Storm Brian wasn’t enough to put off 28 Surrey eligible straggler veterans from venturing into Richmond Park in the hunt for more county glory on Saturday 21 October 2017.

First up were the ladies with F35 and F45 teams competing over the 3.8 mile two lap course from Pembroke Lodge down to Pen Ponds and back.  The F35 team were soon into their stride despite the rather breezy conditions and the first three over the line were Juliana Greenwood in 28:43, Georgina Martin in 28:50 and Nicole Hambling in 30:41 to make up the scoring three with Sabine Duffy and Stephanie Atkinson making up the F35 team.  The combined places of the first three runners was enough to earn the team a Surrey bronze medal a very pleasing result for those involved.

The F45s, it’s fair to say, were facing even stiffer competition with a veritable ‘Who’s Who’ of Surrey athletics but once again the Straggler ladies more than rose to the occasion, Juliet Cleghorn in 26:29, Dee Smale in 27:27 and Karen Levene in 27:40 made up the scoring three with a combined result that was good enough to win Surrey silver. Honourable mention must be made to Ladies captain Helen Davies, finishing five seconds behind Karen, a finish which pushed Thames Hare and Hounds down to third place and provided a platform for the top three to finish as runners up.  However, behind those four, there was plenty going on with, Ramona Thevenet running 29:24 and Niamh Finlay, Helene Hill, Fran Thomas and Chrissie Glew making up the F45 team.  In particular Ramona’s run was good enough to earn herself an individual W55 bronze medal but on this occasion top billing was reserved for Dee Smale who grabbed the individual W55 gold medal.

Running in the same race were the M60s.  David Brewin in 27:31, Phil Davies 28:26 and Michael Trott 29:20 were the first three scorers with Peter Wedderburn and Martin Powell making up the M60 representatives.  This result last year would have been enough to earn a medal but it was their misfortune to encounter even stronger teams in the form of Ranelagh, South London Harriers and Hercules Wimbledon, so ended up finishing fourth ahead of Thames Hare & Hounds, Dulwich runners and Herne Hill Harriers, so still a creditable result.

It was then down to the M40s and M50s to run the longer 10k route, two laps from Pembroke Lodge circling behind the Ballet school and running down past Pen Ponds on a quite challenging course. The M40s were led home by Gareth Pritchard in 42:26, Dan Greenslade 42:52 and Robert Greenwood 45:27 making up the scoring three with Joby Thomas completing that team.

Last, but not least, were the M50s.  The first three scorers Roy Reeder in 38:48, Dean Morley 39:49 and Malcolm Davies 39:51. Mark Pattinson and Richard Gray made up the M50 team. The result was good enough to match the best ladies could do and to grab the team a Surrey silver medal ahead of South London Harriers who were pushed down to 3rd place by virtue of Dean and Malcolm finishing ahead of their third placed runner.  It was a very pleasing end to the afternoon, not least of which was that some members of the team were able to go down to Ranelagh HQ to pick up their medals and celebrate accordingly!

Photos   Results