Bels make it two wins from two in the Surrey League
The winning team in the grey at Beckenham.
Belgrave’s senior men have made their best start to a Surrey Cross Country League season since the clean sweep of 1970/71.
A win at Beckenham at the weekend follows a narrow victory at Hurst Green in October to leave the Bels with a 101-pt margin over closest challengers Thames Hare & Hounds.
Hercules Wimbledon, who made it four league titles in a row last season, have struggled with turnout this autumn and find themselves 352 points adrift in fifth with two fixtures remaining.
The men’s trophy has not made its way back to Belgrave Hall since 2002 - but there’s still a lot to do to end 24 years of hurt.
Match 1, Hurst Green
17-year-old Alex Lennon was first Bel home.
Belgrave won match 1 in the sunshine by just six points from Thames, who returned five in 15 but paid heavily for their tenth man’s 79 score.
The claret and gold were led home in 5th by debutant Alex Lennon, last season’s u17 national cross country champion, turning out for Belgrave due to Sutton & District’s lack of a senior team in the Surrey League. He and three other Sutton lads are very welcome additions to our cross country setup and came our way via their coaches Nick and Maureen Hancock, parents of James Hancock, our Winter Plate winner for 2024/25.
Lennon was joined in the top ten by the welcome sight of a returning Nick Goolab and another second claimer in Sam Charlton, a Wallsend boy who recently moved to Battersea boasting 3:48/7:58/13:53 PBs.
Larry Ryan had easily his best run in our colours to finish 13th, and was followed swiftly by the reliably brilliant James Hancock and Henry Hart to make it six scorers in the top 30.
Battersea regular and 2:17 marathoner Josh Mitchell was another debutant, joining us from Clapham Chasers over the summer. He’s been working back to fitness after a long injury break but registered a solid 39th off very little training.
Sam Charlton (l) and Nick Goolab enter the final field.
Club secretary Phil Wicks, a 5-time Surrey League race winner, was four seconds behind Josh and three seconds ahead of another Sutton U20 in Elliot Manning, whose 42nd position didn’t count for us because we’d already scored two second claimers ahead of him. A great senior debut nonetheless.
Ben Coughlan and Angus Lamb rounded out our ten scorers in 44th and 55th respectively, but between them were three more non-scoring second claimers making their debuts. Eighteen-year-old Fintan Pearce of Eastbourne goes brilliantly over the cross, as do Monty Hudson and Cristopher Cull, both Sutton first claims.
Our second ten romped to an easy victory in the B-team competition, spearheaded by a debut from Gavin Eccles. The Irishman looks an extremely promising recruitment with a 57th place of the back of not a lot of training post injury.
Match 2, Beckenham Place
l-r Larry Ryan, Harry Lawson, Gavin Eccles, Dylan Evans, Josh Mitchell, James Hancock and Elliott Manning get underway. Photo George Parker
With Alex Lennon resting for Liverpool, Sam Charlton nursing a sore achilles and Dan Jarvis working, we were without the three highest placing second claimers from match 1. We knew we still had the depth to beat Thames - but would we have the quality too?
On a grey and drizzly afternoon at Beckenham it was beginning to look like THH might wipe the floor with us - first when Nick Goolab stepped off the course at halfway and then when we saw them return five in the first nine - an intimidating top end.
But when the scores came in we’d put a further 95 points into Thames thanks to a great run in third from Dylan Evans and brilliant packing between 11th and 54th. Thames’ back four again cost them dearly and they slipped to third behind hosts Kent AC on the day.
Standout performances came from Larry Ryan with his best ever finish in 11th, Josh Mitchell likewise in 20th and Gavin Eccles improving from 57th to 24th in the space of a month. Captain Conall McNally’s return to the scoring ten for the first time since November 2023 is also testament to his quiet tenacity and commitment to the club. James Hancock, Sam Gebreselassie, Christopher Cull (2C) and Simon Coppard were valuable contributors to our A-team 10.
And the quality didn’t stop there. Our B-team recorded the closest to a perfect score we’ve ever seen in this league: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and … 11 to make the retention of the B trophy all but a formality for the fourth season running. Well done to Will Gardner, Louis Clarke, Jonny Neville, Harry Lawson, Andrew Johnstone, Callum Stewart, James Preston, Si Waterhouse, Thomas Gandee and Charlie Wood for rewriting the history books there.
Points after two matches:
1 BEL 529
2 THH 630
3 KEN 710
4 HHH 835
5 HW 881
6 G&G 910
7 HOL 1041
8 SLH 1309
9 CC 1772