Belles 1st, Bels 2nd in superb cross country opener at Richmond Park
The highly competitive Surrey League cross country competition returned after a 20-month absence with outstanding performances from both Belgrave senior teams at Richmond Park.
Belles dominant in first league match
l-r: Lizzie Goldie-Scot, Sarah Dewhirst, Alix Vermuelen, Sophie Cowper, Lydia Barnett, Laurel Bray, Lea Adamson, Bethan Goddard, Mimi Corden-Lloyd, Steph Hewitt, Grace Richardson, Liv Papaioannou, Jojo Rhodes, Beth Evans, Emily Bannister. Front row l-r: Jane Vongvorachoti, Sam Amend. Foreground: Dog.
What a day! What a team! What a result!
No less than 18 members of this terrific squad turned out in drizzly conditions in this first league match of the season. Still more had to miss because of colds or injury. Every single member of this team ran better than expected with the Belles A team easily winning the match and the B team 4th, ahead of the A teams of Herne Hill, South London, Hercules Wimbledon and Clapham Chasers amongst other local teams.
The forecast was wrong: the team were greeted with heavy rain before the start of the race, but this did little to dampen the wonderful team spirit. Luckily the rain eased after the race started but it did leave slippery conditions on the downhill sections of the course.
The team were led home by Grace Richardson in 3rd place. Grace had only moved to London from Ireland a few weeks previously, having contacted the club before she moved. She had run well up at Sutton Park the week before, and has been running well at Tuesday sessions, but this performance was at another level. She finished ahead of a Thames athlete who had run in the mid sixteens for 5000m in the summer and in front of several previous winners including an Olympic triathlete in the top ten.
Grace Richardson approaching the finish funnel ahead of Ruby Woolfe, who had won the national 4-stage road relays with Aldershot a week earlier.
Then came our runners in the teens. The secret for cross country team races is packing. The claret and gold vests just seemed to be coming non-stop with another new recruit, Lea Adamson next in 13th, our dependable second-claimer Sophie Cowper in 15th, Liv Papaioannou next in 17th back to her very best, just ahead of Sam Amend in 18th, over twenty places further up than in the same race two years previously. These were the scoring five.
But the Belles kept on coming with Steph Hewitt in 19th, an improvement of 30 places, then Jane Vongvorachoti working herself through to 24th after a cautious start, followed shortly by Bethan Goddard who loves cross country and another ex-Imperial student Alix Vermeulen (who said she was not very fit!) close together and to finish the scoring B team, Laurel Bray still well within the top 50.
So were Mimi Corden-Lloyd in her highest ever finish and Lydia Gallyer-Barnett. Then two more new members; Sarah Dewhirst and Ella-May Hards just ahead of the newly engaged Lizzie Goldie-Scot (to Bels scorer Nick Buckle - congratulations!), Emily Bannister and Bethan Evans still within the top hundred and finally Jojo Rhodes in 102nd out of 251 finishers; so nice to see her still part of this team.
Remember, those who have not scored in either the A of B team are still very important engine room team members. They push scorers from the other teams further down to reduce their team's score. So, all in all probably the best ever day for the Belles in the league, then of course the question; can we go on and win the league for the first time in seven years? With this group of young stars, of course we can.
Special thanks to the club members who helped all morning at the finish funnel: John Gladwin, Don Anderson, Mhairi Hall, Ben Ireland and Orna McGinley. Charlie Dickinson was timekeeper and Terry O’Neill had the thankless task of handing out numbers all morning, missing nearly all the racing.
TEAMS
Belgrave 'A' 66, 2. Thames HH 102, 3. Guildford & Godalming 106, 4. Belgrave 'B' 154.
INDIVIDUALS
G. Bruinvels (SLH) 23:49, 2. S. Monk (G & G) 23:59, 3. G. Richardson 24:04, 13. L. Adamson 25:04, 15. S. Cowper 25:08, 17. O. Papaioannou 25:18, 18. S. Amend 25:22, 19. S. Hewitt 25:25, 24. J. Vongvorachoti 25:52, 33. B. Goddard 26:15, 34. A. Vermeulen 26:17, 44. L. Bray 26:48, 48. M. Corden-LLoyd 26:53, 49. L. Gallyer-Barnett 26:54, 63. S. Dewhirst 27:18, 65. E-M Hards 27:23, 71. L. Goldie-Scot 27:28, 91. E. Bannister 28:26, 92. B. Evans 28:39, 102. J. Rhodes 28:52. 251 finished.
Belles’ race report by Charlie Dickinson
Bels’ best match results since 2007
Standing l-r: Will Cockerell, Adam Roeder, Seb Cockerell, Alex Brecker, Dave Walsh, Conall McNally, Jonny Scott, Rob Norville, Patrick McDougall, Alex Luce, Dave Lewis, Ben Ringrose-Voase, AJ Elsadig, Alex Janiaud, Angus Lamb, Craig Ruddy, James Roberts, Dylan Evans, Valentin Rigori, Tommy Taylor, Jonny Neville, Juan Carlos Casal, Callum Stewart, Paskar Owor (strategist). Kneeling l-r: Nick Buckle, Ben Hurley, Steve Gardner (TM), Charlie Dickinson (coach), Terry O’Neill (eye candy), Mihaly Ormay, Kieran Moriarty.
The men far exceeded expectations at Richmond Park with a combination of sharp end quality, surprise packages, and high standard packing all the way through the scoring ten and beyond.
Our second place on the day was our best match result since a first place in Petersham in 2007.
A total of 27 Bels toed the start line; 26 finished. Your team manager’s ambition was to not make the scorers’ list and in the end the abundance of quality meant he was a reassuring four spots outside those positions. Compare this to the season opener in 2019: just 12 claret finishers and Steve scored fifth.
Dylan Evans (59) leading from Alex Brecker (65) and John Sanderson (26) after the first 3km.
With Nick Goolab still recovering from a long achilles injury, where were we to find a potential race winner? This time round Dylan Evans answered with an emphatic first place, leading from gun to tape and never looking in trouble. Dylan is first claim with Shaftesbury Barnet but lives and trains in Teddington so was keen to swap north London’s Met League for the convenience and quality of the Surrey League…and we’re more than happy to have him turn out in claret and gold. A top guy and a fearsome competitor: after a tough week at work he declared himself only up for a “plod” as he arrived but that strategy was thankfully for the birds as soon we set off.
Only 12 seconds back from Dylan was Alex Brecker in third place. Another Teddington-based Bel, Alex joined us last year from Stoke but has had a frustrating 18 months of injury setbacks and this is the first time he’s worn our colours in a club competition. But he’s also the reigning Staffordshire county cross champion and finished 7th in the National in 2019; you don’t lose that pedigree on the grass overnight. Here he looked imperious throughout and finishing that close to a win on significantly reduced mileage should give him enormous confidence going into the winter.
Misi Ormay in a borrowed emergency vest.
Third Bel home was the day’s surprise package: Imperial College student Mihaly (Misi) Ormay had turned up to a Battersea session on Tuesday night self-identifying as an orienteer, mainly. Coach Paskar quickly identified him as someone to collar for the weekend, though. Did he fancy the Surrey League on Saturday? Sure, why not. But with a 16:31 pb for 5k on the track we weren’t expecting him to score; how wrong we were. A storming, confident run mixing it with some real racing talent proves him both a brilliant natural competitor and what we all know deep down: cross country is a different sport entirely. Cracking run, Misi, can’t wait to see how you go next time.
Fourth and fifth scorers were two good runs from high-calibre cross runners who’ll run even better next time. After three years away from the club running for Inverclyde in Scotland, Craig Ruddy’s 26th came only two weeks after a 2:25 London Marathon and Callum Stewart’s very conservatively-paced 29th was his first go at hard running after a difficult couple of months with quad trouble. More to come from both!
Nick Buckle (8) ahead of Angus Lamb (52), Jonny Scott (16) and Tommy Taylor (4) running brilliantly as a pack.
Then came our highest performing engine room effort for a number of years - and this is where the second place was secured. Conall McNally (42nd), Angus Lamb (47th), Jonny Scott (48nd), Nick Buckle (52nd) and Tommy Taylor (54th) all within 12 places and 25 seconds of eachother. All regulars at Battersea on Tuesdays and Wimbledon Common on Saturdays, all bloody nice boys and all closing out our scoring 10 within the top 54: a real mark of depth of quality. The gap to our 11th scorer was 28 places, the gap to Kent in third was 26 points; if any one of them hadn’t fancied it on the day we’d have slipped.
A special mention to Angus Lamb who far outperformed our expectations on the day and Jonny Scott, making his proper debut for the club after a year of second-claiming as a VPTH first-claimer.
Bels 11-14 all finished in the 80s and within 30s of eachother: Jonny Neville (just six days after Manchester marathon!), Ben Hurley with a strong second lap, AJ Elsadig with gutsy finish on his cross debut and Steve Gardner, who struggled to get out of second gear all day. Their packing provided a solid base for the B-team 10 who’d finish second B on the day, again behind Wimbledon.
A sextet of Juan Carlos Casal, David Lewis, James Roberts, Ben Ringrose-Voase, Kieran Moriarty and Adam Roeder - all making their cross country debuts for the club - completed the scorers for the B-string.
Our 21st man was the ever dependable Patrick McDougall, 9th V50 on the day, followed quickly after by debutant Valentin Rigori. Will Cockerell, Alex Janiaud, Alex Luce and Rob Norville completed our 26 finishers.
A great day with infectious team spirit - and to think we did it all with Goolab, Reece Edwards, Sam Gebreselassie and Phil Wicks unavailable. The next one is 13th November at Wimbledon Common, mark it in your calendars!
Full results can be found on Opentrack or summarised after the photo gallery below.
Photos from men’s race by George Mallinson, from women’s race by Steve Gardner