Straggler Men Dig Deep at Nork

Surrey League Men Division 2 Match Report: Nork Park Banstead 10 November 2018

Ahead of this fixture I was a little apprehensive as four of our scorers from the first race were not going to be available. However, the club once again proved we have great strength in depth because we surpassed our 5th place at the first race by finishing in a superb 4th place overall.

The course was technically challenging, undulating but for the most part fairly firm underfoot. The conditions were mild but with the threat of a storm in air which hit us at the end of the race.

Tim Haughian once again led the team home with another brilliant 2nd place overall. Tim quite rightly heads the Surrey League division 2 individual rankings.  Second Straggler man was new recruit Andrew Keane with a fantastic Surrey League debut run for us.  Both Jim Lurkins and Andrew Tugwell secured top 50 finishes.  Paul Bowden and Richard Carter with only six seconds separating them were leading the charge behind. Next home was Charlie Jeffrey his first scoring performance in the Surrey League as a senior. Only four seconds separated our last three scorers - Richard Baggott, Crispin Allen and Malcolm Davies.  What a finish that was! It should be noted that Malcolm was the first v50 in the race over the line another great run from Malcolm.

We should not forget the B team performance on the day who finished in a brilliant third place confirming the club really does have an abundance of quality cross country runners! The two Andrew's Wren and Hoseason set the standard followed by Gareth Pritchard and Stuart Hambling ( despite a fall) making their first league appearances of the season. There was yet another exciting tight finish of only 5 seconds splitting Mark Pattinson, Steve Clelland and Jonathan Davies.  Cross country stalwart Tiago Ramos was next home followed by club Chairman Kevin Price. Completing the B team scorers was Steve Smith with another impressive run.

It was very pleasing that in total 28 Straggler men made the trip to Nork Park, it is great to see so many of us taking part in these races.  There was also lots of fantastic vocal support round the course from Kev Best, Pam, Helene, Ramona (and others) basking in the success of the ladies team earlier in the day. Special mention too for Helen Davies for helping out with race number duties and a very special mention must go to Susan Howarth for giving up her time to help marshal the race following a plea from the race organisers.

The Surrey League for the men takes a break until the New Year (January 12th, keep it free!) but there are plenty of other opportunities coming up to keep your spikes employed, check out the web site for full details!

Simon Brazil

Stragglers Men’s Captain