Weekly Update - 19th Nov. 2025

Kent Cross Country League #3, Danson Park (Sat. 15th Nov.)

Young Athletes (Mark Newell): In the under 15 girl's race, Charlotte Foster (pictured) opened up a gap half way through the race comfortably winning, 25 seconds ahead of second place finisher. Lizzy Sanders was next to finish for the club in 7th place.  Top ten finishes were achieved in the under 17 races by Meredith Cummins (3rd) and Oliver Cook (5th).

In the under 13 boy's race, Harry Baldwyn had his best race of the season when placing 13th. In her debut race of the season, Harriet Rew was first to finish for the club in the under 13 girl's race followed closely by Lily Mesquitta in 25th place.

There was only one second separating our three under 15 boys. Everything was left to a sprint finish with Austin Richards (22nd) just holding off Alex Van Den Berg-Hows (23rd) and fast finishing Herbie Tobin (24th).

Senior Men: Before the start of this, the third race of the league season, writes Clem Dixon, we were treated to a rather overzealous lecture from the race referee warning us against foul play: apparently deliberate spiking, shirt pulling, pushing and punching are all against the rules and will result in disqualification, who would have known? We were missing a few big names but there was no need to resort to any such tactics, the opposition were also below full strength and into the breach stepped new member Hugh Tibbs: more at home running (and winning) 100 mile trail ultras but as his sub-16 minute parkrun times testify he can hold his own over shorter distances, so it was no surprise that he was our first finisher in 8th.

Just behind Hugh, Danny Kendall and Ben Shearer had their usual tussle with Danny just prevailing, as he usually does: 9th and 10th and are now 2nd and 3rd in the individual league table and 1st and 2nd in the M40 category. Not much further back Angus Vosper had his best run of the season to date for 13th place earning the four to score team another 2nd place behind Tonbridge.

Hugh Tibbs - Danny Kendall - Ben Shearer - Angus Vosper

Things were closer in the twelve to score, we had to go down to 76th to find Stephen Thompson who had the honour of being our 12th man home, 2nd place here too but only by a slender margin from Blackheath & Bromley. With just one more race to go (Norman Park on the 13th of December) 2nd place for the four to score now looks assured: we can thank Bexley AC not only for hosting this event but also for finishing 3rd, behind us but ahead of both Blackheath and Medway leaving us five points clear. Things are tighter in the twelve to score, we will probably need to beat Blackheath in what will be their home race to stay 2nd.

As always it is not just about what happens at the front of the race: we had another excellent turnout with 36 finishers, a total that included five who were running cross country for the club for the first time: welcome not only to Hugh Tibbs but also to Kareem Richardson, Terry Stark, Anthony McGinty and Alex Griffith-Crowe. We also had one runner who last raced in a Cambridge vest more than 40 years ago, welcome back John Backley!

In the earlier race for men in the over 70 age category we had three runners: Mick Ellsmore (6th), Peter Hadley (15th) and Les Pullen (17th).

Hampshire Cross Country League, Wellesley Woods, Aldershot (Sat. 15th Nov.)

Running for her second claim club, Bournemouth AC, Amelia Lawrence competed in the second cross country race in the Hampshire League. In the combined senior Women/Under 20 women's race she placed an excellent 7th out of 133 over the 5.95 km course with a time of 23:41.

RunThrough Battersea Park Half (Sat. 15th Nov.)

Sophie Morris recorded a time of 1:47:22 at the Battersea Park Half on Saturday.

RunThrough Fulham 10k (Sun. 16th Nov.)

Bobby Babaker and Mattia Berardi both recorded personal bests. Bobby finished 37th, removing 37 seconds from his previous best with 31:23. Mattia reduced his best by a minute, clocking 33:53.