising given that her swimming uploads on Strava suggest that she is at least 50% fish.

When she’s not engineering or unpacking her alpacas, Em Brad enjoys retirement in the capital with other Hareys, showing that she is taking her Vice Presidency seriously by continuing to live and breathe all things CUHH.

Maia Hardman – Vice President

5-0 victory in the selected races at Varsity 2022. Need I say more? Yes, because we also got lots of shiny BUCS medals too.

Fresh from a year as Club Captain, Maia has climbed the ranks into the Senior Committee. She brings invaluable wisdom and a drive for success to the new committee and will no doubt enjoy sitting in on the committee meetings without all of the responsibility she had last year.

Her pedigree on the running scene is incredible. She has a Blue in both Athletics and Cross Country and has beaten Oxf*rd on many occasions. None of this, however, is quite as impressive as how her body manages to cope with the copious amounts of coffee and ProPlus that she ingests.

Despite her strong performance at Wimbledon Common in December 2022, unfortunately her femur wasn’t quite as strong as she expected and she ended up back in Wimbledon in January for the sad news of a stress fracture. However, she has picked up several new cross-training sports including, but not limited to, cycling, rowing, swimming and of course, water polo (spectating). It has been brilliant to see her starting to run again and we look forward to seeing her back on the track and on the hills very soon!