Surrey Cross-Country League Fixture 4 – Wimbledon Common – Saturday 7th February 2026. Words: Mark Tennyson. Photos: George Parker, Jerry Sun, Laurie Oliver & Marteen D.
Guildford & Godalming’s Senior Women narrowly held onto third place in Division One at a very wet and muddy Wimbledon Common on Saturday. Going into the last Surrey League match of the season, the women had a fifty-three point margin on fourth place Kent AC.
Before the women’s race the Senior Men participated in the penultimate Division One race of the day. The men had even less of an advantage, with only a slender twenty-two point lead over one of last season’s promoted clubs, Holland Sports.
Senior Men (Team – 6th)
Cam Reilly led the G’s home with a splendid seventh place finish and was followed by Marcus Etheridge (16th), Tom Foster (19th), Ed Brewer (48th), Adrien Royer (55th), Colin High (73rd), Nick Lightfoot (75th), Callum Job (93rd), Will Ford (107th) and Charlie Pickett (119th). These ten combined to fill the key ‘A’ team scoring positions.
The G’s Senior Men placed sixth on the day, one place ahead of Holland in seventh. Both teams also finished the four-match season in sixth and seventh place overall, with Guildford on 1995 points and Holland on 2096.
The G’s next ten home contributed to the ‘B’ team score – these ten were Ben West, Nick Tearle (m50-3), James Adams(m45-5), Ian Acreman (m50-4), Lee Lintern, Guy Holcroft (m55-1), Kit Hawtin, Cameron Lagerberg, Mark Tennyson (m60-1) and Simon Zieleniewski.
A further fourteen G’s completed the course – they were Stefan Webster, Ian Durrant, Ian Davies, Mo Ansari, Robin Boon, Philip Pryke (on his birthday), Andrew Flanagan, Diego Perez-Lopez (debut), Noa Doest (debut), Daniel Rosier, Michael Mayers and Paul Sanderson (m70-1).
At the foot of the table there was a remarkable escape for Dulwich as they overcame a 211 point deficit after three matches to send South London Harriers – one of the founder cross-country clubs from the late 1800’s – to the second tier.
Belgrave Harriers won the match with 158 points, which was 215 points better than Herne Hill Harriers in second spot. Belgrave also took the Division One title with a huge margin of 511 points over Thames Hare & Hounds who were the runners-up.
Individual Rankings:
Tom Foster finished second in the leading individuals overall, as well as second in the m35 age category. Tom is now on a streak of twenty-eight consecutive division one ‘A’ team scores, which in itself is a remarkable run.
In the m55 category, the G’s finished three in the top five – Mark Tennyson (m55-1), Guy Holcroft (m55-2) and Phil Pryke (m55-4). In his final preparations ahead of an assault on the Tokyo Marathon, Ian Acreman rounded off another fine cross country season with fourth in the m45 competition.
Senior Women (Team – 5th)
Evie Warren (5th) led Guildford’s women to a fifth place match finish. Evie was backed by strong runs from Emma Howsham (19th), Ellie Bull (20th), Hope Smith (43rd) and Alice Cheng (85th).
After third place finishes at Beckenham Place Park (match 2) and Mitcham Common (match 3), the G’s Senior Women started the day in third place in the division, 53 points ahead of Kent AC in fourth.
Kent AC finished third at this final round of matches with 127 points, which meant the G’s had to finish with a points total below 180. This they did with a combined five-to-score team total of 171 points. G&G finished the season in third place with 570 points, with Kent AC fourth on 579.
Sam Ludlow Taylor was first in for the Guildford ‘B’ team followed by Alicia Nizet, Scarlett Mitchell, Christine Robinson and Jemima Betts.
Isabel Newland-Smith, Susanna Harrison and Jacqueline White completed the ladies contingent.
Belgrave Harriers Senior Women (The Belles) won the fifteen team division, with Herne Hill Harriers the runners-up.
Individual Rankings:
Despite missing the final fixture, Suzie Monk finished in third place in the division overall.
Isabel Wolfenden was fourth in the u20’s.
The G’s also had a high placed individual in the w55 category with Susanna Harrison (w55-2) in finishing in second place.
This concludes the cross-country season for the majority of both senior squads with only a few heading to Sedgefield, County Durham for the National XC Champs on 21st February.
