The Surrey cross country league season finished on Saturday at Coulsdon and Richmond Park.

Walton’s men and boys finished their league season on Farthing Down with some very encouraging individual performances.

James Harvey, as usual, led the men home in 13th place (29.15). He ran a storming second lap, improving from 21st at the end of the first lap. Robin Copestick was only 40s behind in 25th (29.57). Richard Drew had a good run in 48th (31.14) closely followed by John Redshaw in 52nd (31.29) . Andy Pillidge was 115th (38.30).  The team came 8th and finished the season 8th overall meaning that we drop back to division two for next winter.

The under 13 boys did really well. Harry Marchbank achieved his best ever race position, 2nd place (17.29), and he was well supported by Ben Kennard 6th (18.06) and, in his first league race, Hugo Fleming in 8th (18.54). Despite being two runners short of a full team the boys came 2nd in the team race only one point behind winners Guildford and finshed the season 4th overall.

Jack Marchbank came 5th (19.39) in the under 15 race and his consistant running across all four races gained him third place in the overall individual competition. Christian Murphy showed improvement to come 7th (23.54) in his second club race. Alexander Aylett was 5th under 17 (19.48) meaning that the combined u15/u17 team came 3rd on the day and 3rd overall across the four race season.

Full results can be found on the South London Harriers website

Meanwhile the girls were racing in Richmond Park. Nathalie Warren continued her steady improvement over the winter with a best ever position of 32nd (23.34), Jo Locker was 49th (24.16). With only two runners the team finished 15th in the race and 15th over the season.

As with the boys, the under 13 age group had a strong turnout. Lauren Highton was first home in 15th (15.39) followed by Abi Wroth 17th (16.07), Kim Dawkins 22nd (16.50), Charlotte Toms 23rd (17.10) and Shannon Kay 33rd (18.53). The under 13 team was 5th and 8th overall.

Ellen Sellwood finished 19th in the under15 race (19.32) and Walton 10th in the team race, 8th overall across the season.

Under 17’s Rebecca Sims and Josie Morley  had good runs for 17th and 18th (24.21) & (24.38). In the under 17 team race we came 8th on the day and 7th overall.

Full results can be found on the Ranelagh Harriers website.

Overall it was a mixed season. The senior teams, both men and women, suffered badly from injury and unavailability  and were unable to hang on to their hard won positions in division one. There were, however, some excellent individual performances throughout the season.

In the other age groups things were much more encouraging with the higher turnouts than ever before and some very talented athletes showing great promise for the future.