Oxfordshire XC

2023/24 Season

Henley was the 5th and final fixture of this season’s Oxfordshire Cross-Country League.  It was unseasonably sunny for early March, leading to a slightly ‘end of term’ cheeriness among the runners.

Each of the 5 venues this season have been excellent cross-country courses, providing mud and hills in equal measure.  Henley proved to be no exception, giving us a challenging hill, and an exhilaration down-hill finish where there were some impressive sprint finishes.

There were some notable successes, for White Horse:

• In the U9 championship, William, Lucas, Hugo and Ethan were the winning team across the season, with Will Nicholson also being crowned overall champion for the season.

• In the U20 Men, Matthew Quartermain finished 3rd, with Tom Dunlop just behind him in 5th. 

• In the senior women, it was lovely to see Anna Kelly complete an impressive season and be crowned overall women’s champion. 

A huge thanks to each of the 50 Harriers that ran this season.  The team spirit and camaraderie ensured we had Harriers running at every fixture.  Our men and women’s team both finished 7th in the 1st Division, which was a strong achievement given some of our challenges with injuries.  I hope everybody had as much fun as I did!

Finally, I’d like to highlight the exceptional achievement, where three different women from the same club; Sophie Lloyd, Becky Hodgson and Anna Kelly, have won the overall league on the last 3 consecutive years.  Over the years, It appears that this feat has only been achieved once before.