NEHL Alnwick Castle, 4th March 2023

This Saturday saw the region’s clubs come together for the last cross-country fixture of the season up in Alnwick. With Spring (seemingly reluctantly) on its way, we were greeted with mostly dry weather conditions, a not too off-putting chilly breeze, and a course less muddy than usual. With a varied terrain, enough incline for the cross-country purists, but not too much to put off first-timers, and delightful views of Alnwick Castle, gardens and some grazing sheep, it was an apt and enjoyable end to a great season!

A tale of two parts, with a somewhat cursed men’s team which hasn’t been complete since October, and a strong ladies’ team, which this year has seen two promotions to the fast pack (well done Maria and Izzy), and a tense last race with the possibility of demotion looming over us. This was in the end avoided by Sarah, Nina, Julie and Nicki representing our A-team wonderfully.

We were joined in Alnwick by three sky-blues doing their cross-country debut. Jenny, Hannah and Sam did not let the fact that it was the season’s last deter them from joining in good spirits – a good omen for 2023-24?

The spread of cakes and other baked goods was incredible, as always (thank you to all the great amateur bakers!).