On Saturday 24 September, after 18 months of planning, we hosted the first of our exciting Centenary events, The Beckwith. The team had worked late into the night putting the finishing touches together for this inaugural celebration, recognising 100 years of Lord Wandsworth College.
The sun shone over our stunning 1200 acre campus and as the first competitors arrived, around 8.00 am, there was palpable excitement in the air! A fantastic mix of parents, staff, pupils and Sternians turned out in droves with 120 registered for the 10k run and over 300 for the 5k! This was topped off with over 500 walkers who opted to take a slower pace round our beautiful campus, starting at the Acorn Gates, taking in the verdant woodland, and some of our most iconic areas around the estate including Sheephouse Copse, the infamous Quercus, and Heaven and Hell. Much to our delight, most of our guests brought along their four-legged friends, giving Crufts a run for their money!
The Food Village, was packed as everyone tucked into delicious bacon sandwiches, and breakfast bites from Posh Scoff Caterers and Little Reds and fuelled with some seriously good coffee, cakes and pastries from The Hobo Co and the Really Awesome Coffee Company.
Our fantastic MC, Deputy Head, Alex Battison gave the guests a very warm welcome before Ben Hazell, our Head of Athletics, and Katia Lannon, one of our new Science teachers took on the challenge of the warm up session, joined on stage by Heh Mr DJ, who got the crowd limbered up!
The runners set off to huge applause followed a little later by all our walkers plus all the dogs! First across the line for the 10k, in an astonishing time of 35 mins 47, was Alex Hamilton, our Head of Classics:
“I really enjoyed the run on Saturday. Our woods and fields looked incredible. There was a really lovely, supportive atmosphere from all the volunteers and lots of excellent performances from the pupils as I ran the course.”
William B, in 1st Form, came first in 5k Fastest Pupil category!
Our incredible staff had volunteered to marshal the course and volunteer for the myriad of jobs throughout the day. It really was a fantastic LWC whole community team effort.
Many thanks to everyone involved for making the event such a success and we are looking forward to next year’s follow up already!
For more information on race times please click here for 10k and here for 5k.
The Full Photo Library can now be viewed here.
