Women's Surrey CC League Division One, Reigate Priory Park

Above: Sarah Murphy (31) is to the fore as the Senior Women's Surrey League field gets under way at Reigate's Priory Park.

Slipping down the table ...

With three matches now gone in the 2007-2008 series, things are beginning to look a little desperate as we begin to drift towards the relegation zone.

One runner short of a full squad for the previous match, we found this time that we were two bodies down. Maureen Noel had heeded the call and turned down a Southern Area RWA 10k at Croydon to turn up at Reigate - but unfortunately a missed rail connection at Redhill meant that she was an hour behind schedule and was too late for the race.

Sarah Murphy made a bold start, chasing Epsom's Emily Nelson away from the gun, and occupied a forward position throughout the race. Entering the finishing field in fourth, about 25 metres down on third, she gained on the two immediately ahead of her all the way to the funnel and just missed out on a podium place by two seconds. She ruefully admitted that she might have picked up the places ahead of her if she'd been a little less tentative on the severe downhill slopes.

Vicky Goodwin, suffering from a cold, and Jennifer Beecroft both did the best they could, but picking up maximum points to fill out the two blanks in the team meant that we slipped to 22nd on the day and 12th overall. With the Team Manager at home suffering from a bad back, it was not the best of weekends for the Belles.

These results are provisional.

1 E Nelson (Epsom &E) 23:43; 2 F Clark (Reigate P) 23:59; 3 N Warner (Thames H&H) 24:01; 4 S Murphy 24:03; ... 67 V Goodwin 28:53; 154 J Beecroft 34:45.

Teams: 1 South London H 83; 2 Ranelagh H 103; 3 Thames H&H 117; 4 The Stragglers 140; 5 Herne Hill H 144; 6 Reigate Priory 152; ... 22 Belgrave H 527.

Overall: 1 Ranelagh H 265; 2 Herne Hill H 339' 3 Thames H&H 420; 4 South London H 469; 5 The Stragglers 473; 6 West Four H 523; 12 Belgrave H 953.

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