South of the Thames Cross Country Championships 2015: 7.5 miles at Somerhill

The 2015 South of the Thames Cross Country Championships took place on Saturday 19th December, hosted by Tonbridge Athletic Club in the grounds of the schools at Somerhill, outside of the town.

242 runners completed the tough 7.5 mile course, with the men's and women's races taking place together. The men's winner was Kent A.C.'s John Gilbert in 42:29. For much of the race he was neck and neck with Tonbridge's Max Nicholls, the 19-year-old Team GB junior mountain runner, but Gilbert pulled away on the last lap and Brighton and Hove's Stephen Ferroni squeezed past Nicholls on one of the final hills to take the silver ahead of Nicholls in third place.

Amy Clements (Kent AC) won the women's gold in 50:40, twenty seconds ahead of Nicole Taylor (Tonbridge AC), with Sammi Amend (Belgrave Harriers) in third. In the veterans categories Kent AC's Chris Greenwood and Cath Stibbs won the M40 and W40 medals, Tunbridge Wells Harriers' Alex Howey and Dulwich Runners' Clare Elms won the M50 and W50, with the M60 and W60 won by Michael Thompson (Tunbridge Wells Harriers) and Maggie Statham (Holland Sports AC) respectively.

In the men's team competition the big prize  - in every sense of the word  - was the Dewar Championship Shield for the six-to-score (i.e. team with the lowest combined points for their first six finishers wins, with one point for winner, 2 points for second place etc). Kent AC won by a six point margin from Tonbridge, with Belgrave Harriers in third. In the 12-to-score competition, positions were reversed with Tonbridge AC first, Kent AC second, and Brighton and Hove AC third.

Kent AC's winning men's team - Neil Phillips (8th place), Chris Greenwood (4th),  John Gilbert (1st), Ken Pike (manager/coach), Owen Hind (9th)m Ben Harding (18th) James Connor (12th).

Detail from the Dewar Challenge Shield, presented to the South of Thames Cross Country Association by whisky magnate and MP Thomas Dewar (1864-1930). Note the image of runners heading towards a gate.

The women's race was won by Dulwich Harriers, with Kent AC in second place and Belgrave Harriers in third position.

Kent AC women scorers  with their silver medals: Cath Stibbs (7th place), Amy Clements (1st) , Kate Williams (26th), Sarah Young (31st), Victoria Buck (20th), Teresa Murphy (14th).

The course

The map and the territory

The course, which had been very well laid out by Tonbridge AC, was essentially set on one side of a large hill in the grounds of Somerhill House. Built in the 17th century, the building and its estate have a rich history including a period as a World War Two prisoner of war camp and a link to the wonderful stained glass windows by Marc Chagall in the neighbouring village of Tudeley. Since the 1990s Somerhill has been the home to several independent schools.

Somerhill was painted by JMW Turner in 1811, and the hill shown in the painting was the one we ran up, down and across at the weekend, with three significant ascents on each of the three laps. The ground was soft, and fairly muddy/slippery in places. A few tumbled and most were fairly drained by the end - I know I was, coming down with a cold I considered getting round without stopping an achievement in itself.

I bet Turner didn't run up that hill nine times in an hour

Film of the race from Tonbridge Athletic Club

History

Kent AC (my club) have been doing really well in cross country in recent years,  winning the men's Surrey League and men's and women's races at last month's South of the Thames Team Race (a shorter race previously known as the South of Thames Junior race).  But the club have not won the South of Thames Championship since 1907, when the team came first in the race held at Bromley. J. Keywood won the race for Kent AC that day, followed by R.H. Backshall (Eastbourne) and J.S. Satch (Kent AC) in third place.

Kent AC's Albert Aldridge, one of the country's top distance runners of the period, won the South of the Thames in 1902, though on that occasion the club finished second to Brighton and County Harriers. The location again was Bromley - 'Mr A C Norman's park' - which as today's Norman Park Recreation Ground hosts Bromley parkrun and the running track used by Blackheath and Bromley Harriers.

See also:

South of the Thames Team Race 2015 at Polesden Lacey

Report of 2014 South of the Thames on Wimbledon Common 

South of the Thames Cross Country

Last week was a good one for cross country, with events across the UK on nicely watered (therefore muddy) terrain. 

Further afield, British runner Kate Avery won the US NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) Women's Cross Country in Terre Haute, running for Iona College, while Paul Pollock won the Irish Inter County Cross Country Championships in Dundalk. Also last week, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) announced that the 2017 World Cross Country Championships will be held in Kampala, Uganda - the first time in Africa since Kenya in 2007.

The start/finish point for the South of the Thames cross country on Wimbledon Common

In London, more than 300 runners from 19 clubs took part in the South of the Thames 5 Mile Team Race (formerly known as the South of Thames Junior) on Wimbledon Common on Saturday 22nd November. Paskar Owor (Belgrave Harriers) came in first, followed by John Gilbert (Kent AC) in a closely contested battle for second place with third placed Dean Lacy (Cambridge Harriers). But in team terms, it was Tonbridge Athletic Club who won in the 'four to score' competition, and Belgrave Harriers in the 'eight to score'*.

John Gilbert, Kent Athletic Club, heading to second place
(photo from Kent AC race report)

In the women's competition, first scoring finisher was Stacey Ward of Herne Hill Harriers, followed by Mel Wilkins (Belgrave Harriers) and Claire Grima (Hercules Wimbledon). Belgrave Harriers won the team competition, with Kent AC coming in second and Ranelagh Harriers third.

The winning Belgrave Harriers
(photo by lovegrovec10 on instagram

Kent AC women's team, in 2nd place
(photo from Ronnie Haydon on twitter)

I ran for Kent AC, coming in way down the field but scoring for the B Team in the eight to score, which came ahead of five A teams from other clubs*, so there! In truth though, the Kent men's team missed some key runners, what with Paul Pollock - who came 2nd running for Kent in the Surrey League XC in Lloyd Park earlier this month -  off winning in Ireland (as mentioned above) and Chris Greenwood retaining his V40 title at the British and Irish Masters Cross Country International in Nottingham, finishing 2nd overall. But fair play to Tonbridge, Belgrave H., Hercules Wimbledon, Thames Hare & Hounds and Herne Hill Harriers who all put in good performances to finish ahead of Kent in the men's race.

winners medal

The course was over two laps in the wooded north west of Wimbledon Common, starting off with a long descent with all that implies for the seemingly interminable run back up again. Mud was fun, enjoyed slipping on the downhill section and having to run dangerously fast through the trees to stop myself falling over completely. An unfortunate collision with a dog at mile four made me glad to have been wearing trail shoes rather than spikes.

The course was laid out by Hercules Wimbledon, presentations afterwards (and tea, cake and showers) were at the Wimbledon clubhouse of Belgrave Harriers, while a third Wimbledon-based club, Thames Hare and Hounds ('the oldest cross country team in the world') also took part. Nobody can say that this part of London is anything other than rich in running history, as is the South of the Thames race itself.

The origins of the South of Thames go back to the class-bound and slightly stuffy world of Victorian organised athletics in England. In the early days of the 'gentlemen amateur', 'mechanics and tradesmen' were excluded from many established clubs, and these did not want to compete with the wave of newer clubs set up around pubs and other places. These latter clubs were defined as 'Junior' - in status rather than referring to age of runners. 

As explained at the South of the Thames Cross Country Association site, these newer clubs started their own South of the Thames Second Class Inter-Club Race with a race on Wandsworth Common in 1888. That was the start of the South of Thames, open not just to South London clubs but to any in an 'area bounded by the River Thames in the north, the south coast, the county of Kent in the east and as far west as a team might be prepared to travel' (SoTTCA). Most of the older established clubs ended up joining in eventually.

The Lister-Western-Munroe Shield won by Tonbridge Harriers in the men's race this week

(well done to Tonbridge Athletics Club for posting film of the race here)

(Full results here)

* in this race, prizes are awarded for both 'four to score' (i.e. based on the best four runners from each team), and  'eight to score' (based on the first eight runners from each team).  In the 'four to score', the A team are the club's first four finishers, the B team, their next four finishers, and so on. Same only with multiples of eight for the 'eight to score'. Still getting my head around all the technicalities of scoring.

See also:

Forward to Farthing Downs - start of Surrey League Cross Country (October 2014)