Hercules Wimbledon AC round up: Senior men on brink of winning Surrey Cross Country League Division One title

Hercules Wimbledon Athletic Club’s senior men’s team will go into the final Surrey Cross Country League match next month in pole position to take the Division One title, writes Tom Pollak.

Since storming to victory in the first match in Richmond Park back in October the team’s focus has been on clinching the title for only the second time since 1967 when Hercules AC (who were champions in 1965) amalgamated with Wimbledon AC to form Hercules Wimbledon.

The club’s senior women finished fifth at the same venue in the Ladies League, their best performance this season.

Having won the first two matches, the senior men were just pipped by Belgrave Harriers. The slim nine-point victory did little to eat into Hercules’ lead of more than 380 points which they will take into the final showdown on Effingham Common on February 19.

First home for them in the five-mile race was Dan Cliffe (26:56) as he finished fifth. He was followed by the in-form Tom Jervis (eighth in 27:09) with team captain Fred Slemeck, who won the individual silver medal at the Surrey championships the previous weekend, finishing 11th (27:33).

Four of the athletes who took team bronze at the Surrey championships were also in action.

Other leading finishers were Andrew Penney (14th in 28:00), Jonny Cornish (18th in 28:05) and Richard McDowell (20th in 28:14), only a week after winning the gruelling 43-mile Country to Capital Ultra race from Wendover to Little Venice, Paddington.

Jackson Creegan finished 34th (29.04), with Rhys Boorman a place behind (29:07). Finn Johnson (43rd in 29:21) and Sam Todd (45th in 29:31) completed the 10-man scoring team.

Balancing experience with youth, the senior women were led in by team captain Claire Grima, who covered the 8km course in 34:10 to finish 16th. Fellow veteran Gina Galbraith was 31st in 35:08.

Completing the scoring team were U20 trio Albane Fery (33rd in 35:14), Kiara Valkenburg (40th in 35:39) and Niamh Thompson (50th in 36:04).

The U17 women’s quartet of Lulu Weisz (race winner), Eloise Davies (second), Millie Thorpe (fourth) and Abbie Grey (ninth) were team winners as were the U13 girls squad of Ava McAndie, Iona Alexander, Leah Paulson and Julia McDonnell.

The U15 girls were fourth and the U13 boys third while the combined boys’ U15 and men’s U17 team came fifth.

Hercules will be fielding strong teams across the age groups in the Southern Cross Country Championships, which are being held at Beckenham Place Park on January 29th.