The League was formed in 1959 and is one of the oldest in the south-east. It began as a small gathering of clubs to provide a league structure of competition over five races rather that a one off event which was common at that time. The challenge was to provide these fixtures to reward individual and teams for their achievements and commitments.  For many years the League was single sex, as were most cross country meetings in those days.

In the late 1970s, Roger Kraushaar (of Old Gaytonians, now Harrow Athletic Club) stood as League secretary for nearly 20 years until illness forced him to give up and in 1997 Dennis Orme took over. With Roger the Treasurer was Doug Rikly who passed on that role to Richard Inchley in the early 1990s. Bill O’Connor joined around the same time and between them, they were as good as computers producing results the same evening so that they were in the Sunday papers a few hours later.

In the late 1990s the numbers of competitors increased to a 1000 per meeting and by 1997 we had started having one or two “mob matches” prompted by the difficulty in finding two venues for Division 1 and Division 2, as well as the desire to give the Division 2 young athletes better competition. From the 2002/2003 season all matches were “mob matches”.

The records show that a small field of ladies first ran in 1985 in their own race, but originally they were not included in the League results. Junior girls (U15) were first recorded in the 1986/87 season. In those days U17 Men were known as “Youths” Under 15 Boys as ‘Boys” and U13 Boys as “Colts”.

Around mid to late 1990s the Southern Women’s CC League folded and the Icknield League also collapsed boosting the Chiltern League ranks. From 2941 finishers in 1997/98 season the League grew to 4707 finishers in the 2005/2006 season.

In 2001 Junior/U17 ladies were added to the league, and since 2003 Under 11 boys and girls have had races, but did not score in the League as UKA do not recognise the age group. 2000/01 was when the full range of female age groups was included in the League results, mostly due to demand created by the demise of Southern Women’s CC league.

The first computerised results appeared in 1998 courtesy of Chris Parkinson, and this was soon taken over by Dennis Orme, League Secretary.

Following the large rise in competitors in the early part of 2000s the League saw a period of consolidation, with overall participation increasing over the years to currently about 5000 athletes per season.

In 2015 Dennis died after battling a long illness, but the League continued to develop using his desire to make the League inclusive, a top priority. Around this time, we were forced to develop the results systems and were one of the early users of chip timing. This proved to be costly so we developed out own barcode system, which continues today (2024).

Cross country racing is a thriving sport, and the high numbers of participants make it difficult to find suitable venues to cater for the growing numbers, this also applies to area and national competition. We hope that the League will continue to grow in manageable numbers over the next few years, with the support of our 40 or so member Clubs.

Bill O’Connor & Richard Inchley
(with acknowledgement to Dennis Orme results books 1959-2013)
April 2024