Surrey CC League Division 1 Race 1, Kingston Gate, Richmond Park

"Sweatshop" League opens with a high-class race

Anyone looking to ease gently into the cross country season was in for a rude awakening in this high class race that opened the 2003-2004 campaign at the Kingston end of Richmond Park. Three runners soon detached themselves at the front. Our own Martin Dent and Hare & Hound Phil Sly were vying with each other for top Aussie slot but as the runners made their way towards the one major hill at the very end of the lap it was Belgravian Stephen Sharp making the pace with Martin tucked in close behind. Heading out for the second circuit Stephen prised open a 10 metre gap but as the ground gently fell away towards the Isabella Plantation, Martin pulled him back and gained a lead which he held to the end. Sly also came back into the fray to bring the Thames saltire into the funnel ahead of our second man home and in the wake of this heavyweight contest going on at the front, Herne Hill’s redoubtable Dave Taylor, Priory’s Ali Moses and “Irrepressible” Stuart Major were shunted into 4, 5 and 6. Serious stuff!

Will Cockerell is rarely far from a top ten place these days and even in this loaded field he placed 12th, pleased to be only a little more than half a minute behind Taylor. Veteran Knut Hegvold was our fourth man across the finish line, just ahead of an eye-opening run from Joachim Wolf. After a long period of working in Sweden, during which his main sporting activity was cross country skiing, Joachim has returned to these shores stating that he is abandoning 8s and 15s for the lure of the longer runs. His 11th place in the Liverpool Half Marathon was a good start and his additional strength showed to good advantage in this field.

Our tail-end was wagged by Roger Alsop, trying to claw his way back to form in this his 40th Surrey League race, and Chris Axe would have been in here somewhere had he not suffered a recurrence of the calf muscle pull sustained in his last 1500 of the summer. Messrs. Catley and Lynch both scored well and that wily fox Charlie Dickinson belied his M55 status by once again squeezing into the scorers. Finally, 20 year-old Mark Humphrey rounded off the team, disappointed to be tenth man but a little happier when it was explained that those guys up the front have years of 80 to 100-a-week under their belts compared with his twice a week sessions for the last few months; he went home smiling after this, his first cross country race having taught him a lot.

A long wait in the Wych Elm for the official results was abandoned after a couple of pints of London Pride but when they arrived a day or two later it was confirmed that we were “only” 100 points away from the main action. We can pull that back in one race – but will we?

1 M.Dent (Belgrave) 25:42; 2 P.Sly (Thames H&H) 25:56; 3 S.Sharp (Belgrave) 26:14; 4 D.Taylor (Herne Hill) 26:27; 5 A.Moses (Reigate Priory) 26:34; 6 S.Major (South London H) 26:38; 12 W.Cockerell 27:08; 26 K.Hegvold M40 28:20; 27 J.Wolf 28:24; 34 R.Alsop 28:48; 52 L.Catley 29:48; 53 W.Lynch 29:49; 58 C.Dickinson M55 29:54; 59 M.Humphrey 30:14; 66 S.Zealey 30:53; 68 R.Poulter 30:58; 71 P.Carstairs 31:07; 72 R.Marcus 31:11; 86 J.Charles 31:38; 92 T.O'Neill M50 32:10; 119 J.Clamp 34:33; 121 Don Anderson 34:38; 126 H.Corbett M40 35:18; 148 finished; C.Axe dnf.

1 Thames H&H (2, 7, 11, 14, 15, 17, 22, 39, 40, 41) 208
2 Herne Hill H ( 4, 9, 13, 18, 19, 30, 32, 45, 46, 53) 269
3 Belgrave H (1, 3, 12, 26, 27, 34, 51, 52, 55, 56) 317
4 Aldershot F&D (8, 10, 23, 28, 31, 33, 43, 47, 48, 50) 321
5 Ranelagh (16, 21, 24, 29, 38, 42, 59, 61, 63, 65) 418
6 South London H (6, 25, 44, 54, 57, 58, 60, 64, 68, 69) 505
7 Reigate Priory (5, 20, 62, 66, 70, 71, 75, 77, 81, 82) 609
8 Stragglers (36, 67, 72, 73, 74, 76, 78, 79, 80, 83) 718
9 Boxhill R (35, 37, 49, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90) 730

Under 17/Under 15 2.5 miles

1 A.Conway (Herne Hill) 14:01; 2 S.Atkins (South London H) 14:30; 3 P.Humphrey (South London H) 14:57; 5 J.McRae 15:27; 10 T.Ashby U15 16:02; 12 R.Collier 17:16; 15 P.Cowling 17:36.

Teams: 1 South London H 24; 2 Belgrave H 73; 3 Herne Hill H 75; 4 Ranelagh H 88.

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