"Sweatshop" Men's Surrey CC League, Race 2, Wimbledon Common

Young men make their mark in the League

Well, this team had a different look to it ... but as far as the result was concerned it was "no change". For their home match Thames turned out a squad that was too good for the rest. The Bels might have challenged with two more strong runners but colds and injury ruled out a couple of men and in the event five new faces were into the scoring ten as compared with the opening match.

The Sharpman was supposed to be taking it easy on the first lap before coming through on the second; as it turned out he was well up there all the way through. Ok, one might have expected that, but not on the agenda was the forward running of 17 year-old Nick Goolab, training partner of "Sharpy" and cruising home in 11th, scoring 10th. Nick is right at the bottom of the U20 age group but will surely feature in the Championship events the other side of Christmas. And he wasn't the only young man to keep the more experienced men on their toes, for improving another 10 places on his October outing was 20 year-old James Fairbourn - still with only a couple of years of running behind him yet beginning to see a pathway into our major teams.

And yet another 20 year-old made his Surrey League début. Joe van der Toorn has been active for us on the track over 800 metres but in this, only his second cross country race since the age of 15 (the first was the previous week's "Hellrunner" 8 miles,) he comfortably got into the scoring 10.

But it was also a day for old favourites as The Skipper just kept clear of a seriously improving Neil Speaight (up 26 places) while it was good to welcome Kassa Tadesse back into the fold. Lee Greatorex and Tim Weeks both improved more than ten places ... and aren't we pleased that veteran Steve Zealey turned out to close in the team!

Unfortunately both Tom Ellacott and Warren Lynch had to come out of the race with calf muscle problems. Hopefully they'll both be injury free soon.

1 H Lobb (Thames H&H) 28:42; 2 S Sharp (Belgrave) 28:48; 3 P Rogers (Reigate P) 28:53; ... 11 N Goolab U20 30:07; 13 W Cockerell 30:23; 14 N Speaight 30:30; 24 K Tadesse 31:19; 28 J Fairbourn 31:32; 31 L Greatorex 31:39; 36 J van der Toorn 32:01; 37 T Weeks 32:04; 78 S Zealey M40 34:12; 88 R Norville 34:52; 102 A Marek 35:52; 122 R Merrick 37:11; 131 M Taylor M40 38:01; 141 P Cross M50 39:10; 149 M Humphrey 39:54; 159 L Rehn 41:28.

Overall. 1 Thames Hare & Hounds 154; 2 Herne Hill H 227; 3 Belgrave H 255; 4 Ranelagh H 331; 5 Reigate Priory 508; 6 Hercules Wimbledon 534; 7 South London H 632; 8 Guildford & Godalming 642; 9 Wimbledon Windmilers 812.

Overall. 1 Thames Hare & Hounds 357; 2 Herne Hill H 447; 3 Belgrave H 518; 4 Ranelagh H 637; 5 Hercules Wimbledon 1063; 6 Reigate Priory 1127; 7 South London H 1212; 8 Guildford & Godalming 1305; 9 Wimbledon Windmilers 1524.

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