2XU Surrey CC League, Race 3, Farthing Downs, Coulsdon

A crash at Coulsdon

Never the most popular of courses among our number, this is often where we come unstuck … and it was no different this time. A string of injuries and colds kept some of our regulars away but in spite of struggling badly with his hamstring after the previous week’s county champs., Captain Wardy felt he must turn out, hoping to save us about 75 points. So, we were eleven strong as the warning whistle heralded the start, with the luxury of a back-up man should anything untoward happen. Once we’d got over the mild panic of trying to find a hair band for Robert Norville (a fetching pink one – donated by Vicki Goodwin) they were away.

Typical Wardy, somehow he found himself leading early on in the piece but places had pretty much settled down after the completion of a lap with Herne Hill’s Chris Busaileh making the running at the front.

There were no major changes in the second half of the race. Paskar is still some way short of his pre-Christmas form and seemed concerned after the event that perhaps his overall individual lead was slipping away – but by our reckoning he is still heading the points score. The Cockerpillar maintained his inevitable position in the top score – and aren’t we glad he does it! Thereafter we had to go back a bit before Mike Trees led home the rest, moving up a whole gear since Denbies the previous week. It was good to see Tim Weeks getting round with no damage to his fragile ankles and Nick Dilley made his first ever appearance among the scorers.

As Vicki’s chocolate cake was consumed we were able to reflect on the state of play. Not only did Wardy save us a promised 75 points, he’d stretched it to 85 by claiming an outstanding (bearing in mind his injury) 5th individual place and although we were seventh team on the day our league place of 3rd remained unchanged. The Stragglers were the big losers as they dropped two league positions while Ranelagh and South London made strides which should see them safe for 2012.

Almost missing the start, Malik Nehaili charged off at the back of the Young Athletes’ field but the finish was even more dramatic. Heading up the finishing funnel he was under huge pressure from a South London runner but flung himself forward at the line in a dip that Colin Jackson in his prime would have been proud of.

Men. 1 C Busaileh (Herne Hill) 28:47; 2 A Robinson (Hercules W) 28:52; 3 M Dooley (Herne Hill) 29:20; 5 R Ward 29:29; 9 P Owor 29:49; 19 W Cockerell 30:15; 64 (scoring 56) M Trees M45 32:37; 67 (59) M Byansi 32:48; 92 (74) K Hegvold M50 34:23; 102 (77) R Norville 34:57; 108 (78) T Weeks 35:28; 126 (83) N Dilley 36:54; 133 (87) W Lynch M40 37:29; 157 J Hall M60 40:47; 172 finished.

Teams:

1 Herne Hill H (1, 3, 6, 7, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24, 25) 131 - Overall 329, 1st, 0

2 Thames H&H (4, 8, 11, 17, 28, 30, 32, 35, 41, 46) 252 - 754, 2nd, 0

3 Ranelagh H (14, 16, 22, 29, 34, 51, 53, 63, 66, 67) 415 - 1474, 4th, +1

4 South London H (21, 26, 31, 38, 39, 40, 49, 58, 70, 71) 443 - 1527, 5th, +1

5 Hercules Wimbledon AC (2, 10, 13, 47, 50, 57, 62, 64, 68, 72) 445 - 1574, 7th, 0

6 Clapham Chasers (23, 42, 43, 44, 58, 54, 55, 60, 61, 65) 495 - 1627, 8th, 0

7 Belgrave H (5, 9, 19, 56, 59, 74, 77, 78, 83, 87) 547 - 1378, 3rd, 0

8 The Stragglers (27, 33, 36, 45, 52, 73, 75, 80, 81, 82) 584 - 1536, 6th, -2

9 Dorking & Mole Valley AC (37, 69, 76, 79, 84, 85, 86, 88, 89, 90) 783 - 2086, 9th, 0

U13 Boys. 1 P Burgess (Herne Hill) 16:36; 7 M Nehaili 19:07.

Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.