Fleckney and Kibworth Running Club only lined up for their first race in the Leicestershire Road Running League in January.
Nine months and 11 races later a season's best all-round club performance in the traditional end of season John Fraser ten miles at Countesthorpe saw them come away with multiple successes.
The first championship to be secured was the division three senior men's title, which was effectively secured in the ninth leg of the series at Hungarton. Across the season the club secured first place in every race except the Desford 10K, where they were narrowly pipped by a strong team from the renowned Leicester Coritanians.
Going into the final race both the senior women and the veteran men, males over 40, held very narrow leads over their nearest opposition. With most of the other 20 county-based clubs also fielding strong selections in a competitive environment, Fleckney and Kibworth got their preparation spot on and romped home in both categories to make this a glorious day in their short history.
In the women's section much pressure was being applied by the Desford Striders, who had come through with a late run to capture top honours in the previous three races at Prestwold, Hungarton and Huncote.
The club were, however, able to put out a strong and focused squad who were led home in 12th place by Kate Dormer in 71mins 49secs, equalling her best league placing of the season. The same was true of the next two finishers, Claire Beach, 28th in 79:35, and Bernie Owen, 30th in 80:05. It was a top result in particular for women's captain Beach, voted the club's outstanding female runner in 2007 but often held back this year with a succession of injuries. Another athlete close to her season's best placing was Tina McDonagh, whose 83:47 gave her 42nd spot.
Next for the club were regular training partners Lucie Butwell and Aileen Collins. Both are in strict training for the upcoming Leicester Marathon so unlike some clubmates who were tapering down in the days leading up to the race, they have been continuing to load the miles. This explained Butwell not quite hitting the heights of her excellent second place for the club at Hungarton, but 86:17 for 48th spot will indicate that she is well on track for her second marathon of the season. Collins returned her best finish for the club in 89:27 and 60th place. Clubmates were highly impressed by her excellent progress from joining as a raw beginner in January 2007 through to a steady 58mins for five miles last May.
Elaine Prior, in 96:25 and 74th place, bravely completed the testing distance despite only recently returning from an unfortunate injury which prevented her from taking in the complete set of league races at the recent Huncote five miles.
Jody Ward has also had an up and down year with a longstanding knee problem but also showed the fighting spirit by crossing the line in 78th place and a time of 99:14.
Although the seniors men had completed their job there was no chance of any complacency and some more outstanding efforts were recorded. Karl Beardall has emerged as the club's strongest male runner over the summer season and on this occasion, despite his footballing exploits for Fleckney Athletic 24 hours earlier, he showed admirable powers of recovery to take 24th spot in 61:53.
Stacey Voss, who was the main points scorer in the club's winter campaign, is another who has had injury problems. Recent signs, however, indicate that he is starting to find top form again and 63:09 for 33rd place was a good close to his sustained efforts over the season.
Chris Wiley was never a certainty to make the start line with his wife expecting their first child on race day, but the mobile phone which he carried around the tenmile circuit proved redundant and he was another to return a season's best performance in 40th place and a time of 63:59. Noel Houlihan, yet another recent injury victim, showed his comeback is nearly complete with 65:12 for 51st in the men's section.
One of the club's most improved runners has been Adam Taylor. Having seen his winter season decimated by a snowboarding accident, he has returned with renewed determination, upped his training regime to five days a week and hence his time of 66:20 for 59th place was a superb way to end his first league campaign.
With the senior men revelling in their comfort zone, the club's veteran section were under some pressure to maintain their recently acquired league leadership. Dave Wheeler has completed the course on several occasions for his previous clubs and was second counter in the category behind Houlihan, finishing 82nd in a time of 69:07. Next home was Martin Pickles, who gained the gratitude of his clubmates by making an early morning dash from a family celebration in London to post 72:35 and 125th spot. Then followed a number of fine individual achievements motivated by the desire to see the veterans' team achieve their goal. In 180th place was John Redfearn, a latecomer to the sport in 78:45, Vince Brown, nearly 12 months after a serious leg fracture finally getting some league action, was 205th in 82:20, club captain Steve Bishop, sidelined for six months through leg injuries, 89:38 and 223rd place, and Andy Bailey made it 11 out of 11 with 113:21 to finish 242nd.
Although the winning of the three championships was not confirmed until the following evening's league delegates meeting, there was a surprise bonus at the after-race presentations where the club's first four senior men, Beardall, Voss, Wiley and Taylor, attained their first cross division top three placing by edging out host club and defending league champions Leicester Owls by a single point. This, perhaps as much as any of their achievements, was the most memorable in demonstrating how marked an impression Fleckney and Kibworth have left on Leicestershire road running in 2008. This year the league is celebrating its 25th anniversary and many of the clubs still competing were involved in the original race series, making the village club's result all the more worthy.
Apart from the team championships, there were outstanding overall placing in several age and gender categories, including:
Bernie Owen 2nd Vet 50 lady, Kate Dormer 4th senior lady, Dave Wheeler 4th Vet 50 man and Karl Beardall 8th senior man.
Raising the tally to 23 individual medals to be collected at the league's presentation evening on November 14 were the six clubmates who completed all 11 league races over the winter and summer seasons – Aileen Collins, Tina McDonagh, Andy Bailey, Karl Beardall, Stacey Voss and Dave Wheeler.
Delighted Fleckney/Kibworth coach Dave Wheeler said: "I think we are still pinching ourselves over the scale of this achievement.
"There was no element of luck involved. This was entirely about application and preparation allied to natural talent plus that vital ingredient, the team ethic.
"The challenge now is to raise the bar for 2009 and see how much further we can progress."