News
The Gods were kind to the Ten/Five mile cup programme on Wednesday 18th – the sun shone with moderate temperature and there was very little wind, providing ideal conditions for the eagerly anticipated races.
Many House squads had been practising throughout the term in readiness for the event with the hope to write their House names into the record books, and so at 2.15pm we were set!
Trevor Chilton in his final (31st) year at Mill Hill honoured the proceedings as the official starter and duly started first the Ten and, 3 minutes later, the Five Mile cup races.
Early showings favoured the day houses, particularly Weymouth, but midway through the races it was becoming clear that the boarding houses’ strategy was to leave the ‘big guns’ until the end of the race.
Katie Ardrey (Collinson House) bettered her own record in a new time of 6 mins 33 seconds, and led Collinson House to victory in the Five Mile cup, with Weymouth an honourable second closely followed by the female geriatrics.
In the boys’ race Weymouth led until the final stages where the knowledgeable pundits and spectators were eagerly awaiting the clash of the titans, Oliver Bass (Burton Bank) and Jack Perry Williams (Ridgeway). It was Jack who led off the final runners and an extra stopwatch was pushed to confirm the lap times. As the clock display showed 4 minutes and 45 seconds Jack appeared by the Headmaster’s study, and finally sprinted home to win with an individual time of 5 minutes 01.81 seconds – the second fastest time ever – giving team Ridgeway close to a two minute victory over team Burton Bank. Oliver sprinted home in 5 minutes 5 seconds to place Burton Bank second. Roll on 2010.
