As a number of hardy Harriers head to Parliament Hill Fields this Saturday, for the 2025 English National Cross Country Championships, a look back at the Harriers history when the race has been held at this iconic venue.
The initial men’s English National XC Championship race was first held way back in 1876, with a women’s race introduced in 1927.
The men’s race was held at Parliament Hill for the first time in 1957, with notable winners there in the past including David Bedford in 1973 and Brendan Foster in 1977. Since TWH were formed the race has been held at Parliament Hill on eight occasions.
In 1993 we had no participants and there was a ten year wait before Adam Styles led home 9 male TW Runners over the 12km course in 2003, finishing in 332nd place.
2006 saw just 8 men from the club participating and being led home by Andy Howey in 288th place. This race saw Bryon ‘Spud’ Taylor running 50 years after his first ever race at Parliament Hill!
In 2009 we had just ten men (and no women) running, again led home by Andy Howey in 296th place and it was the last National run at the iconic venue for Allan Cheek.
The London Olympic year of 2012 saw our first women runners – Sian Roberts and Rebecca Smith – with Sian being first harrier in 322nd place.
We again had 10 men running, this time led home by Chris Wolton (314th) and this time it was the last Parliament Hill National run for our President, John Hepner.
2015 we again had two women in the race – Lesley Mercer in 506th and Carol Tsang in 643rd from 865 finishers.
We had 8 men led home by Kieran Fitzpatrick in 885th with Ed Steele (952) Matt Clark (960) and Simon Howden (983) in the top 1000 of 2007 finishers.
In 2018, Harriet Woolley in 174th, had the best current women’s finishing place we’ve had at Parliament Hill, ably backed up by Carol Tsang.
The men’s race saw 11 harriers led home by Andy Howey in 477th, followed by Matt Ferris (894)and Ed Steele (964) in a race of over 2300 finishers.
The last time the Nationals were at Parliament Hill was 2022 when among 1010 women finishers, Cathy Gill (242nd) led home Jillian Holford, Michele Bradshaw, Suzannah Kinsella and Carol Tsang.
There were 2087 finishers in the men’s race, where Will Levett delivered the best ever harrier finishing position at Parliament Hill in 160th, leading home Alex Jeffreys, Ed Steele, Alex Reid, James Sarre and 20 other harriers.
The 2022 edition also saw two Olympic Triathlon Gold Medallists feature strongly – Alex Yee took bronze in the men’s race and Georgia Taylor-Brown was 4th in the women’s race.
Let’s see what this year brings…
Andrew Deighton