Tonbridge dominate men’s team event while Belgrave win a poorly-supported women’s event in the last championships race of 2022

SOUTH OF THE THAMES CHAMPIONSHIP, Aldershot Hampshire, December 17

On a day when winter was at its most biting, a smaller than is usual field returned to Wellesley Woods and saw a close race in the men’s division as Georgie Bruinvels added the 7-mile title to the 5-miler than she had won three weeks earlier, Martin Duff reports.

Local organiser and current South of the Thames Association president, Mike Boucher gave his reasons for the lower turn out. He said: “It was probably a combination of train strikes, the weather, a venue out of South London and the fast 5-mile race in Battersea Park the night before.”

The lower numbers did not prevent a close battle at the front of the men’s section as first across the line, Peter Chambers, Brighton’s Josh Hobbs and eventual winner Ben Cole were battling things out with Chambers and Cole taking turns to lead.

Eventually it was Highgate Harrier Chambers who won by about 40 metres as Cole took the championship ahead of Howard and also led Tonbridge to both the six-to-score and 12-to-score team trophies.

This race was previously entitled the “Senior” championship of the Association and leading medals were given to the top veterans in each 10-year category. These went to Jeff Cunningham (M40), Ben Paviour, who had won the South of England M50 title the previous week, Mick Lane (M60) and Mike Mann (M70).

Women cross-country runners only rarely get a chance to race over a distance as long as seven miles but here they did and Bruinvels took her third Association title but her first over the longer senior distance.

The 34-year-old was never seriously challenged and ran out a comfortable women’s section winner, with a minute to spare over Serena Carter. A similar distance further back, Naomi Lenane led Belgrave to a women’s team victory in their rare six-to-score team championship.

Their veteran medals went to Suzanne Swaine (W40), Sophie Biggs (W50) and Ange Norris (W60).

Overall:

1 P Chambers (High, gst) 38:20; 2 B Cole (Ton) 38:30; 3 A Howard (Ton) 38:37; 4 J Hobbs (B&H, U20) 38:39; 5 J Sanderson(G&G) 38:58; 6 S Strange (Ton) 39:16; 7 C Dockerill (Kent) 39:32; 8 C De’Ath (Ton) 39:28; 9 M Costley (Soton) 39:29; 10 J O’Connell (AFD, U20) 39:33; 11 S Molloy (Ton) 39:36; 12 J O’Hara (Soton) 39:38; 13 K Barnes (Craw) 39:43; 14 T Foster (G&G) 40:04; 15 J Van Deventer (G&G) 40:07; 16 K Bowling (AFD) 40:10; 17 M Dubery (Ton) 40:20; 18 E Dixon (G&G) 40:21; 19 J Neville (Belg) 40:25; 20 J Bryant (Ton) 40:29; 21 L White (Tun W) 40:37; 22 D Debaba (Kent) 40:40; 23 F Dyer (Belg) 40:44; 24 C McNally (Belg) 41:04; 25 E Brady (THH) 41:13

M40: 1 J Cunningham (Herne H) 41:49; 2 N Phillips (Kent) 41:57; 3 C Chessell (Swin) 42;40

M45: 1 O Gosden (G&G) 43:15; 2 N Henderson (E&E) 43:48

M50: 1 B Paviour (Herne H) 42:53; 2 N Tearle (G&G) 43:57

M55: 1 N Tennyson (G&G) 44:55

M60: 1 M Lane (Rane) 51:40

M65: 1 J Foss (S Lon) 54:32

M70: 1 M Mann (Dulw R) 62:31

TEAM (6 to score): 1 Tonbridge 47; 2 Guildford & G 127; 3 Kent 173; 4 AFD 209; 5 Tonbridge B 265; 6 Herne h 273; 7 G&G B 358; 8 Stragglers 475

TEAM (12 to score): 1 Tonbridge 312; 2 G&G 485

Women:

1 G Bruinvels (AFD) 44:50; 2 S Carter (THH) 45:56; 3 N Lenane (Belg) 46:49; 4 E Stevens (AFD) 47:08; 5 O Papaioannou (Belg) 47:39; 6 N Beadle (Belg) 48:47; 7 S Riceman (Belg) 49:03; 8 J Nandi (Herne H) 49:23; 9 S Biggs (Strag, W50) 49:32; 10 K Ellison (Herne H) 49:50

W40: 1 S Swaine (Herne H) 50:28

W45: 1 S Winter (Strag) 51:13

W50:  2 N Cahusac (G&G) 51:24

W55: 1 S Harrison (G&G) 55:13; 2 O Balme (Dulw R) 55:34

W60: 1 A Norris (Dulw R) 65:18; 2 G Wheeldon (Herne H) 66:00

Women TEAM: 1 Belgrave 50; 2 Herne H 116

BERKSHIRE CHAMPIONSHIPS, Cookham, Berkshire, December 18

In his first outing in his county championships for 10 years, the 2019 world steeplechaser finalist Zak Seddon returned to his roots to win the senior men’s title to go with his under-20 gold back in 2012, Martin Duff reports.

A podium placer in British steeplechase championships for the past four runnings of the event, Seddon also won the Inter-counties junior title in 2012.

Backed up by younger brother Matthew’s third place, the 28-year-old led Bracknell to the team gold medals but the brothers were split by Sam Hart. The Newham & Essex Beagles runner has returned to action this winter and here backed up his third spot in the December fixture of the Met League.

The last time that Elena Carey ran in the Berkshire cross-country championships was in 2019 when she was third in the under-20 event but here dominated the senior women’s race, winning by well over three minutes. Second woman home was top W35 Charlotte Firth, herself a senior winner back in 2016.

Sam Hodgson retained his county under-20 title to make it three local championships in a row, having previously taken the under-17 event before the pandemic struck.

English Schools fifth-placed steeplechaser Josh Minoia moved up from fourth last year to win the under-17 gold medal.

Men:

1 Z Seddon (Brack) 30:24; 2 S Hart (NEB) 30:50; 3 M Seddon (Brack) 31:37; 4 J Rennie (Read) 31:44: 5 A Sutton (M’head) 33:02; 6 R Brooks (Read) 33:08; 7 C Craik (Newb) 33:10; 8 H Razzaq (Read) 33:32; 9 C O’Neill (Newb) 33:35; 10 M Clutterbuck (WSEH) 33:46

TEAM: 1 Bracknell 15; 2 Reading 18; 3 Newbury 28; 4 Bracknell B 43; 5 Reading RR 52

M35: 1 R Baylis (Datch, M40) 35:37; 2 T Easten (M’head, M45) 35:40; 3 B Gerrard (Newb, M40) 36:06; 4 C Madelaine (Read, M40) 36:06; 5 C Burt (Read RR) 36:09; 6 M Robbins (Newb) 36:19

M45: 2 C West (M’head) 38:08

M50: 1 F Donnelly (Read RR) 38:03; 2 M Ferguson (Datch) 38:14; 3 J Quinn (Read)30:05

M55: 1 P Branston (WSEH) 39:30; 2 A Colling (T Kennet) 40:26; 3 M Rodda (Read) 43:24

M60: 1 S Watson (Read) 45:58

TEAM: 1 Newbury 16; 2 Maidenhead 24; 3 Read RR 26; 4 Reading 41; 5 Newbury B 47

U20: 1 S Hodgson (WSEH) 26:08; 2 F McGrath (WSEH) 26:26; 3 W Goddard (WSEH) 27:12; 4 C Parker (Read) 27:22; 5 J Atwell (Read RR) 27:43; 6 J Campbell (WSEH) 28:22

TEAM: 1 WSEH 6; 2 WSEH B 25

U17: 1 J Mingoia (WSEH) 16:49; 2 G Thomas (WSEH) 17:21; 3 C Welch (WSEH) 17:38; 4 B Dewar (WSEH) 17:43: 5 N Thomas (BMH) 18:23; 6 E Lewis (Read) 18:32

TEAM: 1 WSEH 6; 2 WSEH B 20

U15: 1 G Branston (WSEH) 15:04; 2 J Tilmas (Read) 15:21; 3 J Norton (Newb) 15:39; 4 J Glendenning (Newb) 15:47; 5 T Silvey (WSEH) 15:50; 6 W Humm (Brack) 15:52; 7 D Lewis (Brack) 15:58; 8 M Stylo (M’head) 16:04; 9 N Tyers (Read) 16:15; 10 D Weller (Brack) 16:18

TEAM: 1 Newbury 19; 2 WSEH 20; 3 Bracknell 23

U13: 1 S Weeks (Read) 11:58; 2 B Lucas (Brack)12:13; 3 X Lee (Newb) 12:21; 4 J Legge (Brack) 12:28; 5 G Hilliar (WSEH) 12:34; 6 H Hunter (Read) 12:38; 7 A Charles (WSEH) 12:39; 8 E Langley-Aybar (Brack) 12:41; 9 J Brooker (WSEH) 12:42; 10 D Wisinski (Read) 14:16

TEAM: 1 Bracknell 14; 2 Reading 17; 3 WSEH 21

Women: 1 E Carey (Brack) 28:30; 2 L Tolson (Read) 31:39; 3 L Marlow (Read) 32:22 4 N Harris (Read) 32:42; 5 A Clarke (WSEH) 33:01: 6 L Blythe (Read) 33:14

TEAM: 1 Reading 9

W35: 1 C Firth (WSEH) 31:31; 2 L Baylis (Datch, W40) 35L:01; 3 H Pool (Read RR, W45) 35:52; 4 C Welch (Brack RR, W45) 35:56; 5 S Francis (Read, W50) 36:30; 6 S Simms (M’head, W40) 37:34

W50: 2 C Shrimpton (M’head) 38:25

TEAM: 1 Maidenhead 22; 2 Maidenhead B 33

U20: 1 J Ridley (WSEH) 22:20; 2 A Baines (Brack) 23:02; 3 J Hatch (WSEH) 24:13

TEAM: 1 WSEH 8

U17: 1 H Haldane (Read) 18:42; 2 E Davey (WSEH) 18:59: 3 J Robertson (Newb) 19:09; 4 J Heller (WSEH) 19:35; 5 E Bartlett (WSEH) 19:39; 6 K Flockhart (Brack) 20:21

TEAM: 1 WSEH 11

U15: 1 A Farley (WSEH) 16:33; 2 G Langdon (Read) 16:51; 3 M Sichoya (Brack) 16:57; 4 M Fieldsend (Brack) 17:07: 5 K Burgess (Newb) 17:12; 6 A Marden (Read) 17:24: 7 E James (Read) 17:41; 8 A Passos (WSEH) 17:48; 9 L Rennie (Read) 18:48; 10 F Gilbert (Brack) 19:11

TEAM: 1 Reading 15; 2 Bracknell 17; 3 WSEH 22

U13: 1 Z Allen (WSEH) 12:24; 2 T Ferguson (WSEH) 12:36; 3 E Dias (WSEH) 13:16; 4 Q Bookless (WSEH) 13:23: 5 A Thomas (BMH) 13:49: 6 C Bailey (T Kennet) 14:13; 7 K McCrabbe (M;head) 14:22; 8 Z Davey (WSEH) 14:50; 9 I Nation (Brack) 14:53; 10 C Bullock (Cookham) 14:53

TEAM: 1 WSE 6; 2 WSEH 25; 3 T Kennet Tri 29