Bels take 5th at the Southern with Reece Edwards in 8th
Belgrave’s team fifth was our best result at the Southern since 2015 and Reece Edward’s 8th was his best cross country performance to date.
Back row l-r: Reece Edwards, Arne Dumez, Tom Lole, Toby Fletcher, Callum Stewart, Ewan Somerville, Nathan Visick, Matt Edgar, Nick Buckle, Jonny Neville, Conall McNally. Front row l-r: Frank Hurley (apprentice physio), Ben Hurley, Valentin Rigori.
Despite missing six of our 10 scorers from Mitcham Common a fortnight earlier, the Bels came to Beckenham Place Park with that Surrey League win still fresh so Charlie’s tent was full and buzzing with anticipation. A glance at the cork-dry course complete with longish gravel section did little to dilute the enthusiasm.
Reece gets the better of Sam Eglen (2849) and Newham’s Charlie Brisley.
Despite the TM’s warnings on the start line, that enthusiasm turned into a violently fast start. This was a 15km race, a different game to the league’s 8k. But that was no issue for marathoner Reece Edwards who immediately glued himself to the back of the leaders. He would find company there until the last two laps when that group disintegrated and it became a dogfight between him and Aldershot’s Sam Eglen, who had beaten Reece by several places at the Surrey County Championships at the beginning of the month. Reece came out on top this time and finished in 8th, two places ahead of Tokyo Olympian Zak Seddon.
There were only 36 runners between Reece and Callum Stewart who had yet another superb XC outing. It’s about time we stopped being surprised by this. His 44th place improved on his 48th in the same competition in 2020 and showed that he belongs up there with the regional belters.
A first lap claret cluster sees Nick Buckle lead Jonny Neville from Conall McNally. Tommy Taylor is a handful of places back.
What followed next was a beautiful display of packing. The next four scorers in claret and gold all came within 16 places of each other. Leading the train was Jonny Neville who had been threatening to put something big down on paper all season long. Back in marathon training now, the miles were clearly sorting out his confidence as he charged to the front in the final hundred meters to just sneak into 98th - and all with a smile on his face! Conall McNally finished a round 100th in his trademark ‘is he falling over?’ style. Mr McNally has racing lots recently and it showed. He was confident, clever and tough.
Our fifth scorer, opting for spongey trainers instead of spikes on this surface, was another stormer for Nick Buckle. He doesn’t have the mileage in him to stay with Neville and McNally over this distance but this was another dogged display of XC racing from the former rower. TM Arne Dumez came down from the North Yorkshire Moors specifically to take part in this fiasco, and he wasn’t disappointed. Positioned at 10th Bel in the first lap, his consistent effort eventually saw him reel in the runners who’d not quite calibrated for the extended duration. Delighted to get in a hard day’s work, he close out his team’s scorers and held off Hercules Wimbledon’s final scorer in a sprint finish.
Early exuberance from Toby Fletcher.
The packing continued well beyond the scoring six: Tom Lole had a fantastic run. He has been easing himself into the team XC atmosphere and, with a few practice rounds under his belt, he came to Beckenham meaning business. He managed to catch Toby Fletcher who was one of the victims of the fast start. He was our third scorer on lap 1 but suffered later on - without letting it spoil his day, to his credit. We admire the bravado and the aggressive style! Ewan Somerville endured a similar fate but we can’t blame him too much - this is his first season of cross country and was a 100m/200m guy until as recently as two years ago. Matt Edgar was another in the top 100 for the first half but didn’t quite have the mileage to stay there to the end. Then Nathan Visick placed 179th which meant that our second six, (if the Southern did B-teams) was entirely contained within 34 places and would have finished 18th, ahead of the A-strings from the likes of Serpentine and TVH.
In 209th Ben Hurley ran well but would have preferred a bog and closing in 286th the dependable Valentin Rigori looked like he had a good day out again.
All in all, a very strong performance. The late losses of Sam Gebreselassie (hip) and James Fox (exams rearranged to a Saturday!?) cost us just about the 160 points required to leapfrog Hercules Wimbledon into fourth. But fifth is still our best result at the Southern since a silver medal in 2015 and another convincing sign of our continued progress.
TMs: Arne Dumez and Steve Gardner
