18 harriers drove up to the popular parkland of Beckenham Place for the second and championship race of the historic South of the Thames cross country series.
The weather looked pretty glum from the outset and traffic proved a menace for many, some of which before we even left Tunbridge Wells! Needless to say, the majority of the team arrived with 30 minutes to spare at the multi-sport Beckenham cricket club, once visited by many tennis greats in the Kent Championships.
The start was an uphill charge close to the Beckenham Place Mansion and the course consisted of a small and rather tough short lap near to the former 17th hole (which is now a lake). Neil Clark came charging out of the very same mansion a mere 20 seconds after the gun went off, to join the start and catch up the race!
Notable mention also goes to our chairman Andy Howey who came out of the bushes to find the team had all rushed off to the start and left him without a number. This led to some spirited planning to arrange for Andy to be handed his number by Matt Clements on the final hill.
The short lap then joined 2 long laps, which alleviated the forest bottleneck in previous years. There were some fierce and slippery ascents for our newcomers, but the course was pretty firm overall. There were a number of comments it was far from the claimed 7.5m, but no one was complaining as Storm Deirdre made itself known towards the end of the race (also making further photos impossible).
Both men and women’s races are run simultaneously, the Masters at Dartford being the only other XC event where this occurs. Brighton & Hove came home first in a typically crazy fast time, followed not long after by Tonbridge regular Lucy Reid. Andy and Kieran were in their usual fast form but it was good to see captain Jillian taking first harrier away from Pru after using the ever-present Clem Dixon from Cambridge as a pacer for most of the race! Steve Austin was 2nd M60 and Michelle Bradshaw was 2nd W60
After some mince pies we trudged back to the clubhouse in the bucketing rainfall, where Tonbridge AC kept being summoned to the results desk for some reason. Sadly we didn’t stick around as Andy had come 1st M50, but there was a definite want to get somewhere warmer quickly. For many that was home, for the rest it was the Jolly Woodman just down the road (and in the Good Beer Guide).
Thanks to Bob, Matt and Sam for supporting in such terrible conditions and congratulations to our newbies on coming along to such a tough race.
Ed
Full Results
Photos from the day
| Overall | Pos | Name | Cat | Club | Time | ||
| 1 | M1 | Stephen Ferroni | B&H | 37:57 | |||
| 60 | M56 | Andrew Howey | M55 | TWH | 43:38 | 1st M50 | |
| 96 | M87 | Kieran Fitzpatrick | TWH | 46:15 | |||
| 154 | M133 | Adam Dennis | TWH | 49:45 | |||
| 171 | M148 | Simon Howden | M45 | TWH | 50:49 | ||
| 189 | M159 | Steve Austin | M60 | TWH | 52:04 | 2nd M60 | |
| 200 | M165 | Terry Everest | TWH | 53:00 | |||
| 201 | M166 | Neil Clark | M40 | TWH | 53:02 | ||
| 236 | M179 | Matthew Newman | TWH | 55:27 | Debut XC | ||
| 281 | M199 | Michael Russell | M50 | TWH | 59:21 | ||
| 322 | M213 | Trevor Bisdee | TWH | 68:31 |
| Overall | Pos | Name | Cat | Club | Time | ||
| 36 | W1 | Lucy Reid | Ton | 41:42 | |||
| 203 | W33 | Jillian Holford | W45 | TWH | 53:08 | 6th W40 | |
| 205 | W34 | Pru Clements | W40 | TWH | 53:17 | 7th W40 | |
| 248 | W61 | Michele Bradshaw | W60 | TWH | 56:23 | 2nd W60 | |
| 275 | W76 | Gemma Stillard | W40 | TWH | 58:51 | ||
| 292 | W86 | Brenda Purse | W45 | TWH | 60:55 | ||
| 296 | W88 | Rose Sawyer | W45 | TWH | 61:12 | ||
| 307 | W94 | Amanda Smith | W45 | TWH | 63:34 | Debut XC | |
| 317 | W102 | Carol Tsang | W40 | TWH | 66:19 |