Surrey Cross-Country League Fixture 1 – Hurst Green, Oxted – Saturday 11th October 2025. Words: Mark Tennyson. Photos: James Harvey
Both the Senior Men and Senior Women made promising starts to their winter cross country campaigns in both of their highly competitive Surrey League Division 1 matches. Hurst Green was a new venue for both teams as the host club Holland Sports were the newcomers to Division 1.
The men’s course was 8km, predominantly over fields which were very firm and dry. The women did a 6km scaled-down version. It was a manic start to the men’s race, as within the first kilometre there were two narrow bridge crossings and the 300-plus field had not spread out by then. Thereafter, it was two 3.2km laps for the men and one-and-a-half laps for the women, before re-crossing both bridges on route to the finish.
Senior Men (5th)
The Senior Men finished in 5th place, led home by Tom Foster in 14th place, closely followed by Ollie Jermy (16th) on his senior debut. Adrien Royer (19th) was next, achieving his best Surrey League finish to-date. Next came Marcus Etheridge (43rd), Cam Reilly (45th), Abel Davies (58th)also making his senior debut, Callum Job (64nd), John Sanderson (90th), Nick Lightfoot (94nd) and Will Ford (96th) to close the 10-to-score ‘A’ team.
The next ten, led by Alex Wright (98th), hot on the heels of Will, was followed by Colin High (117th), Jake Bowles, Jacob Plummer, Rowan Hermes, Ben West, David Williams (m60-1), Ian Acreman, Nick Tearle and James Adams, who all performed very well to place 5th in the ‘B’ team competition.
Mark Tennyson (m60-2) was next, then Team Manager Terry Booth (m55-3), Matt Reeves and debutants Alex Friscia (u20) and Cameron Lagerberg. A further ten G’s completed the course including Stuart Murdoch at the very tail in 318th place on very tired legs after running the previous weekend’s Berlin Marathon.
Senior Women (5th)
Guildford’s women also finished in an impressive 5th place of the 15 ‘A’ teams. Suzie Monk finished in a fantastic 4th place, with Evie Warren (13th), debutant Imogen Chesterton (2C), (41st), recently married Alice Cheng (45th) and Nici Cahusac(w50-2), (65th) completing the ‘A’ team.
Isabel Wolfenden, Jade Christy, Laura Hales, Susanna Harrison (w60-2) and Beth Davies completed the ‘B’ team.
Juniors (u15 girls – 1st)
The G’s u13 & u15 boys placed third and fifth respectively. The u15 girls did excellently, placing first in both the ‘A’ and ‘B’ team competitions. The u17 girls finished in eighth place.
A huge thank you to Daniel, Nicole and Beth for overseeing the Junior races and staying to support the Senior’s and to James for all the fantastic photography.
Chicago Marathon
The following day three Gees ran in the Chicago Marathon, with Peter Marshall first home in 3 hrs 8 mins, Ben Gilmore 3 hrs 16 mins and Luke Bishop in 3 hrs 59 mins.
