House Cross Country

This is the eagerly awaited event of the year for many boys. It’s their first time in the season to run a competitive match and book their place in the school cross-country team; it’s also the chance to demonstrate team spirit and loyalty amongst their House. For some boys though, this is not their cup of tea at all but do you know what? They still give it their all and that’s a true sign of integrity, bravery and loyalty. They say you can tell a lot about a boy by the effort he puts into a long cross-country run. Mind you, we do have beautiful grounds and the boys are kept fit by participating in sport every day so we, the staff, were very pleasantly surprised by the overall super effort and performances by the boys.

The event was further complicated by being told the day before that the run couldn’t include the usual woodland area. That didn’t seem to faze the boys whatsoever who, in fact, positively relished the idea of doing an alternative, slightly shorter course!

Conditions were cool and muddy and those boys that chose to wear spikes or rugby boots would have benefitted greatly by having a more secure footing. All off-games boys were used as marshals and they did a sterling job in their various roles.

In the end, the event was a keenly contested fixture with all houses seeming to have a large number of strong and natural runners. It should be noted that every boy in the school runs in this event and absolutely every boy counts. This is, obviously, a great impetus to run your heart out! North came out on top, with East in second place, West in third and South in fourth place. The top three individual winners in each age category, who will be presented with medals in the end-of-term Prizegiving, were as follows:

Juniors:
1st William Sideso (S) 4:57
2nd Finlay Jacques (W) 4:58
3rd Laurence Moore (N) 5:01

Intermediates:
1st Harry Gilbert (S) 8:31
2nd Toby Harrall (E) 8:52
3rd Tom Monckton (N) 8:56

Seniors:
1st Tom Payne (E) 14:05
2nd William Bolton (W) 14:16
3rd Kit Inglis (W) 14:35

I would personally like to thank all the staff for their part in the smooth running of this event. I would also like to congratulate all the boys for their wonderful performances but also in their support for the less confident runners who, at Elstree, always seem to get heartfelt and genuine support and encouragement without any sign of it being patronising.  That is a wonderful attribute that we are instilling in our boys and long may it last!

CMS