Herne Hill Harriers have team and individual success at Surrey Cross Country League meet in Beckenham Place Park

Herne Hill Harriers secured three team victories and also a hat-trick of individual race winners at last weekend’s Surrey Cross Country League races in Beckenham Place Park, writes Geoff Jerwood.

The U13 boys were the first winners with Caspian Holmes taking another strong individual victory to lead his team. James Clements-Nash (third), Edward Cunniffe (fifth) and Luca Boulton (12th) completed the scoring quartet.

Arguably the most impressive performance from any club present on the day was Harriers domination of the U15 girls race. Orla Carroll was the individual winner, the A team took first spot with the second string placing third overall and first B team.

Carroll took the win ahead of Orla Wright (third), Sophie Jack (fourth) and Lily Kitto (seventh). The B team were track star Lily-Rose Brown (12th), Martha Brennan (14th), Freya Morrison (15th) and Anna Forster (25th). The A team are the league leaders after three of the four fixtures this season.

The U15 boys and U17 men race as a combined team in this league and this race produced the other Herne Hill win of the day. Excellent close packing from Alex Jack (sixth), Fabien Whitelock (seventh), Harry Bell (ninth) and Robin Bebbington (10th) saw them take the spoils.

The senior women’s A team were beaten into a very close second place for the third time in three fixtures. Because the leading teams have all beaten each other it means Harriers have managed to hold on to a narrow lead at the top of Division 1 with a final race to come next month.

Georgie Grgec ran out to a clear win for the second successive league race, which means that Herne Hill have provided the individual winner of all three races so far with Olympian Katie Snowden triumphing in the first race in October.

Grgec was well backed up by Jenny Nandi (16th), W40 Gaby Reynolds (17th), Grace Leyland (18th) and Julia Wedmore (21st), who was only wearing one shoe after she lost the other in mud towards the end.

The senior women B also placed second on the day and were eighth overall. Another W40 Suzanne Swaine had her best race of the season in 27th, with back up from U20 Kaitlin Hewitt (29th), Karen Ellison (35th), Eliza Cottington (56th) and Fiona de Mauny (70th).

The senior men had to cope with two key withdrawals on the morning of the race, but finished sixth A team and fourth B team with 10 runners scoring in each team as they turned our a total of 34 runners.

Lewis Laylee led the impressive red-and-black charge with his best run to date in this league finishing a good 14th. Close behind were Carl Delaney (19th), John Franklin (26th), Brandon Dewar (43rd), Daniel Shaw (56th), David Moyse (60th), M40 Jeff Cunningham (63rd), Ronan Tanguy (76th), Alex Hobley (82nd) and Matt Cartwright (93rd) as they formed the scoring A team.

The senior men’s B placed fourth. The 10 scorers were Ross Brown (97th), M50 Simon Coombes (106th), Greg Mills (109th), M45 Ben Millar (127th), John Foxall (119th), James Brown (125th), Tom Irish (136th), M40 Pip Bennett (137th), M45 Robert Peacock (138th) and Scott Morrison (140th).

Both the U13 girls and U17 women fielded incomplete teams, but featured good individual performances from Florence Mills (third), Sofia Mendes (15th) and Summer Mackay (21st) in the U13 race. Grace O’Hanlon was fifth and Rosalie Laban came 15th in the U17 event.

Andrew Warburton clocked 32:10 in the Valencia 10km.

Charlotte Kenyon ran a PB of 93:12 at the Brass Monkey Half Marathon in York.

Main Pic: Another clear senior women’s Surrey League race win for Georgie Grgec
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