Surrey XC League round-up, 13-14th Nov ’21
Croydon Harrier’s men’s team enjoyed their first Surrey cross-country league win in six years on Sunday at Dorking.
England 10,000m champion Dom Nolan led home the Croydon contingent with an emphatic win, by a margin of nearly two minutes, with James Hancock a solid third. A returning Brendan Murphy finished 7th in his best finish since 2014. Alex Penfold (14th), Phil Symonds (19th), Alex Dunn (21st), Adam Hudson (25th) grouped well to ensure Croydon had seven finishers in the top 25. Pat Lucas (42nd), Ashley George (102nd) and David Brown (112th) completed the scoring team, in a field of 200 finishers. A further seven Croydon athletes took part, with the B team finishing 7th.
The result leaves Croydon 2nd in the nine-team division, with two fixtures to go. The top two gain promotion to the league’s top flight.
At Wimbledon, the women’s squad would finish 12th on the day out of 46 teams. Anna Corby led the Croydon team home in 25th, with Madeleine Armstrong-Plieth (35th), Laura Marshall (40th), Leanne Moore (71st, 1st U20) and Jules Del Nevo (162nd) rounding off the scoring quintet.
Kyron-Bailee Burke finished third in the under 15 boy’s race, a performance which has earnt him Surrey selection for the inter-counties at Lloyd Park on the 11th December. Douglas Aikman finished 13th and Noah Ralphs 71st. The team finished 10th out of 18. George Shepherd would place 49th in the Under 13 boy’s category in a field of 60.
In the girl’s races, Holly Smith finished a creditable 18th with twins Mary (27th) and Faustina Raki (28th) and Jasmine Bell (29th) in close attendance. The team finished 7th. In the Under 17 age group, Holly Perks (16th) and Millicent Figueira (19th) kept the Croydon flag flying and they’d place 7th in the team race.
