Champions!

The scoring six: l to r: Stuart McCallum, James Stockings, Andrew Penney, Fred Slemeck , Johnny Cornish and Alex Milne

This is the picture we have waited 56 years to see! Having finished in the silver medal position for the last two years the Club’s Senior Men were finally crowned Southern Cross Country Champions yesterday in Beckenham Place Park - the first win since the legends team of 1970 clinched the title. ‘We have been gunning for this thing since 2020 when we finished fourth’, says Senior Men's coach Ben Noad, ‘and it was a brilliant team competition, so close, with only 24 points separating the top three clubs’. 
 
‘I’m still buzzing from how happy everyone was,’ says second man home Andrew. Penney. ‘This is what it is all about. A great day!’ 

It was a day that started and ended with medals, as U15 Theo Creed kicked off proceedings with an individual silver medal, who also led team mates James Fraser, Anas Briki and Max Harrison to silver (below right). While there were no more team medals before the finale, there were excellent runs from Charlie Pearl who finished fifth in the U13 Boys race (continuing the form which saw him take the bronze in the Surrey Championships), and Anna Wait, who came in in seventh in the U15 Girls event, plus a top-twenty finish in the U20 Men’s race for Pancho Panchev.

Above left: Theo receives his silver individual medal, and right : with runners-up team mates Anas Briki, James Fraser and Max Harrison.

For the Senior men a combination of life events, injury and illness had conspired to scupper this season’s defence of the Surrey Cross Country League which was all but lost after Match 2, so the focus shifted to putting in a big, morale-boosting performance in the grounds of the imposing Manor House in Beckenham Place Park, where the Championships have found their home since 2022. 
 
Fortunate is the club that can turn up at a Championship with every name on the squad list fit, injury free and available.  The scripts of recent campaigns have followed a similar storyline: big hopes, inevitably dented by news of dropouts. ‘This year expectations were high, with rumours of the best lineup of the generation,’ says Captain James Stockings –  but three late withdrawals, Toby Cook with a resurgent achilles injury and George Mallet and Oli Carrington with illness, felt like killer blows. However it always pays to listen to the wise, experienced heads. ‘I never worry about the dropouts’ says former team captain Fred Slemeck, who ran in his first Southern Championships back in 2014, and has featured in every scoring team since (barring 2015 when he missed the Champs altogether). Instead, he knows, you have to banish negativity, trust in all those who make it to the starting line and remember that this event is like no other. The longest of the three regional races, in the strongest of the three regions, billed as 15km but in fact closer to 14km, it is an attritional test that asks for strength, endurance and patience: don’t go off too hard, stay strong, save something for the finish. Sometimes easier said than done. 

In previous editions it has been Highgate Harriers who have grabbed the top honours, but this time the battle was with Aldershot, Farnham and District (AFD) and, as so often in the past, Kent AC. 
 
From early on a clutch of gold and scarlet vests tucked into the chasing groups, as Tonbridge’s formidable international James Kingston stretched out an early and unassailable lead.

Fittingly amongst the cheerleaders was Mike Fuller, who was a part of that last victorious team of 1970, as first across the line for the Club was elite marathon runner Alex Milne (left) who stole seventh place by a whisker in a (literally) breathtaking sprint finish. ‘I was really suffering. On every hill I was flooded with lactic’, says Alex, who is gearing up for 26.2 miles around the streets of Seville next weekend (15 February) where he hopes to whittle down his PB of 2:14:03 set in London last year. ‘Alex Lawrence (Victoria Park) went past me on the last massive hill, but I kept trying to push on up to the finish and just took him on the line’, says Alex.

Behind him, with coach Ben Noad urging him on, Andrew Penney (right), having resisted the temptation to push too hard too early, and in fine form since breaking 14-minutes over 5K to set a new Club record in November, took two athletes in the last 150m metres or so – one being team-mate Jonny Cornish – to finish 13th, with Jonny in 15th. It was an impressive tussle given that Jonny had run a 10K PB of 29:08 in Valencia two weeks earlier, to go second behind Dave Clarke on the Club's all-time list.  ‘I could see the runner just ahead of Jonny was tiring and I heard Ben yelling at me’, says Andrew, ‘so I closed out hard to get the extra point in the finishing straight’.

With the first three athletes in, AFD were ahead by 18 points over HW’s 35, with Kent on 39.  It would all come down to the next three scorers. First to appear was the Southern-specialist that is Fred Slemeck in 22nd, one place behind the fourth-placed AFD athlete, but crucially seven places ahead of the next Kent runner. Next, international Stuart McCallum, gaining fitness after injury race by race, coming home in 31st, nine places ahead of the next AHD runner.' ‘I never worry about Stu, because I’ve never seen him race badly’, says Ben. ‘That might sound weird, as he is nowhere near his best yet, but he has such a sensible racing brain, he always runs to his level of fitness.’ 

Now came the anxious wait for the sixth man. For Ben, one of the enduring images of the day was Andrew  Penney, spotting an almost-spent James Stockings at the turn into the final hill, sprinting back down spectator-side and up again to shout him home in 38th.

‘I felt my legs go from about 2km out and then it was just about survival!’ admitted James (below left) after collapsing over the finish line. ‘I was spurred up the final straight by Penney cheering me on and the fear of Ed closing behind! I had to dig really deep and it took a few minutes to be able to stand again!’

‘I think he barely even knew he was in Beckenham Place Park at the finish,’ says Ben. ‘Not many went as deep into the hurt box. At 700m to go I was thinking, I really hope he can hang on to the finish! By his own admission he hasn’t been at his best this season, but he was so pumped and passionate about the team he went out really aggressively. It was an incredibly gutsy performance’. 

Behind him Ed Mallett(below right) was unlucky to be outside the scoring six. ‘Ed was brilliant on this course again’, says Ben. 'You have to have a seventh and even an eighth man pushing to score, to keep everyone going, help keep back the rival teams’ sixth men and be there should anyone ahead be struggling, as this is such a long race and anything can happen. So eighth man home, Joe Bryant, in his first SEAA Championships also contributed, finishing in 49th and pushing back AFD's final scorer.  It truly takes a team effort to get over the line. That’s the beauty of this event.'

With the scoring six in, a medal was assured, but what colour? In retrospect the maths tell the story, but on the day, and for once without former team manager Fred Green and his trusty notebook, no one was sure. Coach Tony Austin was first to call the win, but still there was a reluctance to believe until the official announcement. ‘It needed to be repeated several times before it sunk in’ says Jonny Cornish, ‘then elation replaced the initial surprise and disbelief! What a day to remember, and a privilege to be making Club history. It's incredible to see how far we have come –  the best cross-country team in the South of England is quite an accolade!’ 

It is an accolade that goes to the entire squad who have pushed each other on over the last few seasons as well as talented new youngsters like Joe Bryant and Sonny Nicholl (ninth HW man home), who along with the U20s are signalling a bright future. ‘I’m made up for every one of them,’ says Ben, ‘but especially for Freddie Slemeck, because he and I have been along this long journey together as coach and former captain. He has always been the first to put his hand up for all the teams, but at the Southerns he is so consistent, a real banker for us. We were so happy to win the bronze in 2023 but each year since we have felt so close to winning’.

‘It is fantastic to finally crack it after moving from years of also-rans to medallists and now to finally win it’, agrees Fred. ‘There was a lot of motivating going on in the week before and it is testament to the team spirit fostered over the years and many, many a lap in Wimbledon Park. I got a shout from Ben with about 8km still to go that it was tight, and when it’s hurting and you know there is a big group behind you need to rely on that spirit. I couldn’t have done any more, I was absolutely on the limit and very happy to have stayed strong’. Twelve Stage now!’, he says, echoing he two words on everyone’s lips, signifying the next big goal: the Southern Road Relays in March.

Last word goes to the current captain. ‘It was a superb day for the Club, and all those who have helped us get here!’ agrees James. ‘Our trajectory since 2020 has been extraordinary: fourth, then no race due to Covid, fourth, third, second, second, first.  Each person delivered, to make each other proud. You could tell the delight mixed with relief when the announcement came that we’d done it: Southern Champs at last! 

‘Being top of the podium felt a fitting reward for the team we’ve built, but now we are excited to carry this momentum to the Twelve Stage, and prove we have the best depth squad on both the country and the road!’

Pete Mulholland, wish you were here.

Full results

Thanks to Mark Hookway and Cassie Chen for the photographs