Third Surrey League title for the Senior Men!

In a battle that went right down to the wire, the Senior Men finally clinched the Surrey Cross Country League title for the third time in Lloyd Park on 11 February. No one can say the venue hasn't been lucky for the lads, since each of the team's three hard-won titles has been achieved negotiating the ups and downs of this Croydon park.

Team captain Fred Slemeck, who had called for a big effort in the final showdown, also sealed the individual honours thanks to his super-consistent performance over the four matches, as some superb packing by the scoring ten saw them overhauling Guildford & Godalming’s 24-point lead at the top of the table to win the match by 77 points and the League by 125 points.

At the spearhead Jonny Cornish and Fred Slemeck finished in 7th and 9th respectively, and then followed the crucial packing as five more athletes crossed the line in rapid succession. Charlie Eastaugh, who ran in the Ayo Falola Dream Mile at Lee Valley earlier in the week and is no fan of cross country, nevertheless finished brilliantly in 15th. Ed Mallett was 16th, followed in by brother George, ignoring the injury he sustained when he turned his foot scoring for the winning team in the County Championships in – you guessed it – Lloyd Park in January.

Oli Carrington, who had also been battling illness and injury had a great run to come home in 18th, with James Stockings just behind in 19th. Dan Cliffe, back for the first time after a hip injury and not fully fit, was nevertheless determined to play his part, finishing in 26th. Finn Johnson, continuing to return to form, came home in 36th, and to complete the catalogue of bravery Sam Todd, despite feeling out of sorts throughout the race, gamely hung on to close the scoring team in 57th, and with it seal the title.

Belgrave’s Will Cockerel, penning a review of the season for sponsors OpenTrack, summed it up: ‘Hercules had a 24 point deficit to make up over a remarkable assault from Guildford but it was felt by the sages that they would respond with some ferocity, and goodness did they ever’, he wrote. ‘With 20% of the squads home Guildford had grown their lead to 32 points, and at the half-way stage they still had a 12 point advantage. But credit to Hercules’ next five as they took a brutal 127 points out of their rivals. Superb strength in depth seeing them home'. 

‘In my view the title was won at Beckenham’, says coach Ben Noad, looking back over a chequered season in which the team finished second to Guildford on their home turf in match 1, won resoundingly over Wimbledon Common, to shoot back to the top of the table in match 2, then slid back into second place at Beckenham as they finished behind home team Kent and Guildford in match 3, before the final reckoning in Lloyd Park.

‘That might sound bizarre when we didn’t win the match at Beckenham', he admits, 'but we knew we would be without a number of big hitters and when we asked everyone to step up, the group pulled out tremendous performances just when we needed them, notably Rhys Boorman with his best ever finish in the League, and Finn Johnson, Archie Walton and Jamie Bannister producing their best races of the season. Even though we finished third in the match, we showed we were still competitive, and only 24 points off Guildford for the title’.

Ask him to compare the three victories, and, he laughs, ‘that's a bit like being asked to rank your kids! Of course the first one will always be special because everyone felt we were doing it for Pete Mulholland. I used to keep saying to Pete "we are going to win this", and we had come tantalisingly close in 2018, so it was emotional for everyone, and all the more sweet as Kent had such a good squad at the time and had won the League six times in a row.

'Of course Kent came back at us the following year, but having broken the hoodoo the group had a real belief that we were a match for anyone and that set up everything that followed. The second victory was about reinforcing our strength but it was a strange season, with a cancelled – then rearranged –fixture at the end by which time we only needed to turn out a scoring team.

'This year we won with all first-claim athletes, which is special, and whereas previously people were training in disparate groups, at the heart of this squad is the Tuesday/Saturday group, which has generated a really good spirit, with athletes who are injured, and so can't run, nevertheless coming along to matches to cheer on their team mates. It feels like everyone wants to be a part of it, and such is the depth of quality now that honestly, beyond the first four or so usual suspects, I couldn't have told you who the scorers might be from match to match'.

In the Junior Leagues, the U13 Boys came home in third place in the final match, finishing the season in second place overall. The U17 Women were also second in their match, cementing their second place overall for the season.

The U13 Girls (above) finished their season in third (fifth on the day) with Isabella Harrison taking the individual title, having won all three of the matches in which she competed.

The U15 Girls were fourth, finishing fifth overall in their league, while the combined U15/U17 Boys/Men were third on the day, finishing fifth overall. The evolving Senior women's team (below) finished the season in 13th overall, and 10th A team.