Words by Mark T, photos by various (Danny W, James H….)
Strong start for the G’s at Surrey League opener and top ten for John, Danny & Suzie!
Surrey Cross-Country League Fixture 1 – Wimbledon Common – Saturday 12th October 2025.
Both the Senior Men and Senior Women made excellent starts to their winter Surrey League cross-country campaigns with two fourth placed finishes (third ‘A’ team for the women). A compact timetable meant the 12:15pm start time for the men was possibly the earliest ever for a league match. In favourable conditions three-hundred plus runners from ten clubs waited eagerly for the signal to commence their season!
John Sanderson & Daniel Wallis led the way for the G’s in the early phases of the race and finished 4th & 7th respectively in a tightly fought contest at the sharp end of the race. The first fourteen participants home were separated by just 36 seconds. G’s Tom Foster (28th), Cam Reilly (32nd) and Adrian Royer (50th) all performed well to make the top 50. Robin Wallond (62nd) had an excellent race and so did Callum Job (65th), Ed Dixon (67th) and Nick Lightfoot (69th) who all finished in the sixties. Matt McDaniel (88th) completed the scoring 10, closely followed by Will Ford (90th). Will had utilised a pro-cycling attitude of not allowing his teammate to open any kind of gap.
Colin High (105th) on a course too ‘firm’ for his liking and Ollie Gosden (141st) followed. The previous Saturday Matt, Colin and Ollie had been integral in the Surrey Cross-Country relay win in Nonsuch Park. Agusti Isun (144th) in his debut for the club put in a fine performance. Next home was Mark Tennyson (215th). Youngster Archie Phillips (U20), (221st) also ran very well on his debut for the seniors. Team Manager Terry Booth (229th) who recently qualified for the England Masters Cross Country team had a strong race. Guy Holcroft (249th) ran well after recently completing the South Downs trail marathon. Lee Lintern (260th) and Phil Pryke (281st) completed the ‘B’ team.
The Senior Women’s event was the last race of the day. They finished 3rd of the 15 ‘A’ teams despite being 4th behind the Belgrave ‘B’ team. In a closely fought contest at the head of the race Suzie Monk came home in second place, only 10s behind the winner. Evie Warren (14th) was next for the G’s with another strong performance. Eloise Hudson (U20), (26th) in her first season as a senior was next. Short distance track specialist Hannah Knights (35th) had a great run finishing just ahead of triathlete Annabel Wallond (U20), (39th) who completed the ‘A’ team.
Violet Isaacs (U20), (62nd) also in her first season as a senior led home the ‘B’ team. Jilly Raw (74th) placed well in the W40 rankings. Alice Batchelor (85th), Nici Cahusac (91st) and Hannah Slater (117th) completed the team.
Four junior races – the first of which started at 11:00am – had already been concluded before the senior races. The U13 girls were third team and the U15 & U17 girls teams both finished fourth. The U15/U17 boys also finished fourth team with Ollie J. (2nd), Ed W. (10th), Theo L. (15th) and Luke B (50th) the four scorers.
Team & individual medals at the Surrey XC Champs
Surrey Masters XC Championships – Nonsuch Park – Saturday 26th October 2024.
Another successful afternoon for the Club at the Surrey Masters Cross Country Championships held at a muddy Nonsuch Park in Cheam. The w45+ and m55+ teams picked up silver medals and there were individual golds for Nici, Terry & Mark.
The format is two races with all women and men over 65 in race 1; followed by the men over 35 in race 2. Individual awards are presented in 5 year bands (v35-39, v40-44…) and teams in 10 year bands (v35-44, v45-54…).
Race 1 (w35+ & m65+) – 2 laps (6.2k).
Nici Cahusac (w50-1) led the women to silver team medals in the w45+ age group as well as collecting an individual gold medal in the w50 category on route. Christine Robinson (w45-4) and Michelle Oldham (w50-4) completed the three-to-score team. They were only 1 point away from the gold medal position held by Epsom & Ewell and Christine was merely 8s off the individual bronze medal place.
Susanna Harrison (w60-2) claimed an individual silver medal after being narrowly pipped by Phyllis Flynn (Stragglers) in the final stages of the race.
Race 2 (m35-64) – 3 laps (9.3k).
The men had to do an extra lap of the 3.1k course and first home for the G’s was Terry Booth (m55-1) in 8th place overall. This was Terry’s third consecutive m55 title at this venue atop of a silver medal here in 2021 in the m50 category. Terry, Mark Tennyson (m60-1) who received the m60 gold medal and Martin Newman (m60-13) combined to take the silver medal in the m55+ team event. This was a fitting reward for Martin who battled with a calf issue towards the end, as he was in sight of the finish line.
Our m45+ team of Ollie Gosden (m45-4), Ben Gilmore (m45-13) and Phil Pryke (m50-11) finished 4th, while James Adams (m40-9) and Lee Lintern (m40-13) both raced well in their last season in the m40+ category.
Valencia Half Marathon – Sunday 27th October 2024.
In other news Daniel Wallis (GGAC and Surrey Uni Coach) stepped up in distance with a superb debut performance of 1:07:49 at the Valencia Half Marathon at the weekend. Incredibly Danny placed 146th in this very high quality event which witnessed 9 competitors finishing inside the 1 hour mark and 238 participants under 70 minutes!!