Women's Surrey CC League, Race 4, Ewell

Close - but not close enough

Despite two wins out of three in the league the Belles went into the final match in second place behind Ranelagh. Ranelagh had had an outstanding opening match, beating the Belles by 55 points and the Belles just hadn’t been able to make up the ground. A 17 point deficit stood between the team and the league championship going into the final race.

Sadly, it was not going to be our day. A number of key players had been lost over the season due to injury and illness. Those competing were also suffering from winter snuffles and it was not a full strength team that lined up alongside countless blue and yellow Ranelagh vests. With the course being like a quagmire and with tight bends and concrete paths to cross it was not the easiest of courses for any of the athletes but the Belles still gave it their best shot.

Front runner Sarah Murphy has been going from strength to strength over the season but the mud claimed one of her spikes which slowed her somewhat as she battled to retrieve it (the paths were too stony to run without shoes.)

Tilly Heaton showed her consistency, just a couple of places behind Sarah, and the Belles second scorer. Her marathon training is reaching an intensive period and a battle over the Ewell course must have been a shock to the system.

Surprise athlete of the day was Angela Walker whose 17th place showed that she is quickly returning to form despite a year’s absence due to back problems. Less than 2 weeks earlier Angela had achieved 12th place in the Barretts Canterbury 10 miler in 67.57.

With Juliette Clark having to pull out on the second lap it was down to Helen Smethurst and Syreeta Stracey to round up the A team’s position. With both finishing in the low 20’s this would normally be a good team result but Ranelagh had already finished seven athletes ahead of us, with more to follow.

The Belgrave B team had performed well all season but with only three athletes scoring for the B’s on this day, their position in the league also suffered. Sarah Gailey gamely ran despite a post-birthday hangover, whilst new runner Sarah Castle showed that she’d been putting in some extra training since her last race finishing further up the field than previously.

It was a sad day for the Belles as right up to the start of the last race we had seriously hoped that we could do enough to retain the championship. Ranelagh however pulled out all the stops and put together an unbeatable team. Their first win of the league title in its 26 years was well deserved. Next year let’s hope it’s a different story and the Belles get the hunger for winning yet again.

U17W/U20W. No young athletes competed on the day and no Belgrave athletes featured in the individuals’ championships. Belgrave only managed to place 11th in the Final League Table with 83 points (based on 1 race).

U15G. No young athletes competed on the day and no Belgrave athletes featured in the individuals’ championships. Belgrave only managed to place 10th in the Final League Table with 270 points (based on 3 races).

U13G. Because of a transport hiccup, no young athletes competed on the day. However, Megan Evans had done sufficient work over the previous 3 matches to earn the top honour in the individuals’ championship scoring 6 points - a fabulous result for this promising youngster. From a team perspective it wasn’t so good as Megan often raced on her own in this age group and the Belgrave U13 team only managed 13th place with 408 points (based on 3 races).

1 D Lee (Thames H&H) 24:04; 2 E Nelson (Epsom &E) 24:27; 3 R Disley (Thames H&H) 24:42; 9 S Murphy 25:30; .11 M Heaton 25:40; 17 A Walker W35 26:32; 22 H Smethurst W40 26:59; 25 S Stracey 27:10; 56 C Eastham 30:16; 75 S Gailey 31:54; 121 S Castle W35 40:16; dnf J Clark W40.

1 Ranelagh H 47; 2 Belgrave H 84; 3 Ranelagh H 'B' 152; 4 South London H 153; 5 Thames H&H 178; 23 Belgrave H 'B' 532.

Final League Result

1 Ranelagh H 245; 2 Belgrave H 299; 3 Thames H&H 508; 4 South London H 540; 16 Belgrave H 'B' 1328; 35 Belgrave H 'C' 1315 (2 races only).

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