First Place

The second Surrey Cross Country League match at Beckenham Place Park on 10 November saw the Men's team notch up a second match win, following the victory on Wimbledon Common, scoring 199 points to second place Belgrave's 263, to stretch their lead at the top of the League table to 115 points with two more matches to go in the new year.  This time, the race was extra-special, as for the first time since the glory days of the Holt brothers in the 70s and 80s, two Club runners came home in the podium places, as GB internationals Stuart McCallum and Alex Milne took the win and third place, respectively – despite the front runners being spooked by an errant dog darting around their ankles.

Thanks to Mark Hookway for the great image below

Behind Alex, George Brown in 13th and Andrew Penney in 16th followed in next for HW, with team captain James Stockings in 22nd and Charlie Wyllie in 23rd. The Mallett brothers, George and Ed, finished in 28th and 29th respectively, with Fred Slemeck (31st) and Richard McDowell (33rd) closing in the A team. The B team finished second overall, led in by Alex Sutton and Henry Silverstein in first and second, followed by Sam Todd, Tom Maloney, U20s Jack Holden and Sebastian Cockerell, Sam Peters, Finn Johnson, and Joe Clark (M40), with U20 Isaac Lutaya  in the final scoring position, finishing just behind the non-scoring Ben Noad.

'It was a great team performance', enthused Stuart McCallum, 'though it was very chaotic with the rogue dog chasing us for about two thirds of the race and making it very hard to break away. Once we did, though, I had a good battle with Jeremy (Dempsey) of Thames, Hare & Hounds. The race followed my biggest block of training for a long time, so I was really pleased and look forward to going into the rest of the season'.

Equally headline-making was a sixth place for U23 Ruby Carter in the Senior Women’s race on her debut for the Club, to help the team finish in tenth. Since she joined the Club in October, ‘everyone has been so welcoming', says Ruby, who previously ran for her home club of Shrewsbury and trained at university in Bath before moving to London. 'It felt really nice to run somewhere new, with a new set of girls,' she says. 'I had no expectations, because I know that the Surrey League is very competitive, definitely a step up from the Shropshire League, so I really surprised myself. I was honestly hoping for a top twenty finish, so to come sixth was amazing.  

'What was great, too, was that we could hear the men supporting us, as the women's race went off first. I think the effect of having people cheer you on is so under-appreciated. I always find an extra kick when I hear people shouting for me!'

The match was a somewhat quieter affair than usual, as Kent AC only felt able to stage the senior races at Beckenham Place Park,  resulting in the Junior races being deferred to 30 November in Nonsuch Park.

Left: Ruby on her way to sixth place, photo by Mark Hookway; and below, the Women’s team