The Surrey Cross Country League’s defending champions secured a dominant win at Wimbledon Common.

In what was possibly a record-breaking performance, the Belles finished with all their top five A team scorers in the top eight, led home by Martina Conner in third. The B team closed with captain Steph Hewitt in 23rd for third place out of 30 teams overall.  A total of twenty five women competed for the club, which is the equivalent of five complete teams.  

This first Surrey League match was a home fixture for Belgrave and could not have taken place without over twenty volunteers from the club, marshalling, recording and supporting. Special mention to Don Anderson, Chloe Mangan and Tommy Taylor who stayed in the cold and damp entering results onto the computer until well past 4.00pm while most had either gone home or to the pub.

Luckily the sharp showers held off until all the races had been completed, the weather being rather kinder than predicted. Martina Conner has been training hard ahead of the National 5000m Championships back home in New Zealand in December. She was in the leading pack of three runners on the first lap and held on to a fine third place at the end. 

Then came the Belgrave express. Five runners finished from 5th to 9th, comprising new member Juliet Hodder, Ella Fennelly, Imogen Wolsey, Emily Bradley and Emily Robbins, who was led B team and who just two weeks previously had run 2 hrs 40 in the Berlin Marathon, the third fastest Belgrave time ever.

There were two more very strong runners making their Belgrave debuts, with Ruby Whyte-Wilding finishing in 15th and Laura Boehm in 17th. They were closely followed by Naomi Garrod and Steph Hewitt in the low twenties for a B team score of just 86 points. The finish funnel was a sea of maroon and gold vests. 

They were followed a fine run from Emily Lowery returning at last from long term injury and Karen Xiang still in the top thirty and leading what could have been a C team, completed by Penny Oliver, Sam Munday and Nancie Bowley. If this team had counted they would have finished an incredible 6th overall with 176 points. 

The next five, Olivia Lucas, Laura Trask, Lucy Peters, Lara Mangan and Molly Canham all within the top 65 would have still have been just ahead of the second placed B team, Herne Hill with  283 points.

The final five belles, supporting the club and demonstrating tremendous strength in depth, were the so reliable Lydia Gallyer-Barnett, Ella-May Hards and Sara Ridmy, then new member Lauren Liversidge and finally Marianna Patat welcome back after a summer of travelling.   

You can find the full results here. All photos by Danny Easton.