Surrey League Mitcham 11th November 2017
MEN’S SURREY CROSS COUNTRY LEAGUE, DIV 1, RACE 2, NOV 11 2017
SECOND PLACE AT MTICHAM COMMON KEEPS US IN CLOSE CONTENTION
Although Kent AC had considerably strengthened the team that kept us in close contention at the first fixture, a measure of the quality of the league this season is perhaps illustrated by the fact that although we had four finishers in the first ten (6th, 7th, 8th and 9th), we still didn’t manage to win the fixture at Mitcham. Hercules Wimbledon got the better of us with a demonstration of their strength in depth. From our point of view, though, there was nothing to be downbeat about – in fact there was plenty to enthuse about. For starters it seems we actually made it to having 40 runners on the start line – a club record I believe. In addition, it was great to see four of our runners in the top ten and fascinating to see the individual battles that took place within this group. For much of the race it looked as though our regular second claimer, Max Nicholls, was going to come out on top. However, he may have paid a little for being the closest of the quartet to the lead group for the opening two laps. And it was a lead group that contained some real class acts, with the eventual winner again being Nick Goolab from Belgrave. In the end our leading quartet finished in the following order: John Gilbert (6th) Jordan Weaver (7th) Max Nicholls (8th) and Chris Greenwood (9th)
A huge positive to come out of the race was the impressive performance of young Noah Armitage–Hookes. Noah was just outside the top twenty (22nd) in his Surrey League, senior debut. Post -match the consensus was that Noah was our man of the match. Not far behind Noah was Dame Dibaba (26th). At the start Dame again charged off into the lead and was with the leading pack for a while. Although he didn’t manage to finish as high as he did in the first fixture, the fixture at Mitcham contained more quality athletes at the front end and so to finish where he did is still seriously good running. Our next two runners, Ben Hope (36) and Chris McGurk (37) had a battle for most of the race and could hardly be separated at the finish. The ‘A’ team was completed by Joe Hartley (46th) and Neil Phillips (50th). Neil pipped Pete Lighting by the narrowest of margins. (See pic for Pete’s last ditch effort)
It was remiss of me not to mention in the last report that this year’s league also features a ‘B’ team competition – especially as we headed the table after the first fixture and consolidated our position at Mitcham. A glance at the Surrey League site results will show how solid we are in this department. The ‘B’ team competition also has an incentive for the top finishers. For instance, in this fixture the likes of Pete and Adrian have narrowly missed out in scoring for the ‘A’ team. But maybe they’ll find that little bit extra at the next fixture and move into the ‘A’ team. Although with the level of competition around it’s going to be tough.
The first fixture at Reigate saw Thames take the lead, but they’ve slipped back a little at Mitcham. They were closely followed by Hercules and then ourselves just a few points behind. With Hercules extremely strong performance in the second fixture they have taken the overall lead with us not too far behind in second. Looks like things are nicely set up for the remaining two fixtures.
Finally, a pat on the back for the Kent AC oldies (plus not so old, Lawrence Avery and Rob Moye) who in conjunction with Clapham Chasers helped put on the race. Special mention to Bob Harris a member of 1980’s vintage who made the trip up from Truro to watch the race and got roped into helping out. And no, it’s not the Bob Harris.
A Team: after 2 matches
- Hercules Wimbledon 534 pts
- Kent AC 565 pts
- Thames H & H 636 pts
- Herne Hill H 732 pts
- Belgrave H 907 pts
- South London H 1033 pts
- Ranelagh H 1077 pts
- Clapham C 1160 pts
- Reigate P 1546 pts
B Team; after 2 matches
- Kent AC 242 pts
- Ranelagh H 702 pts
- Thames H&H 733 pts
- Hercules W 750 pts
- Clapham C 799 pts
- Herne Hill H 882 pts
- South London H 1035 pts
- Reigate P 1507 pts
- Belgrave H 1539 pts
A Team
6th John Gilbert 27 48
7th Jordan Weaver 27 49
8th Max Nicholls 27 50
9th Chris Greenwood 27 54
22nd Noah Armitage 28 42
26th Dame Dibaba 28 55
36th Ben Hope 29 25
37th Chris McGurk 29 25
46th Joe Hartley 29 51
50th Neil Phillips 30 02
Position 2nd
B Team
51st Peter Lighting 30 02 1st
54th Adrian Lowther 30 09 3rd
73rd Jonathan Tipper 30 42 9th
85th Sam Evans 31 09 11th
86th Niall Robinson 31 11 12th
87th Calum Fraser 31 15 13th
88th Sean Fitzpatrick 31 20 14th
93rd Rowan Critchton 31 35 17th
95th Daniel Ansell 31 37 18th
100th Stuart Beaney 31 42 21st
Position 1st
104th Jonathan Beatty 31 47
105th Tim Alexander 31 54
114th Che Compton 32 11
120th Chris Minns 32 17
126th Will Pitt 32 25
138th Ben Cook 32 44
139th Jules Gevers 32 45
166th Ron Taylor 34 08
171st Anthony Johnson 34 28
183rd Chris Lederer 35 14
186th Steve Henshell 35 18
190th Adrian Dracup 35 24
191st Eric Karsenty 35 26
197th Luke Armitage 35 51
208th Tim Sharp 36 26
212th Roger Beardsworth 36 47
220th Paul Crompton 37 31
239th Mark Anderson 39 59
240th Neil Gordon- Orr 40 25
249th Ted Hadlow 50 20 40 runners – a Kent AC record