"Sweatshop" Men's Surrey CC League, Wimbledon Common
James Kelly - making a name for himself
With Brockwell Park no longer available for Surrey League competition due to red tape, the opening league fixture switched to our own course on Wimbledon Common. Only those "long in the tooth" will remember that this exact course was regularly used for the opening race way back in the early 60s. It turned out to be a popular switch with the runners, for we had a large turn out of over 170; and no wonder, for four of the clubs now contesting Division One are based on the Common: Belgrave, Thames, Hercules Wimbledon and Wimbledon Windmilers.
Our own team was a little depleted with most of the top guns taking a break from racing in the middle of a run of high powered events. So it was left to James Kelly, making his league debut, to tackle the sharp end of a Thames squad strengthened by the appearance of Huw Lobb. James pushed on hard from the start, knowing that he was likely to be in for a hiding. It was a courageous move that had him in oxygen debt towards the end.
The Skipper was in good form, benefiting from hard training for the Istanbul marathon, but he found World Aquathlon Champ Richard Stannard snapping at his heels ... and we had three men home in the first ten; not a bad start at all. Knut Hegvold and Pete Willis occupied 20th and 21st with our next pair, in the 30s, including James Fairbourn - three minutes faster and 47 placers higher than in January on the same course - impressive improvement eh!
And if such heroics weren't enough, we had Sharky Speaight close behind, back in action after some severe surgery. Lee Greatorex and Tim Weeks closed in the ten inside 50.
Sixty points cover the top three teams and with Ranelagh also within striking distance of the top three it looks as if we may have a tighter competition on our hands this winter.
1 H Lobb (Thames H&H) 26:33; 2 J McFarlane (Thames H&H) 26:42; 3 J Kelly (Belgrave) 27:01; ... 9 W Cockerell 27:45; 10 R Stannard 27:52; 21 P Willis 28:33; 22 K Hegvold M45 28:34; 37 J Fairbourn 29:28; 38 M Trees M45 29:40; 40 N Speaight 29:45; 42 L Greatorex 29:52; 50 T Weeks 30:33; 74 W Lynch 31:30; 75 J Webb 31:35; 82 S Zealey M40; 84 F Ward 32:02; 114 C Hobbs 34:08; 119 A Neail 34:50; 131 P Cross M50 35:43; 138 M Taylor M45 36:10; 150 L Rehn M40 37:02; 151 H Corbett M45 37:20; 154 M Humphrey 37:33; 165 D McMillan M55 42:03; 169 T Stone M60 49:14; ...170 finished.
Teams: 1 Thames H&H 203; 2 Herne Hill H 220; 3 Belgrave H 263; 4 Ranelagh H 306; 5 Hercules Wimbledon AC 529; 6 South London H 580; 7 Reigate Priory AC 619; 8 Guildford & Godalming AC 663; 9 Wimbledon Windmilers 712.
Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.