SEAA Cross Country Champs., Parliament Hill

Mud, blood & guts at Parliament Hill Fields

It’s the one we love to hate – for the senior men, nine and a quarter miles of bog, hills, mud, blood, guts … and hopefully one day … glory. Sadly our younger age group runners were depleted as sickness and injury took their toll but Megan Evans and Jo Foxley turned out in the Under 15 Girls’ race and seemed to enjoy themselves. A depleted women’s team was led home by Sarah Murphy who wasn’t happy with her run, but 23rd in such a large field seemed pretty useful to us supporters, especially with a half marathon the previous week and a dodgy ankle to contend with. Tilly Heaton struggled to halfway but then things clicked and she moved well in the latter part of the race to place inside the top 60. For Jennifer Beecroft the “Southerns” was her biggest ever race and she came out of it well.

Hopes of a set of medals

There were hopes of a set of team medals for the men as we creep closer to the frame each year. Powering up the hill, our reigning champion Phil Wicks was already locked in battle at the front alongside Wells City’s Frank Tickner, with other contenders Huw Lobb (Bedford) and Andy Vernon (Aldershot) electing to let these two rip chunks out of each other. But a mile later it was obvious that our man had a problem – he’d dropped back to fourth and Tickner was clear away, never to be threatened again. Last winter’s Scottish Champion Mark Pollard was well forward, and conservative starting Simon Jones was just inside 40. Already the team race was clearly a Beagles v Bedford affair but with three Belgravians – James Fairbourn, Rich Stannard and Will Cockerell in the 80s, third place might just have been ours.

Phil was suffering

Phil was suffering, he thought at the time, from a stitch that he just could not shake off in spite of attempts to breathe deeply. As he struggled on, a few more men came by and one began to wonder whether he’d call it a day. And as Phil struggled, Mark and Simon appeared ever stronger. While Simon found himself being waved back “on course” as he sought out the firmest ground, Mark took a line as straight as an arrow, eyes focused steadily on the terrain ahead as his legs soaked up the ruts and boggy ground like a pair of shock absorbers. Skipper Will was on the move now and was leading Richard and James but there was nothing between them as they worked off each other until – disaster – Jim went down like a sack of potatoes, tripping badly on the edge of a path and badly cutting both knees. It was a ghastly moment. Shocked, he was up again, but the crash had taken every ounce of breath out of him and in the next half mile he came out, destined to finish the course in an ambulance.

So, who was now the sixth man? Tim Weeks and Matt Whiting were close together at around 220 and on being apprised of the situation Tim was galvanized; only a lap and a half to go but somehow our “Weeksy” made up about 50 places.

A typical Pollard “gutsy” performance

Down to the finish to count them in, then, and it was Mark first home in 7th for the Bels with a typical Pollard “gutsy” performance – what a fighter! And still struggling but just as determined to finish as well as he could, Phil was two places behind him. His problem was still with him slightly in following days it became apparent that it was more likely a slight muscle pull under his rib cage. As a self-professed hater of cross-country Simon Jones was superb in 18th. Amazingly, in spite of losing Jim, we were still, finally, 4th, with track rivals Woodford Green nicking the bronze medals ahead of us. But after the heat of the battle, when the statisticians got their calculators out, it became apparent that even if our man had not fallen, 4th place would still have been our lot.

But as we said earlier, we edge ever closer to the frame – and for the first time in many a year we have won the “Odling Smee Cup” as the first Surrey team to finish nine men. Well done Messrs. Whiting, Hadfield and Lynch.

Jim is out running again, Phil will hopefully shake off his muscle pull quickly – and the show moves on to the “National” at Alton Towers in four weeks time.

Special thanks to Brian Pritchard for ferrying men across London and apologies to SEAA President Gordon Biscoe, to whom we were unable to grant the honour of awarding the Bels medals!

Senior Men's 15k. 1 F Tickner (Wells City H) 46:14; 2 A Vernon (Aldershot F&D) 46:44; 3 K Gerrard (Newham &EB) 47:00; 4 H Lobb (Bedford &C) 47:41; 5 D Deeds (Bedford &C) 47:47; 6 K Heywood (Bristol &W) 47:53; 7 M Pollard 48:08; 9 P Wicks 48:18; 18 S Jones 49:34; 82 W Cockerell 53:38; 85 R Stannard 54:09; 177 T Weeks 57:17; 234 M Whiting 58:56; 271 T Hadfield 1:00:21; 276 W Lynch 1:00:39; 285 R Harding (Met Police/Belgrave) 1:01:02; 286 S Zealey M40 1:01:06; 466 R Merrick 1:06:02; 543 R Poulter 1:08:11; 566 M Humphrey 1:09:06; 577 L Rehn M45 1:09:16; dnf J Fairbourn; 832 finished.

Teams: 1 Bedford & County AC 109; 2 Newham & Essex Beagles 115; 3 Woodford Green wEL 280; 4 Belgrave H 378; 5 Wells City H 434; 6 Winchester & Dist. 434; ... 86 teams closed in.

Senior Women's 8k. 1 R Townend (Winchester &D) 31:36; 2 L Damen (Winchester &D) 31:49; 3 R Felton (Shaftesbury BH) 32:25; 23 S Murphy 35:40; 58 M Heaton 37:43; 222 J Beecroft 46:45.

Under 15 Girls' 4k. 1 E Gorecka (Aldershot F&D) 16:44; 2 M Hawtin (Oxford C) 17:08; 3 E Wallbank (Bedford &C) 17:08; 61 M Evans 20:19; 181 J Foxley 26:26.

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