On Thursday afternoon, myself and Mr Burns took 14 boys to compete in The Pinewood Cross Country Race. Bruern entered both a junior and a senior team to compete in the tricky conditions. Each race was 2.7km long and consisted of a big loop, followed by a shorter loop.
The juniors were up first and to say the course was wet would be an understatement! For context, when we were walking the course beforehand, some of the puddles nearly went up to my knees... Nevertheless, there was no complaining and the boys enjoyed themselves out on the course. First back for the juniors was Felix P who came an impressive 18th, followed by year 5 Francis F who came 32nd. Jack P was next back in 35th and Blake J, Josh OH and Eddie H finished soon after to round off a great team performance.
Whilst the juniors got warm and tucked into a mug of tomato soup and flapjacks, the seniors lined up to take the course. Conditions were now even worse as the course had already held 3 races within the space of an hour. Our senior team consisted of x4 L6th and x4 U6th. Narayan B was first back for Bruern coming in 23rd position. He was closely followed by Jago B (25th) and Tom E (26th). Will B ran a strong race to finish an impressive 34th, and he just beat Hugo B who was our first L6th back and finished in an excellent 36th. Tom S, Will B and James R stuck and worked together through the tricky conditions to get over the line in just about one piece. Tom had a slight injury, whilst James R only had one shoe on...! Nevertheless, they crossed the line hand in hand with each other and Will and topped off a brilliant squad effort.
It was a fantastic day out and one that I will remember for a long time due to the conditions and the boys were a real credit to the school. Thank you to all of the parents who were there supporting us. It means a lot to us all.
Finally, I would just like to thank The U6th as that was most probably their final race for Bruern. In particular, I would like to give a special mention to Narayan B and Jago B, who I have been taking to races since they were juniors. Both of these boys have always given 100% to cross country and to see the way they behaved on Thursday looking after the juniors, was a bit of a reality shock that they have nearly completed their full circle here at Bruern. I remember very clearly when they were the juniors being looked after by older boys!! In the last 4 years, both of them have run in every race apart from one. Great ambassadors for the school and I hope you continue to enjoy your running wherever you may go next year.
Well done all and have a lovely weekend!
Mr Barrett
