21/06/10 English U23 Championships Success

Congratulations to long time member Steve Mitchell who banished memories of his disppointing BUCs athletics performance at Bedford by returning to the same track to claim Bronze at the England U23 trials.  See the race here.

10/05/10 Committee AGM 2010

After a successful year the club sat down to it's annual meeting in good spirits. Prizes went to Hannah Pollak for Best Fresher, Imogen Ainsworth for Best Athlete, Steve Mitchell for Lifetime Achievement and to Erica Golland for Most Improved. The all important Social Awards saw victories for Andy White in the Best One Off Drinking Performance category for his memorable effort in Manchester and to Mark Haworth and Steve Francis in the Best Fancy Dress category for their widely acclaimed cross-dressing at sports night, Score. Mike Grocott expressed a disappointment at the lack of recognition for 'Consistent Drinking Performance' not just the current 'Best One Off' award, but other than that, the awards were all well received and highly deserved.

The new committee was voted in;
Team Captain-  Steve Francis
Vice Captain-    Mark Haworth
Treasurer-         Chris 'Abacus' Dodd
Social Sec-       Hannah Pollak and Imo Ainsworth
Web Editor/ secretary- Mike Grocott
Freshers rep-    Kat Coyte
BUCs Organiser-Erica Golland

04/05/10 BUCS Outdoors Track Championships

This weekend saw the annual British Universties Outdoor Athletics Chempionships. Bristol sent a rather depleted squad due to fieldtrips and injuries, but all performed admirably. Particular congratulations go to Lawrence Clarke for his Gold medal victory in the 110m hurdles by a clear distance. Well done also to Imogen Ainsworth who reached the final of the 1500m. Andrew Woods made a good comeback from injury in the 1500m and almost reached the semi-final as fastest loser. Where he just fell short, former-captain Steve Mitchell did not, he reached the semi-final only to disappointingly miss out on the finals in his final BUCs Championship. Hannah Pollak did well to progress from the 800m heats but couldn't compete in the next round.

08/03/10 IntraMural 5k

This Sunday 14th March saw the return of the Bristol University 5k Challenge, Bristol Cross Country upheld its reputation thanks to victory from Andrew Woods, and good performances from Steve Francis and Andy White.


08/02/10 BUCS XC 2010


Congratulations and thanks to everyone that came to BUCS this weekend. It proved to be an an amazing weekend.

The women's team did us proud and won the team Silver, as well as an individual Bronze, Claire Hallisey came 3rd, Imogen Ainsworth 8th and Georgie Bruinvels 9th.
This was followed by Sarah Wigmore in 36th, Erica Golland in 56th, Hannah Pollack in 93rd, Aoife Grant in 109th, Suzanne Bailey in 127th, Jenny Brignall in 184th, Kat Coyte in 208th and Helen Wilson in 217th.

In the men's A race, Steve Mitchell was 27th, Dave Green 76th, Chris Dodd 95th, Dan Layton 101st, Pete Northall 134th and Steve Francis 151st.

The mens-B race saw Andy White finish in 93rd, Scott Watkins 99th, Rameez Khan 130th, Nick Young 188th and Mike Grocott 200th.

Well done to all, great performances and a very enjoyable weekend.

Full results available here:

15/01/10 Social Weds

Weds 21th Jan, Mark's house and then Bunker, with the option of a Jason Donervan after. Be great to see as many people as possible.   

22/11/09

There was a good turn out to the Mike Sully Cross Country 4k race on the downs today. Well done to everyone who took part. Ex-UBCCC member Tom Russell took the win for the third year running with a fine performance. The womens race was somewhat marred by a stewards mistake in the number of laps completed, which meant they finished a lap early. Imo Ainsworth and Claire Hallissey were both in good positions at the front when the race was prematurely ended without giving them a chance to pounce! There were also very good placings in the mens race.

Don't forget, next weekend is the CenterParcs training weekend at Longleat! 

14/11/09 Sodbury Slog Race Report!

A long tradition in UBCCC (University of Bristol Cross Country Club) history, the Sodbury slog held in nearby Chipping Sodbury on Remembrance Sunday is not a race to be forgotten or taken lightly. Running 9 miles through mud, fields, ditches, trenches and plunge pools whilst trying not to lose your shoes is hard enough, let alone in “cops and robbers” fancy dress. The UBCCC and the ‘Old Boys’ returned to run as ‘Cops’ alongside their successors, this year dressed as robbers, continuing a longstanding theme of fancy dress.

In its tenth year, despite threats of cancellation from environmental movements, the Sodbury slog ran its course on the 8th of November and received a full complement of 31 Bristol University and old boys runners. With our runners finishing 2nd 5th and 10th place and 1st lady and "winning both the mens and ladies team prizes, a good result was taken from the day.

2nd and 3rd place runners from last year were unable to compete due to injury and other races so David Green (who came 4th last year) was left to lead the Bristol pack and, ‘Mona Lisa’ in hand, he took on the Challenge quickly stealing away to the front to battle it out for the lead, eventually finishing in 2nd place. Strong performances from Chris Dodd, Steve Francis and Pete Northall left them in 5th, 10th and 16th places respectively and Andy White, the club captain, finished a confident 28th.

As is often the way, the men were thoroughly outdone by the ladies, led by Sarah Wigmore who finished 1st in the ladies category with a very impressive 14th position overall. Her performance was followed by Imogen Ainsworth, Erica Golland, Bella Ryle and Vicky Plume finishing 3rd, 4th, 5th and 8th in the ladies category.

The race started off at a reasonably quick pace with a large UBCCC pack near the front, all keen to reach the mud before it had been trampled by the best part of 1300 other competitors on the first mile of road before the turn onto a gradual climb in a field.

The combination of last week’s downpour and the ditches, trails and fields led to an abundance of mud which hugely reduced the chances of keeping both shoes on for the entirety of the race.

As the race wore and the term ‘slog’ seemed more applicable, the field thinned out and exciting areas such as the 4 foot deep plunge pool and the intimidating hill lead up to 50 m of what can only be described as a muddy trench about five feet deep.

After this, only a mile or so was left and with renewed intent and some more tarmac the pace picked up for the finish; the race charged through the streets of Chipping Sodbury making its way to the finish arch, followed by bags of food, bananas and, most importantly, hot showers.

After everyone had cleaned and had returned to Bristol the real competition was fought as, Mark Haworth, Steve Francis, Chris Dodd, Pete Northall and Dangerous successfully tackled 16” pizzas in an undeclared race at our sponsor, Pizza Provencale.



26/10/09

Bristol University Running Network (BURN) on Facebook!




7/10/09

The Sodbury Slog is fast approaching and places are limited so email bristolxc@gmail.com to make sure you get a place. Entry is subsidised and it is regularly voted one of the best events in the country, don't miss out.

22/09/09

Selected upcoming events for the new academic year;

10th Oct Machester Relays plus a Curry!
1st Nov Training Weekend at CentreParcs
8th Nov Sodbury Slog

Email bristolxc@gmail.com or see us at Fresh for further details.
See the calendar for a more detailed run down of upcoming events.

15/06/08 New Website!

The new website is up and running! Loads of previously unseen galleries and a brilliant calendar please contact me with any suggestions (seriously, they help a lot!)

11/06/08 XC Committee Meeting

At a committee meeting on the 8th of June, much was discussed and decided upon. Notably, the issue of red shorts was settled once and for all! For the minutes of this meeting please email me.

4/06/08 - Awards 2008

Athlete of the Year: Claire Hallissey
Best Fresher: Imogen Ainsworth
Most Improved: Mike Vella & Dave Green
Best 1 off Running Performance: Steve Mitchell
Best 1 off Drinking Performance: Derek Lincoln
Most Memorable Moment: Oli Mott armwrestling in Swansea
Colonel Muff Award: Derek Lincoln
Colonel Chunder Award: Bella Ryle
Fancy Dress Award: Derek Lincoln
Post-Social Run Award: Oli Mott & Nick Young for their jaunt along the M4 at 3am.
Lifetime Achievement: Claire Hallissey

1/06/08 - New Committees

New committees for 2008/2009 have been chosen. In the world of Athletics we have:

Captain- Gustav Klingstedt
Vice-captain- Andy Harlow
Treasurer- Rebecca Klys

The Cross Country Committee will consist of:

Captain - Steve Mitchell
Vice Captain - Andy White
Treasurer - Dave Green
Secretary - Imogen Ainsworth
Social Secs - Bella Ryle & Matt Birch
Kit Sec - Nick Young
Webmaster - Mike Vella
BUSA Organiser - Heather Williams

and a few non-portfolio officers as well....
Oli Mott
Claire Hallissey
Helen Taylor
Simon Bond
Tom Russell.