Men’s 2XU Surrey Cross-country League, Match 3, Streatham Common, 10 Jan 2015
The Craziest Day
Well this was one harum-scarum day, and for the Bels to have got out of it with a victory over Hercules and cementing our Div 1 status, with some half-dozen outstanding runs, is very good work.Will and Charlie left the incredible women at Wimbledon in fairly good time for Streatham but what followed was a nightmare as both beleaguered TM's separately took an hour and a half to get across town, with the roads clogged and trains down. A frantic squad number pinning began at the white-knuckle hour of 1424, and other runners had similarly dire journeys: Taras 2.5hrs from Chessington, Gus 1.5 from Twickers, and only arriving at 1428 for the 1430 start.WC begged the starters to show leniency – and they did – by not starting a minute early but on time. Thanks a bunch! Gus did just make it, but dropped out after a mile, his calf still in disrepair. It may be that he turns his attentions to roads, but we won’t give up on our jewel for the last match and the National just yet.
Despite being very low on numbers, our 11 men fought like cornered tigers, with brilliant runs from nearly everyone (present company excluded). PO creeps ever higher on the all-time Surrey wins leaderboard, drawing level with another Belgrave giant Gary Staines on 10. Gerry North is now tangible on 13… Chris Greenwood of Kent hit the race very hard though, and only taking up the sport at 38 would have been the oldest league winner in history at 41. Only one quadragenarian has ever won, Dave Taylor on his 40th birthday.Heroes kept on coming. Taras had barely a warm-up, but produced another very fine run for his best for us so far; and then our three triathletes all had stellar returns. Nick’s form we know all about, but what about Matt keeping him honest, and a very warm welcome to debutant Luke Pikett just a few ticks back. Epic work lads, on this, the toughest course on the circuit with some 12 minutes of solid climbing.Mike is purring quickly back into form whilst Patrick, a decorated fell runner, found the going to his liking, and it was great to see Frase the Lase back in the saddle. Our day was rounded off by Adam down in 166th, but he can be happy to say he’s a Belgrave Surrey League scorer for all time.1 P Owor 28:12; 10 T Telkovsky 29:40; 19 N Bundle 30:22; 29 M Welsh 30:46; 34 L Pikett 30:55; 54 W Cockerell 31:59; 67 M Trees 32:55; 84 P McDougall 33:18; 101 F Logan 33:54; 166 A Schindler 43:06; 170 JC Doukrou 44:17. 177 finished.Teams: 1 Kent 276; 2 SLH 328; 3 HHH 340… 6 BEL 452.Overall: 1 Kent 684; 2 THH 955; 3 SLH 1062; … 7 BEL 1456.