Surrey League Guildford Oct 2019
< report here >
Men’s Surrey League Cross Country- Division 1, Effingham Common, 12 Oct, 2019
John Gilbert’s timely arrival spurs us on to victory
At a new course, Effingham Common, Kent AC men achieved a very satisfying victory in their quest to regain the league title. The whole team were given a boost when John Gilbert arrived with a little bit to spare. Earlier in the day there’d been fears he might not make it as the rail network seemed to be conspiring against him. But he did eventually make it and team mates were delighted he did. We were then treated to classic John. He bided his time for little more than a mile and then surged past the early leader to open a decent gap on the rest of the field that was never bridged. Allied to a reasonable block of training, John conceded afterwards that it may have been a bit of added adrenaline from the anxiety provoking journey that contributed to the early race surge.
John is undoubtedly a galvanizing figure for the club and when he runs well it’s often no coincidence that the rest of the team run well. That was certainly the case on Saturday as there were a host of strong performances that contributed to the victory. As well as winning the A competition by a decent margin, our B team were also convincing victors on the day.
Jim Allchin was a fine second in the race. Whilst with Thames he’d finished in the top ten before, but now, in our colours, this was his best Surrey League placing. For much of the race he was in a battle with Thames man, James Hoad. The pair forged a bit of gap between a group behind them. The group couldn’t get on terms with them, but they in turn couldn’t reel John in. Our next man in the top ten was Chris Greenwood who as previously reported has been in such a rich vein of form. Just behind Chris in tenth spot was our regular second claimer Max Nicholls. I understand he’s not quite at his fittest so we can anticipate he’ll maybe even closer to the front in subsequent fixtures. Just missing out on a top ten placing in 12th was Jordan Weaver. He wasn’t able to unleash one of his trade-mark finishes today so perhaps he’s saving it for a later fixture. Another man in good form is Ben Harding. Following on from his fine relay run the previous week, Ben finished an excellent 16th. There was a bit of a gap before our next finisher. Like Ben, newcomer Cedric Hauben had run well at the relays. He proved he’s no slouch over the country coming home 32nd in this quality field. Reportedly doing very little training at the moment Dame Dibaba still managed to finish high up the field in 35th. Although he was up at the front at the start, he possibly didn’t go out quite as quickly as he normally does. The slightly steadier start may have benefitted him later in the race. Our final scorers for the A team were Chris Busaileh , 41st, and another newcomer, Joe Vis, 46th . Joe’s running for us second -claim and it was great that he was able to contribute on his first outing for the club.
It was no wonder our B team were convincing winners. A combination of finishing high up the field and excellent packing proved a winning formula. In fact, our score of 55 was reportedly the lowest a team can get and I would think something of a rarity. We had a bunch from our club, presumably all trying to get the better of one another, from 49th to 52nd. They were Niall Stewart, Neil Phillips, Dave Morgan and Bradley Smith. Bradley was making his debut for the club and he looks as though he is going to be a real asset. To be just a few seconds behind Dave indicates Bradley is a very decent runner. Close up behind Bradley, with just one Guildford runner in between, was Dan Pettitt. Then there was another tightly packed group from our club that made up the B team scorers. Rowan Crichton headed the group and he was followed by Barny Day, Patrick Vis, Isaac Maxwell, Ian Ellwood and then Matthew Maginn. I believe Matthew was our last B team scorer as although Patrick ran really well on his debut, having already had two second claim scorers, he didn’t actually score. Both Matthew and Isaac who finished just ahead of him are under 20’s which is very encouraging for the future.
In addition to our team scorers, a look at the full results shows that there were a good number of other runners from the club who should be pleased with the standard of their performance. Another newcomer was George Russell who finished alongside Jonathan Tipper. George was 91st which in Surrey League Division 1 is good going. There were so many good news stories from our point of view. There was of course the strong form of our established runners. However, as indicated we also had a number of runners new to the club who made an immediate impact. I’d mentioned Cedric in a previous post. However, I wasn’t aware that prior to coming to the UK he’d been a training partner of one of Belgium’s top female marathoners. Apparently, Joe Vis has been training at Ladywell for several months while he has recently been joined by his twin, Patrick who has also relocated. Joe’s clearly fitter at the moment but the pair undoubtedly have potential. I mentioned that Bradley Smith had finished just behind Dave Morgan. That in itself was impressive. But what makes it even more so was that as someone new to cross- country he was wearing bog standard trainers – not trail shoes or spikes. Obviously proper shoes are going to make a bit of a difference. Finally, George Russell who made the top hundred was a member of Beeston, a club near Nottingham. He hasn’t been training with us for long but is another who looks as though he’s going to make real progress.
Post -race we were able to reflect on what an excellent start we’d made to the campaign – just what had been required. However, at the same time we know we can’t get ahead of ourselves. Hercules are likely to be stronger at the next fixture and so it’s vital we maintain the momentum and turn out another really strong team at Wimbledon. The second fixture is on Wimbledon Common, hosted by Thames, on November 9.
Surrey Cross Country League – Div 1
at Effingham Common on Sat 12th October 2019
1st John Gilbert 25 16 Teams: 10 to score
2nd Jim Allchin 25 31 1st Kent AC 204
9th Chris Greenwood 25 57 2nd Hercules Wimbledon 297
10th Max Nicholls 25 58 3rd South London H 326
12th Jordan Weaver 26 01 4th Thames H & H 335
16th Ben Harding 26 22 5th Herne Hill H 451
32nd Cedric Hauben 26 51 6th Guildford & G 473
35th Dame Dibaba 26 59 7th Belgrave H 576
41st Chris Busaileh 27 19 8th Dulwich R 690
46th Joe Vis 27 33 9th Clapham Chasers 743
49th Niall Stewart 27 38 B teams: 10 to score
50th Neil Phillips 27 40 1st Kent AC 55
51st Dave Morgan 27 41 2nd Herne Hill H 230
52nd Bradley Smith 27 44 3rd Thames H & H 365
54th Dan Pettit 27 47 4th Hercules Wimbledon 414
69th Rowan Crichton 28 15 5th Guildford & G 484
70th Barny Day 28 17 6h Clapham /C 486
71st Patrick Vis 28 20 7th South London H 514
72nd Isaac Maxwell 28 21 – 1st U20 overall 8th Dulwich R 700
73rd Ian Ellwood 28 22 9th Belgrave H 847
74th Matthew Maginn 28 23 – 2nd U20 overall
80th Calum Fraser 28 36 U17/ U15 Race: 4 to score
82nd Tim Lawrence 28 38 24th Lucus Zurdo
84th Sean Fitzpatrick 28 40 41st Guy Barrett
90th Jonathan Tipper 28 50 45th Theo Gaynes
91st George Russell 28 52 74th Oscar Zurdo
99th Peter Lighting 29 03 81 finished
100th Will Pitt 29 05 Team : Kent AC 8th
104th Stuart Beaney 29 27 Under 13 Race
106th Joe Hartley 29 36 15th Olly Buck
109th Phil Sanders 29 40
118th Lee Haze 30 03
120th Thomas Thain 30 05
122nd James Bowler 30 20
132nd Arif Merali 30 31
157th Che Compton 31 19
195th Michael Stewart 33 40
208th Alan Curtis 35 04
210th John Greene 35 47
221st John Barron 37 37
223rd Rob Naybour 38 05
226th Phil Marsden 39 52
228 Finished