Cambridge University Hare and Hounds (CUH&H) is the University of Cambridge cross country running club. It has been providing training and competitions for its members since 7 February 1880. The club's activities are based at the University’s track facilities at Wilberforce Road off Madingley Road and the grass of Jesus Green in Cambridge, England. Past members include the 1956 Olympic Steeplechase gold medallist Chris Brasher, England international Bruce Tulloh, the Australian miler Herb Elliott, the current top 1,500m runner in Britain Andrew Baddeley, and 2012 Summer Olympics & World Triathlon Champion Alistair Brownlee.
Mike Turner, an international distance runner in the 1960s was CUH&H president for thirty years until his retirement in 2006.
The focus each winter is on the Varsity match against University of Oxford Cross Country Club, in which competitors may receive a University Sporting Blue on merit of performance. This is one of the oldest annual fixtures of its kind in the world, having been held since 1880, with only world wars breaking up the series. The event is currently split over two weekends, with the second to fourth teams competing at Cambridge or Oxford, followed by the first team match at Wimbledon Common.
The second major fixture of the year is the BUCS cross-country championships.
Famous quotes containing the words cambridge, university, hare and/or hounds:
“For Cambridge people rarely smile,
Being urban, squat, and packed with guile.”
—Rupert Brooke (1887–1915)
“In the United States, it is now possible for a person eighteen years of age, female as well as male, to graduate from high school, college, or university without ever having cared for, or even held, a baby; without ever having comforted or assisted another human being who really needed help. . . . No society can long sustain itself unless its members have learned the sensitivities, motivations, and skills involved in assisting and caring for other human beings.”
—Urie Bronfenbrenner (b. 1917)
“The hare grows old as she plays in the sun
And gazes around her with eyes of brightness;
Before the swift things that she dreamed of were done
She limps along in an aged whiteness....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“The hounds ran swiftly through the woods
The nimble deere to take,
That with their cryes the hills and dales
An eccho shrill did make.”
—Unknown. Chevy Chase (l. 37–40)