Surrey County CC Champs., Lloyd Park
Low key again at Lloyd Park
Ten winters have now passed since Belgrave's men last won the Surrey County title. Our women have, of course, won much more recently, but the 2006 edition of the Championships at Lloyd Park was like so many others in the last decade - low key.
Megan Evans ploughed a lonely furrow in the Under 13 Girls' race, placing 8th as our only representative. Well done to her!
Just two of our senior women were available to tackle 8km of slippery conditions. Sarah Murphy made a fast start and held on well to finish just outside the top dozen and Tilly Heaton, as ever, was not far behind.
The men did at least have a team for the 12km event, which pleased the Skipper, and in Phil Wicks it was felt that there was a good chance that we might even provide the individual winner.
Phil set off hard aiming to take the lead early unless someone else provided a hot pace. He did lead, on and off, over the first 2km but John McFarlane of Thames, twice previously in Phil's slipstream this winter, was on form this time and pressing to move away himself. By the end of the first lap the Thames man was away and Phil was struggling, now having to fight for a place in the top five.
In the end it was a brave run from Phil. Things were not right and he had to dig deep simply to keep in the bunch. A change in working and training hours during the previous week had not helped and on this occasion that ferocious start put him under great pressure.
Skipper Will Cockerell looked more and more solid as the race progressed - as did Warren Lynch, while Tim Weeks stepped up a gear, running well for half the distance before suffering towards the end. And thanks to plucky Don Anderson, always on hand should we ever need an extra body, we did at least close in a team.
Women's 8 km. 1 G Gardner (Guildford &G) 33:09; 13 S Murphy 35:20; 18 T Heaton 36:08; 79 finished.
Under 13 Girls' 3.25 km. 1 E Gorecka (Dorking MV) 12:55; 8 M Evans 13:50; 58 finished.
Senior Men's 12 km. 1 J McFarlane (Thames H&H) 41:41; 2 K Kyreme (Shaftesbury B) 42:14; 3 R James (South London) 42:23; 5 P Wicks 42:39; 15 W Cockerell 44:14; 33 W Lynch 46:35; 44 T Weeks 47:41; 65 T Fordyce 49:46; 134 M Humphrey 55:40; 138 Don Anderson M50 56:15; 201 P Beaumont M40 72:04; 204 finished.
Teams: 1 Herne Hill 61; 2 Thames H&H 123; 3 South London H 139; 7 Belgrave H 299; 18 teams closed in.
Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.