First up were the ladies running at Reigate and making the return (after a few years) to the top flight of Surrey league running. The Division 1 fixture was certainly a ‘baptism of fire’ with top-quality clubs positioned at the pinnacle of the division including the likes of Belgrave Harriers, Thames Hare & Hounds and bizarrely (considering this is the Surrey league) Kent AC!

Given the national if not international standard of the competition it was always going to be a tall order to make inroads into this fixture especially as the Stragglers ladies were missing some of their key runners, but the excellent 19 runners who represented the club showed guts and determination.

Particularly at the sharp end there was an exciting intra-club competition going on with Rachel Woodthorpe leading the line and finishing in 28:01, but all the time being chased down by Juliet Cleghorn who worked her way through the field really well to finish the second placed Straggler in 28:10. There was an equally exciting competition for third and fourth Straggler with Pam Whitter finishing in 28:51 holding off Karen Levene by one second! The A scorers were finished off by Dee Smale running 29:53 and holding off Helen Davies who headed up the B team competition with an admirable battle going on further down the table.

All of this, though, was not enough to prevent the ladies propping up the table after the first fixture.  However, as they say, ‘the only way is up’ and at this stage there are still a number of clubs within striking distance including Woking, Epsom & Ewell and Ful-on-Tri to suggest that the women could yet hang onto their Division 1 status.

In the afternoon it was the turn of the men and the theme of mass participation continued with astounding 41 men turning up to run at Wimbledon Common, again surely the best for some years. The race itself had a rather unsatisfactory narrow and congested start up a hill but this didn’t stop Stragglers soon getting into their stride around the 5½ mile course.

Jim Lurkins for the seniors had led the race out, but was ultimately pegged back by the experienced Surrey league campaigner Simon Ford to make up the Straggler 1-2. Another veteran Roy Reeder had an interesting battle with Ollie Garner with Roy coming out on top by seven seconds.  In another battle of the veterans Ben Osborn held off Dean Morley by 7 seconds, and 5 seconds behind Dean was Ollie Bowers with Paul Bowden, Andy Wren and Chris Walmsley 5 seconds, 6 seconds and 8 seconds behind each other respectively; an amazingly competitive and tightly fought battle amongst the top 10 Stragglers. The closeness of the competition is illustrated when it is considered that only 60 seconds separated the 3rd to 10th placed Straggler. The strength in depth of the squad was further illustrated by Malcolm Davies, Crispin Allen and Donovan Duffy finishing outside the A team scorers with Malcolm and Crispin in particular having an interesting tussle to try and push the A team all the way. 

All of this however doesn’t do justice to the superb race that unfolded right across the field.  Some runners literally shed blood sweat and tears for the team and a particular mention must be made of Trevor Ford, who ran straight into a tree. Fortunately, Trevor is okay now, but the tree has sustained some damage!

Once all the excitement of the race died down it became clear that Stragglers men had done pretty well and so it proved to be with the men recording a second place overall in their opening fixture behind Walton running club and crucially some 50 points in front of Woking AC in third place.  With two teams to be promoted the men had got off to a perfect start to their campaign with excitement mounting before the next Surrey league fixtures to be held on Saturday 11th November.

Malcolm Davies