SEAA XC Championship Race – Beckenham Place Park – Saturday 24th January 2026. Words: Mark Tennyson, Photos: Beth Davies.
It was another fantastic day of Championship racing on Saturday, culminating with Cameron Reilly placing ninth in the tenth and final race of the day.
Senior Men – 15km
This was the fifth edition of this Championship event at Beckenham Place Park since its move from the iconic venue at Parliament Hill on Hampstead Heath. It is the longest cross-country race of the winter calendar and is not for the faint hearted. Sixteen of Guildford & Godalming’s Senior Men’s squad toed the line with 600 athletes from other clubs scattered throughout the ‘South of England’.
In-form Cameron Reilly – who recently improved the G’s road course record for 10km in Valencia – had a stunning run to finish ninth and lead his teammates to a fifteenth team finish; an improvement of six places on last season’s twenty-first. In the early stages of the race Cam was placed in around thirtieth position and by maintaining a strong pace throughout passed many of his rivals as they tired and fell back.
Callum Job (90th) was in next for the G’s, with a jet-lagged Nick Lightfoot (106th) in pursuit. Both had strong runs to place either side of the first one hundred. Another Nick (Tearle) (180th) who benefitted from a storming start, practised his darts finish with a maximum 180 score. Roger Barr (242nd) who has massively improved over the country as the season has progressed was fifth home for the club. The final scoring place fell to Ian Acreman (245th) who had tapered for the event by doing a 30km hilly trail two days beforehand.
The seniors placed 15th of the 39 clubs to complete a team.
The G’s also had Lee Lintern (who had a brilliant run), Robbie Ventham, Mark Tennyson, Terry Booth, Kit Hawtin, Philip Pryke, Ian Davies, Mathias Cartailler, Paul Sanderson and Brian O’Kane all complete the course from the 603 finishers.
Senior Women – 8km
Jackie White (239th) who competed very well, was the only G’s representative in the eighth race of the day, the Senior Women, who ran over an 8km course.
U20 Men – 6km
In race nine, the U20 men, Ollie Jermy ran exceptionally for fifth place, which was only eight seconds slower than the bronze medal time. Abel Davies placed twenty-second, and, like Ollie, is in the first year in this age category.
Welsh Cross-Country Championship – Cardiff
Also on Saturday, David Williams was running in the Senior Men & Masters Welsh Cross-Country Championships at a wet & windy Cardiff. David was rewarded by placing first in the M60 age-category.
The G’s have two fixtures remaining to conclude their winter cross-country season. Firstly they travel to Wimbledon Common on 7th February for the final Surrey League match before a few of their hardy runners travel north to Sedgefield in County Durham for the National Cross-County Championships.
