Surrey Women's Cross Country League Division 1, Race 4, Denbies Vineyard, Dorking

Engine Room Swings Into Gear

Will Cockerell reports:- This was a gung-ho tribe that rounded off our campaign and we were pleased to welcome two new names to our all-time list of Surrey League scorers. After that incredible start by Thames back in October, the league title always seemed just out of reach, and after sniffing about the possibility of dragging Sammi and Tish to the course in shackles [they ran 78 and 79 at Wokingham], and parachuting in Lou from Cheshire, we still felt it wouldn't have quite been enough. Maybe we could have scored 55 points and hope for a miracle? We'd still have been 3 pips short!

So instead this was a day for our engine-room to come to the party - the backbone and foundation of any successful club - and they excelled themselves. After Fee's metronomic sequence of finishes for the season of 16, 18, 21 & 19, Jojo turned in another peach, whilst Vix is flying at the mo, up from 58th to 45th on a month ago. Laura had even more of a stunner and turned her Nonsuch 90th into 58th, while Maisie's 101 on debut is now 88th. Finally, welcome to Belgrave 'Run and Become' employee Petra Kasperova. Petra kept tabs on Laura all through to indicate she will be a useful ally in the years to come.

It was exciting to watch Dulwich's assault on Thames for the title. It was touch and go, and a clerical error initially awarded the spoils the Dulwich, but instead it was Thames who claimed the trophy by a mere 17 points. How well we did to scalp them in two out of four events, and we look forward to another exciting scrap next season. With Herne Hill and West 4 also on the rise, and SLH always solid, it could be a six-way battle for supremacy. Many thanks to the 16 runners who fought so hard for us this term - 3rd place in such a strong league is honourable.

A foot injury slowed Yasmin down a bit in the Under 13 age group but she courageously kept going ... and then went up to Farthing Downs to watch Paskar in action.

1 R Clifton (Thames H&H) 34:11; 19 F Maycock 38:10; 23 J Rhodes 38:27; 45 V Goodwin 41:01; 58 L D'Albey 42:21; 62 P Kasperova 42:53; 88 M Byrne 46:10.

Teams: 1 Dulwich R 50, 2 Thames H&H 90; 3 Herne Hill H 108; ... 7 Belgrave H 206.
Overall: 1 Thames H&H 316; 2 Dulwich R 333; 3 Belgrave H 470; 4 West 4 H 541; 5 Herne Hill H 647; 6 South London H 650.

Under 13. 1 S Millard (Herne Hill) 12:02; 10 Y Marghini 13:42.

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