Soham Grammarians : ATC E Cmnd Cross Country Championship 1944


They're Off! - The start of the A.T.C. area cross-country race from the Leys School ground on Saturday. Cambridge Squadron qualified for the Eastern Command championship by defeating Soham.
Source: Wilkes Walton (1936)

ATC CROSS COUNTRY
Cambridge Team in Command Final

Cambridge (No. 104 Squadron) qualified for the A.T.C. Eastern Command cross-country championship by defeating Soham (No. 773 Squadron) in the area final over a 4½ miles course at Cambridge on Saturday.

The race started from Leys School ground and the runners followed a course through Newnham, Grantchester Meadows, across about a mile of plough and returning along Barton Road to finish at Leys ground.

WW notes: from L: Fred Hardiment (behind the starter?), Hitch, Pete Bedford, HB Walton (partially hiding Thorby), Ted Cox, Vincent Martin, Doug Cranwell. All in school rugby jerseys.

The teams were evenly matched with Soham slight favourites having finished in eighth position of the teams teams in the Eastern Counties' junior championship the previous week. The Cambridge team have only had a small amount of training, but after this success have decided to put in some hard training in the hope that they may win the Command championship.

The race started with the Soham team well packed in front, but on reaching the plough the Cambridge lads, who were slightly older and also more heavily built, made up some positions. Walton (Soham) and Brown (Cambridge) were well to the front and Walton ran strongly at the finish to win by a clear margin. Soham had the third man home but Cambridge packed well in filling the next four places. Soham came along well with the next three places, but Cambridge, filling the 11th place to complete their team, made victory certain.

Officials were: Judge, Mr. E. Clark (Cambs. A.A.A.); starter and recorder, Mr. W. C. Gillingham (Cambs. A.A.A.); course stewards Messrs. L. Hibbert and Sapper Friend, and members of Youth Sports Club and Cambridge Technical School; timekeeper. Mr. W. Hogg (Y.S.C.); competitors stewards, C. Martin (Youth Sports Club) and F.O. Crouch (Soham A.T.C.); acting officer in charge race, Mr. W. C. Gillingham.

Order of Finish.


1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
Sgt Walton (Soham)
Cdt Brown (Cambridge)
Sgt Cox (Soham)
F Sgt Braybrooke (Camb.)
Sgt Hurst (Camb.)
Cdt Andrews (Camb.)
Sgt Bainbridge (Camb.)
Cdt Martin (Soham)
L-C Cranwell (Soham)
L-Cdt Hardiment (Soham)
Cdt Stubbings (Camb.)
Cdt Bedford (Soham)
Cpl Hitch (Soham)
Cdt Twinn (Camb.)
Cpl Thorby (Soham)
Cdt Read (Camb.)
Cdt Yeomans (Camb.)
Cdt Willcocks (Camb.)		 m.
25
26
28
28
28
28
29
29
30
30
30
31
31
32
33
36
36
39		 s.
49
29
0
24
25
26
2
35
0
3
10
35
42
31
15
21
45
28

Team placings (6 to score):
1 Cambridge 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11 - total 35
2 Soham 1, 3, 8, 9, 10, 12 - total 43

last update 14 Jul 05