Stockley and Stewart star on Wimbledon Common: Surrey League Div 1, Match 2
Stunning debut league runs from Will Stockley and Callum Stewart plus some serious squad depth scored us our best Surrey League placing since promotion to the top flight in 2017.
Conditions on Wimbledon Common were cold and wet, with a tricky combination of sludgy flat sections and narrow, rocky climbs and descents. Add to that an elbowy, root-laden tree-dodge and a perilous slip-n-slide dismount of the Big Alp; this course was no walk in the park.
But that was no bother for Will Stockley, who started strongly and finished strongly to end up one place ahead of Surrey League great Paskar Owor and become the first Bel to break the Goolab-Wicks-Owor-Jaksevicius Big 4 monopoly since...well, I got as far as 2014 and then the internet ran out:
Season
Venue
Bel 1
Bel 2
Bel 3
2019/20
Wimbledon
Stockley
Owor
Stewart
2019/20
Effingham
Wicks
Jaksevicius
Owor
2018/19
Croydon
Owor
Jaksevicius
Wicks
2018/19
Mitcham
Owor
Jaksevicius
Touse
2018/19
Wimbledon
Owor
Jaksevicius
Touse
2018/19
Richmond
Goolab
Owor
Touse
2017/18
Wimbledon
Owor
Auden
Bundle
2017/18
Coulsdon
Owor
Buckle
Auden
2017/18
Mitcham
Goolab
Owor
Jaksevicius
2017/18
Reigate
Goolab
Owor
Jaksevicius
2016/17
Croydon
Jaksevicius
Wicks
Auden
2016/17
Richmond
Jaksevicius
Auden
Lowe
2016/17
Guildford
Jaksevicius
Auden
Buckle
2016/17
Wimbledon
Wicks
Owor
Upton
2015/16
Wimbledon
Owor
Abery
Auden
2015/16
Mitcham
Owor
Jaksevicius
Abery
2015/16
Wimbledon
Owor
Wicks
Jaksevicius
2015/16
Wimbledon
Owor
Upton
Jaksevicius
2014/15
Richmond
Owor
Upton
Jaksevicius
2014/15
Streatham
Owor
Telkovsky
Bundle
2014/15
Croydon
Owor
Connick
Gauson
2014/15
Coulsdon
Owor
Upton
Maddams
That's some Surrey League debut, and all the more exciting considering Will's an 800/1500m specialist only recently considering stepping up in distance.
Will's St Mary's colleague Euan Campbell (97) in a great position early on before falling casualty to the rocks by the lake.
It could have been even sweeter, too, if a rocky section near the lake hadn't claimed the ankle of fellow St Mary's boy Euan Campbell, who had been neck and neck with Will for the whole of the first lap before his DNF. According to science, if Euan had stayed in that position we'd have been 50 points (70th-20th) better off and leapfrogged THH into third. But I'm getting greedy now.
Not far back from Paskar was another new joiner in Callum Stewart - something of an unknown quantity if his curious 15:59 / 32:09 Po10 combination was anything to go by - but this performance shows he's got way more than that in his locker, besting XC masters Jaksevicius and Buckle on his Surrey League debut. What a find!
Callum Stewart (24)
Next was a slightly off-form Andrius Jaksevicius, suffering from a combination of a course not to his taste and three marathons (Berlin, Vilnius and Frankfurt) in his legs since September - not to mention a 15:55 parkrun the same morning. Still extremely valuable points as fourth scorer, though, and what a treat to have three scorers ahead of powerhouse AJ even without Goolab and Wicks on the teamsheet.
Positions five to 10 make for a glorious demonstration of our vastly improved strength in depth. At Effingham's Match 1, your correspondent scored fifth, but here was more than happy to sneak in as 10th scorer, with returning captain Nick Buckle running typically well on the mud, Brad Courtney-Pinn with his best ever XC display, and Alex Miller in a welcome return to form following a long injury sojourn. In 8th and 9th scoring slots were Conall McNally, proving that his heroics at Effingham Common were no fluke, and another debutant James Nutt with a properly gritty run to hold off a trio of Kent assailants in the final dash.
Nutt deep in Kents
And what a luxury to have such strength outside of the scoring positions, so vital given the spattering of inevitable but unpredictable pre-race (or in-race) niggles or bugs. All of Visick, Fesoom, Edgar, Young, Mills and Hurley are quality racers with important roles to play - and all of them improving, too.
Robel Fesoom (23) ahead of Courtney-Pinn and Nutt early on in the race.
Triathlete Matt Edgar (88) loved his XC debut.
Belgrave scorers
Bels scorer
Runner
Race pos
Pts
1
Will Stockley
17
16
2
Paskar Owor
18
17
3
Callum Stewart
25
24
4
Andrius Jaksevicius
33
32
5
Nick Buckle
39
38
6
Bradley Courtney-Pinn
50
48
7
Alex Miller
63
58
8
Conall McNally
73
65
9
James Nutt
82
69
10
Steve Gardner
85
70
(11)
Nathan Visick
92
17
(12)
Robel Fesoom
99
19
(13)
Matthew Edgar
100
20
(14)
Oliver Young
140
36
(15)
Alex Mills
149
43
(16)
Ben Hurley
150
44
(17)
Andrew Simpson
154
48
(18)
Chris Warren
194
71
(19)
Lawrence Burton
212
80
(20)
James Morris
227
83
(21)
Rob Norville
239
-
(22)
Alex Luce
242
-
So to the overall scores. TM Arne Dumez's pre-race instructions were something along the lines of "you see a green Guildford vest, you scalp it. You see a red and black Herne Hill vest, you scalp it." Well: we did that, and got him South London for good measure too. We're some way off dominant Kent (five men in the top 10 is ridiculous, even if two of them were 2C), but if Euan's ankle held out we'd have been third, and if Goolab (Portugal training camp) and Wicks (glute strain) were there we'd have been right up there with last year's title-winners Hercules Wimbledon.
Fourth, I should say, is our best match result since promotion back to the top flight in 2017. Well done Bels - now to keep up this quality for rounds three (Jan) and four (Feb).
Surrey League Div 1, Match 2, Wimbledon Common
Pos
Club
Points
Scores
1
KEN
192
2,4,5,7,8,15,34,37,39,41
2
H/W
276
9,10,11,13,14,23,33,46,56,61
3
THH
411
6,12,18,21,36,47,53,71,72,75
4
BEL
437
16,17,24,32,38,48,58,65,69,70
5
HHH
441
26,28,31,40,42,44,45,60,62,63
6
SLH
465
3,22,27,43,50,54,57,64,68,77
7
G&G
542
1,25,29,49,51,55,81,82,84,85
8
C/C
609
19,20,52,59,67,74,76,79,80,83
9
DUL
722
30,35,66,73,78,86,87,88,89,90
l-r: Robel Fesoom, Nick Buckle, Ben Hurley, James Morris, Brad Courtney-Pinn, Ollie Young, Steve Gardner, Callum Stewart, Nathan Visick, Lawrence Burton, Conall McNally, Andrew Simpson, Alex Mills, Chris Warren.
All photos by TM Arne Dumez, currently off XC in his Valencia Marathon build-up.