Hercules Wimbledon AC round-up: Senior men earn emphatic win to move top of Surrey League table

Hercules Wimbledon senior men’s team moved to the top of the Surrey League cross-country Division One thanks to a dominant win on home turf on Saturday, writes George Mallett.

Their success included five in the top 10 on Wimbledon Common as Hercules moved past Guildford & Godalming into the competition’s overall lead at the halfway stage.

The club’s combined score of 181 for their first 10 finishers was the lowest this year and sees them take a six-point lead over Guildford heading into the final two fixtures. Belgrave Harriers are third, 153 points adrift.

The race was won by GB Olympian and World Indoor Championship medalist Marc Scott, competing as a guest runner around the undulating but largely dry two-lap course.

As an athlete used to competing at a world-class level, it shows the depth of the Surrey League that he was only an 18 second winner over Ian Crowe-Wright of Belgrave Harriers.

Just over a minute behind Scott was Hercules’ first athlete Andrew Penney in third, overtaking Jonathan Cornish in the finishing straight in a brilliant intra-club tussle.

Hercules’ depth was signaled most fittingly in the form of Fred Slemeck, Ed Mallett and James Stockings all coming within 10 seconds of each other for ninth, 10th and 11th, with all moving one place higher due to Scott’s non-participation in the team competition.

Slemeck made it two consecutive top-10 appearances this year and is third in the individual competition. Mallett improved 11 places from October’s fixture, to beat his league best by five places.

Stockings, a recent Hercules signing, was making his Surrey League debut and helped secure a valuable low score. Behind this trio was George Mallett in 21st, a one place improvement on last month, with Richard McDowell showing a return to form in 30th.

Charlie Eastaugh, more often much higher up the field, endured a difficult race but secured valuable points in 31st with another recent signing Archie Walton an impressive 35th.

Finn Johnson (37th) continued his good recent form to rounding out the scoring ten.

Oli Carrington (46th) was first finisher in the B team competition with Joe Clark 59th. Hercules’ combined score of 200 mean they also lead the B team competition, this time 11 points ahead of Belgrave.

The club’s senior women finished 13th overall. Jennifer Fernando was their first finisher in 40th ahead of Matilde Lomba (44th), just five seconds back. Eloise Davies and Claire Grima finished 66th and 67th respectively with Millie Thorpe rounding out the scoring five in 110th.