Surrey CC League Division 1, Race 4, Lloyd Park

Belles are Surrey League Champions!

Going into Match 4, with 3 wins out of 3 under their belts, the Belles were by no means complacent. Not only did they want to win the league, but they wanted to be the unbeaten champions. With a few athletes out of action as a result of injury, every point from every runner would count. And so, with typical dogged determination and winning focus, the Belles set out to tackle the mud and puddles of Lloyd Park for the final time.

Early on in the race Allison O'Neill of Ranelagh took a strong first position with a Thames Hare & Hounds pair including Dorothea Lee battling each other for second and third. Just a few places further back the Belles began to position themselves, again using good packing and working off each other.

Tilly Heaton again took the honour of being first Belle home, maintaining the 7th position she worked herself into early on lap 1. The battle for 2nd and 3rd Belle was more interesting and featuring new member Vicky Clarke, in her first outing for the Belles and first cross country race in many a year. Training regularly with Tilly, Juliette & Co, Vicky knew where she should place but with a very fast start, found the 6k course tough going towards the end. Team captain Juliette Clark positioned herself just behind Vicky and steadily and gradually reeled her in, finishing just 1 second ahead. This result sees Juliette as clear winner of the Ladies Cross Country plate even without competing in the Nationals.

Vicki Edwards, finding she's actually enjoying the cross country more and more, had another solid performance just 2 places down on Vicky C, and the fifth scorer, Louise Cooper, brought the winning team home with her 18th place.

Overall, 6 of the girls came in the top 20, with Syreeta Stracey our 6th home. Rosie Powell showed an improvement on her last couple of races with 26th place and Nina Mills came home in 68th. We mustn't forget our 33rd placed runner, Helen Alsop, who was a member of the team when the Belles last won the Surrey League title, even though there was a ten year gap in between! Anne Hegvold, despite a good start on lap 1, pulled out suffering from a sinus infection and recent heavy cold.

So, the Belles are now the league champions as well as county champs and Reigate Priory Relay champs. Overall, a pretty successful season over the cross country, and the start of a promising and illustrious future for the women's team.

Unfortunately, due to problems with the results, the individual winners of the league were not available on the day. The juniors match and league results were also being calculated and will be reported as soon as available.

1 A.O'Neill (Ranelagh) 22:05; 2 D.Lee (Thames H&H) 22:23; 3 L.Hasell (Thames H&H) 22:27; 4 C.Evans (South London) 22:59; 5 S.Seal (Rane) 23:12; 6 M.Pannett (Dulwich) 23:13; 7 M.Heaton (Belgrave) 23:16; 8 A.Fletcher (Dulwich) 23:18; 9 L.Crawford (S London) 23:28; 10 J.Clark W35 (Belgrave) 23:31; 11 V.Clarke 23:32; 13 V.Edwards 24:11; 18 L.Cooper 24:52; 20 S.Stracey 25:03; 26 R.Powell U20 25:35; 33 H.Alsop W35 26:31; 68 N.Mills W55 29:29; A.Hegvold dnf.

Teams: 1 Belgrave H 59; 2 South London H 73; 3 Dulwich Runners 91; 4 Ranelagh H 119; 5 Herne Hill H 138; 6 Thames Hare & Hounds 138; 7 Wimbledon Windmilers 190; 8 South London H B 214; 9 Belgrave H B 240; 10 Dorking & Mole Valley 246.

Final league result: 1 Belgrave H 230; 2 South London H 274; 3 Ranelagh H 370; 4 Herne Hill H 522; 5 Dulwich Runners 569; 6 Thames Hare & Hounds 713; 7 South London H B 746; 8 Epsom & Ewell H 857; 9 Dorking & Mole Valley 885; 10 Woking 97. Relegated to Division 2: Wimbledon Windmilers.

Individuals standings (Best three of four): 1 E.Nelson (Epsom &E) 8; 2 S.Seal (Ranelagh) 12; 3 M.Heaton (Belgrave) 17
Veterans: 1 A.O'Neill (Ranelagh) 3; 2 C.Evans (South London) 5; 3 J Clark (Belgrave) 10

U20. 1 C.Best (Crawley gst) 16:12; 5 L.Collier (Belgrave U17) 18:45.

U13. 1 S.Cowper (Redhill &SB) 12:32; 8 M.Rose (Belgrave) 13:27.

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