"Sweatshop" Surrey CC League, Race 3, Wimbledon Common

Cockerell Doodle Doo!

Our Skipper's lost his shoe! Well that's another one to go in the book. After a few ticks of the timekeeper's watch our Captain's hopes of making an impression came to nothing as he lost a shoe in the melee at the start, took nearly half a minute to replace the said item of footwear - and then unleashed the mother of all sprints to get back to the field. Starting with one's finishing burst is not the most comfortable way to run a race!

It’s all looking sorted at the top end of the division – and as Will says elsewhere, “Hats off to Thames”. Already pretty much assured of another Surrey League win at the halfway stage, the result of this race on the Common means they’d have to have an almighty disaster in the final outing at at Coulsdon to lose to the Bels by more than 250 points. It seems that Dulwich Runners are due to return to division two – but who will join them? The odds are that it will be the boys in blue – Ranelagh Harriers.

In spite of being beaten on our home course, it was actually a pleasing performance for the Bels. Veteran Knut Hegvold had a great run, finishing just a second down on Hassan Raidi. Hassan has been wintering in Morocco and had been due to run the Middlesex Champs at Wormwood Scrubs but a recent knee injury caused him to change plans and turn out for the club instead. A sun-tanned Dave Anderson is now running free of injury but has a long way to go to get back to his top form; nevertheless, his appearance over two laps of the Common (prior to a run back to Battersea) was very welcome and boosted our score. Mid-winter niggles for Eliot Lyne and Tom Ellacott also now seem to be behind them and one gets the feeling that come the road relays, competition for A team status is going to be hot.

As usual, very many thanks to those who marked the course, stood at far flung corners of the Common to point out the way, or manned the start and finish areas.

Senior Men's 8 km.

1 E Robinson (Aldershot F&D) 26:12; 2 N Altmann (Thames H&H) 26:19; 3 W Malloch (Thames H&H) 26:25; 9 H Raidi 27:20; 10 K Hegvold M40 27:21; 15 David Anderson 27:39; 25 W Cockerell 28:18; 26 T Ellacott 28:37; 30 E Lyne 28:48; 31 R Alsop 28:49; 33 T Hadfield 28:51; 44 M Humphrey 29:25; 52 C Axe 29:49; 54 B Barton M40 29:52; 57 L Greatorex 30:00; 73 J Webb 30:43; 79 W Drey M40 31:00; 93 S Zealey 31:26; 95 T O’Neill M50 31:29; 100 P Carstairs M40 31:45; 109 T St Leger M40 32:05; 110 G Reid M40 32:06; 123 A Barden M40 33:06; 138 H Corbett M45 34:56; 147 L Rehn M40 36:46; 160 finished.

1 Thames H&H (2, 3, 7, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24) 155 - 512 - 1st

2 Belgrave (9, 10, 15, 25, 26, 30, 31, 33, 44, 50) 273 - 759 - 2nd

3 Herne Hill (4, 8, 12, 18, 29, 40, 49, 66, 68, 69) 363 - 941 - 3rd

4 Guildford &G (28, 34, 36, 42, 43, 45, 46, 47, 57, 70) 448 - 1462 - 5th

5 South London (5, 13, 32, 48, 55, 56, 58, 59, 63, 78) 467 1322 - 4th

6 Ranelagh (11, 19, 35, 51, 54, 64, 71, 72, 75, 76) 528 - 1763 - 8th

7 Aldershot F&D (1, 14, 37, 39, 60, 61, 67, 79, 81, 90) 529 - 1652 - 7th

8 Reigate Priory (6, 27, 38, 52, 53, 65, 73, 80, 82, 83) 559 - 1629 - 6th

9 Dulwich R (41, 62, 74, 77, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89) 773 - 2245 - 9th

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