"Sweatshop" Surrey CC League Race 1, Reigate Priory Park

Encouraging start to Surrey League

Oh! How the seasons roll round. As we embark upon the 48th winter of the Surrey Cross Country League we still harbour deep desires to win the series again. Nine times we’ve achieved it, just missing out as runners-up on another eight occasions. Not a bad record, although we must remember that on five instances we’ve also briefly dipped our toes into the murky waters of division two only to jump straight out again.

Nowadays, though, we have to be realistic as we thread our way through a busy fixture list. With Thames Hare & Hounds and Herne Hill giving this series priority and regularly turning out such strong teams, it only takes one poor result from the Bels to wash away all chance of a win, and so we seem to have settled into targeting a slot in the top half of the division. All in all then, third team place in glorious sunshine and among the benign surroundings of Reigate Priory Park was an encouraging start.

What a great surprise it was to see Mike Webb turning out for us again. We couldn’t quite remember when he last ran Surrey League but we are reminded that Mike ran in this equivalent race some ten years ago when he outpaced “Cockers” to become ninth scorer. A decade on and he was our seventh man across the line. Welcome back Mike!

In fact Mike Webb wasn’t the only old timer: Rob Harding completed a lap before deciding that as he was out of the ten perhaps, after all, he wouldn’t attempt a second circuit of the park. Mike and Rob were two thirds of our National “team” at Havant in 1997 in the bad old days when we had temporarily forgotten that we were Harriers and these guys, with Don Anderson were our cross-country torch-bearers until better times.

But back to Reigate where Ben Whitby was soon making the pace, shadowed for the first lap by our own Paskar Owor. Paskar tells us that his international athletics career for Uganda is now over as he prepares to shoulder arms for the British Army. Sure he’ll run for the Army and the Bels when he can but at a lower level than in the days he faced Borzakovskiy & Co at two Olympic Games. Class will out, however, and although unable to match the superb downhill running of Whitby who took 30 seconds out of Paskar on the second lap, the Belgrave man hung on well in isolation to give us a good team start. He also became the 100th league scorer for the Bels this decade.

Starting his twelfth season of Surrey League races – with just two canters missed along the way – Will Cockerell occupied his normal highly respectable place in the low teens, and then came the globe-trotting John Kimaiyo. John Charles ran regularly for us as a youth and junior and is now back in London working as a podiatrist having graduated; he’s a great boost to the team. Beginning to make a few waves is Ben Hurley and he should be delighted with his 36th place - we are! Well done too, Kevin Gadd, just off nights at the fire station yet prepared to come along and keep the team solid.

Can we maintain third all the way through the season? Come along to Coulsdon on November 14th and find out.

Men. B Whitby (Herne Hill) 26:13; 2 P Owor (Belgrave) 26:46; 3 P Rogers (Reigate Priory) 27:05; 13 W Cockerell 28:30; 27 J Kimaiyo 29:17; 35 J Charles 29:48; 36 B Hurley 29:56; 49 K Gadd 30:46; 67 M Webb M40 31:36; 74 J Webb M40 31:57; 79 M Humphrey 32:21; 86 T Ellacott 32:49; 114 R Norville 35:11; 117 P Chapman 35:42; 126 J Hall M60 36:05; dnf R Harding, A Marek.

Teams:

1 Herne Hill H (1, 8, 11, 14, 17, 19, 21, 23, 24, 28) 166;

2 Thames H&H (4, 5, 6, 7, 15, 20, 25, 38, 41) 203;

3 Belgrave H (2, 13, 27, 35, 36, 47, 62, 66, 70, 76) 434;

4 Reigate Priory AC (3, 10, 22, 30, 40, 49, 59, 65, 86, 87) 451;

5 Guildford & Godalming AC (12, 18, 31, 33, 46, 56, 67, 78, 80, 81) 501;

6 South London H (9, 34, 43, 50, 51, 52, 54, 57, 71, 85) 506;

7 Hercules Wimbledon AC (32, 37, 39, 53, 55, 61, 64, 74, 77, 83) 575;

8 Epsom & Ewell H (16, 29, 44, 45, 58, 60, 69, 88, 89, 90) 588;

9 Ranelagh H (26, 48, 63, 68, 72, 73, 75, 79, 82, 84) 670.

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