As the season began I was both hopeful and optimistic of improving further on our successes from the previous year. I had every reason to feel this way as our strengthened squad now included a returning Jason Simpson and Peter Groves, and new recruit Robbie James, who joined from Dorking & Mole Valley in the Summer. Ray Marriott and Doug Filtness were also in great shape and enjoying a renaissance in form.
Naturally, we were expecting medals for both the seniors and the vets in the Surrey road relays at Wimbledon Park in September. In two very tight races both teams narrowly missed out on Gold, taking bronze and silver respectively.
Our senior team for the Southern road relay at Aldershot two weeks later was not quite as strong and could only manage 27th, missing out on qualification for the National 6 stage. The vets, on the other hand, finished a creditable 7th, despite not having our 2nd fastest vet on the day, Paul Williams, who ran for the seniors.
As always, the Surrey cross-country league is a key measure of our strength and standing as a distance running club. As clubs continue to attract runners from all over the country, the league remains one of the top two regional leagues in the country. Unusually, our team comprises almost entirely of Surrey qualified runners who are also first claim members. The only 2nd claim exceptions this season being John Headley, who found form in the final fixture to finish 4th scorer, and new member Charles Sykes, who finished 1st man home in 5th position in the first fixture. Charles, based in London and 1st claim Swindon, ran as a guest but will be eligible to score next season.
However, our key men in the league this year were Martin Wood and Phil Scarles, who scored in all 4 fixtures and Jason Simpson, Robbie James, Lee Morgan, Billy Corr and Antonio Martins, who all scored in 3. It is this reliability and consistency that achieves results and with match placings of 4th, 3rd, 5th and 3rd we finished an excellent 4th position overall. A terrific effort from all involved, which includes everyone who shouted encouragement from the sidelines. We always seem to get the best support, which makes such a difference.
Once again, the Surrey cross-country championships proved to be the highlight of the season as we managed to retain our title. Typical, you wait 24 years to win the Surreys and then two come along at once! This time Thames HH and Herne Hill pushed us much harder and after 4 men home the scores for the 3 clubs were identical. Our 5th and 6th scorers, Martin Wood and Paul McTigue, were the next to finish and we won by 11 pts. They completed a 6 which also included Jason Simpson, Robbie James, Nicolai Belcher and myself.
The South of England performance was a little down on our excellent 5th from the previous season, but 11th was still a fine performance from our 6 scorers who were Robbie James, Paul McTigue, Billy Corr, Lee Morgan, Phil Scarles and myself.
We maintained a much improved record for recent English Nationals by finishing 18th at Stowe. The 6 scorers were Paul McTigue, Robbie James, Nicolai Belcher, Clive Edgington, Phil Scarles and myself. Clive had a particularly outstanding run.
3 wins out of 4 in the mob match series was encouraging, the one 'blip' being against Orion, who we are more than capable of beating. Our margin of wins against Blackheath now stretches to 4 and with continued commitment we should endeavour to increase this lead rather than letting the 'Heathens' catch up again.
The win against Ranalagh was combined with our 7 ½ mile club championships, which was won by Jason Simpson, who finished 2nd in the race. Martin Wood secured 3rd and I was 2nd, losing my 11 consecutive mob match winning streak in the process. Jason also won the Gibb Cup for the 5 mile championship, beating Lee Morgan and Martin Wood, who were 2nd and 3rd respectively. The Pirie 10 mile club championship was won by me, with Tony Harran 2nd and Martin Wood picking up his 3rd bronze. The points cup for the season was won by the ever enthusiastic vets captain Tony Austin.
The club's only other noteworthy result came in the Surrey vets cross-country where the vets retained their title with a team of Eric Thomas, Ray Marriott, Ray Chapman and Glen Quarton.
There are a number of nominees for this season's Captain's Runner of the Year. Robbie James has made an outstanding contribution to the club since joining. He was present in all 3 of the major championship teams, 3 out of 4 of the Surrey leagues and ran the Blackheath mob match. He also joined me in representing Surrey in the Inter-Counties at Nottingham.
Jason Simpson was an early contender before flu affected his season after the county championships. Paul McTigue was another present in all 3 of our championship teams plus the South of the Thames Junior team. His best run of the season came in the English National with a personal best finish of 109th for 2nd scorer. Billy Corr has improved with every race and his star performance came in the South of England where he was 4th scorer. Martin Wood, a previous winner of this accolade, has been almost ever present, only missing the South of England and the National. Martin quite rightly gave priority to family commitments as his wife, Alison, gave birth to their second daughter.
However, the Captain's Runner of the Year is Phil Scarles. Phil has run just about every key race this season and had scoring performances in all 4 Surrey league fixtures, the South of England and English National championships. He has been reliable and dependable throughout.
The team continues to progress in the right direction. The attitude and commitment from all involved - scorers, non-scorers, supporters, marshalls, team manager Dave Grant, team secretary Peter Emery, is exceptional. What is important is that success is not simply a means to an end, but success makes everything that much more enjoyable, and if we enjoy what we're doing then we're much more likely to do it well.
One thing that does slightly concern me is the complete lack of 20 to 30 year olds in the team. Success 5 years down the line depends very much on runners from this age group. Where are they?
Stuart Major (Cross-Country Captain)