Men's South of the Thames Championships, Beckenham, 15 Dec 2018
Gnarly end to encouraging year
In some ways this was just a race too far for 2018, as luminaries Wicks, Buckle, Touse, Lowe and Trees all had to bow out in the run-up, but most reassuringly the first four are gung-ho about hitting the second half of the season hard, with dear old Mike moving even further out of reach - from Japan to NZ, but writes that we certainly haven't seen the last of him yet.
Our two-headed monster, Andrius and Paskar, as so often over the last 5 seasons, led our lines brilliantly. Andy just missing out in a dramatic duel with the talented Jim Allchin and PO wrapped up in at least seven different articles of clothing on his top half - and that's what was visible. He may well have had the day's Saturday Telegraph wrapped round him underneath all that garb. Hats off to him for hanging in there as Storm Deirdre did her worst.
Arne, Brad and Ross [pictured] all fought really hard, what a strong middle-order we're building there, and a particular kudos to Ollie Young in his first Championship score for us. Back up was solid with ever-reliable Chris Warren and the membership sec Rob just about as fit as he's ever been - no mean feat to hold off Patrick.
James Morris and Alex Luce finished our work, which brings a 'workmanlike' 2018 to a close. The positives certainly outweigh the negatives in that the squad has grown in quantity and quality, and we have reinstalled a permanent manager after operating under a caretaker for a few months. But as we head into the final year of an intriguing decade in the men's Road and Country division, we can be happy that the ship sails in calmer waters and in the right direction - to success!
Teams
1 Brighton and H 75; 2 Tonbridge 129; 3 Kent 181... 6 Belgrave H 208. 17 teams closed in.
Individual
1 S Ferroni (Brighton) 37:57; 7 A Jaksevicius 39:00; 14 P Owor 40:01; 28 A Dumez 41:08; 39 B Courtney-Pinn 41:57; 48 R Finlay 42:42; 77 O Young 45:23; 93 C Warren 46:51; 95 R Norville 47:00; 97 P McDougall 47:14; 135 J Morris 49:48; 141 A Luce 50:06. 205 finished.