South of the Thames CC Championship, Brockwell Park

Above, left to right, start of the South of Thames Championship in Brockwell Park: Dave Anderson, Pete Willis (20), Mike Trees (18), James McMullen (Epsom Oddballs 142), Will Clark (Epsom & Ewell 137), Alan Barnes (Herne Hill 175), James Connor ? (Kent AC), Phil Wicks (19), Dean Lacy (Cambridge H 51), Alex Bodin. Picture by Steve Wicks.

Dewar Shield back with the Bels

The 109th running of the South of the Thames Cross Country Championship turned out to be successful event for the Bels as the men notched up their thirteenth win all told and fifth in the last decade - and, after a recount, we were declared 12 to score winners as well. A dominant Phil Wicks led the pack while Chrissie Wellington was equally impressive in the women's race; both led from start to finish.

Nobody could remember a Brockwell Park in this state. Weeks of rain had left the Park like a sponge and even before the race had started, the passage of 150 pairs of feet on their warm up runs over the lower slopes had liquified the top two inches of soil. In fact there was barely a firm footing to be found on the entire circuit.

These were clearly not everyone's idea of perfect cross country conditions but it seemed to make little difference to Phil who was 40 metres clear of David Anderson and Cambridge Harriers' Dean Lacy after one lap and more than twice that after two. Phil's two-lap time was 26:06. Compare that, if you will, with the Surrey League's winning time of 25:58, run in balmy October; and of course there was a third lap to contend with on this occasion.

Dave Anderson is far from fit but he had more than enough talent to deal with the rest of the field; and two more very impressive runs came from veteran Mike Trees and Pete Willis - the latter at last beginning to give a hint of what he can do. In his first scoring run for the Bels, eighteen year-old Alex Bodin battled with John Kimaiyo. Alex had never gone further than 8 km before but closed in our team as first Junior in the field - and pushed the Skipper off the score sheet for the first time in years.

We welcomed new members in Dave Mason and Charles Hobbs ("I've never experienced anything like this before") who have both recently moved to south London - but unfortunately neither of them was able to score on this occasion. Carl Moynihan also made his debut and Tom Fordyce delayed his late shift at the BBC so as to boost the 12-to-score team; he works on the BBC's website covering the Ashes series and we wonder which experience was the most painful.

We are so glad that Tom made the effort to turn up though, because along with team mates Will Cockerell, James Fairbourn, Mark Humphrey, Rob Poulter and Harry Corbett - some of whom don't get to score in a Belgrave winning team too often - we lifted the Coleman Cup. The team manager was delighted.

Men. 7.5 miles. 1 P Wicks (Belgrave) 39:30; 2 D Anderson (Belgrave) 41:02; 3 D Lacy (Camb H) 41:15; 13 M Trees 1st-M40 43:25; 14 P Willis 43:44; 21 J Kimaiyo 44:22; 24 A Bodin 1st-U20 44:27; 34 W Cockerell 45:16; n/s (36th) D Mason 45:19; 50 J Fairbourn 47:08; 64 T Fordyce 49:06; 88 M Humphrey 52:40; 103 R Poulter 55:18; 105 H Corbett M45 55:41; n/s (102) C Hobbs 53:43; 113 C Moynihan 56:53.

Teams:

6 to score - 1 Belgrave H 75; 2 Herne Hill H 146; 3 Brighton & Hove City AC 160; 12 Belgrave 'B' 444.

12 to score - 1 Belgrave H 519; 2 Brighton & Hove City AC 526; 3 Herne Hill H 654.

Women. 7.5 miles. 1 C Wellington (Belgrave) 48:10; 2 F Clark (Crawley) 49:34; 3 M Sinott-Wells (Ranelagh) 51:19; 4 M Heaton 53:28.

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