Starter for Ten

The Senior Men’s team got off to a great start in defence of their Surrey Cross Country League title on Wimbledon Common on Saturday. All ten scorers finished in the top thirty to top the leaderboard with 153 points over Belgrave Harriers in second, with 204, on what was home ground for both Clubs. As always, the key to success in these races is turning out in numbers, and forty Club athletes duly answered the call to compete.

While the race was won by Belgrave’s Andrew Fyfe, Dan Cliffe followed him in in second for HW, with Toby Cooke in fifth, Alex Milne in ninth and Will Haston, in his first race for the Club, in tenth. Hot on his heels were George Mallett in 12th and Charlie Wyllie in 14th. Team Captain James Stockings was 19th, with his predecessor as captain, Fred Slemeck in 25th, just ahead of the evergreen Richard McDowell (M45) in 26th. Charlie Eastaugh closed the scoring team in 30th.

One place behind, Henry Silverstein finished just outside the A team ten, but led in the second-placed B team of Ed Mallett, Sam Todd, Ryan McCallister, Archie Walton, Alex Sutton, Oli Carrington, Chris McIlroy, U20 Sebastian Cockerell, and Joe Clark (M40).

The emerging women’s team, including many making their debut for the Club, were 15th, with the usual suspects, Claire Grima (W45), Matilde Lomba (W35), and Gina Galbraith (W45) the first three home for the Club. The U13 Girls won their match, and the U13 Boys, despite Max Harrison and Thomas Hennigan coming home in first and second, were missing a few key athletes and so finished second. The U15 Girls, led in by winner Isabella Harrison, topped their table, while the U17 Women were also victorious. The Combined U15Boys/U17 Men were third.