A good performance today laid to rest any possibility of relegation to division two. Julia Bleasdale and Lucy Macallister placed first and second with impressive runs in a good quality field. Envys, Anna and Liz completed the scoring team and Vikki and Dorchie added essential back up to the team. With injuries, and babies, taking their toll this season final calculations showed that TH&H ladies finished a rather disappointing tenth team in the league series but a welcome second team in today's race. We'll be back!

Pos         Name             Cat         Club             Time 
1      JULIA BLEASDALE        S    Thames Hare & Hounds   21.04
2      LUCY HASELL            S    Thames Hare & Hounds   21.11
3      NATALIE HARVEY         S    South London Harriers  21.26

31     ENFYS JONES            S    Thames Hare & Hounds   24.53
44     ANNA GARNIER           V    Thames Hare & Hounds   25.46
46     ELIZABETH STAVRESKI    S    Thames Hare & Hounds   25.53
52     VIKKI FILSELL          V    Thames Hare & Hounds   26.07
65     DOROTHEA COCKERELL     S    Thames Hare & Hounds   27.16

MATCH RESULT                         
             1.  South London Harriers    93             
             2.  Thames Hare and Hounds  124             
             3.  Belgrave Harriers       136             
             4.  Ranelagh Harriers       144

             
                                              

Rhodri had the lead coming onto the field, but it was Simon Molden who nipped past him on the final run in to take the long distance trophy on Saturday. Well done to all who turned out - results below.

Name		handicap	finish	actual time
Simon Molden	05:00	15:34:38	00:41:23
Rhodri Davis	13:15	15:35:01	00:50:01
Terot Stephens	13:15	15:35:42	00:50:42
Andy Weir		03:45	15:36:41	00:42:11
David Walsh	19:45	15:36:46	00:58:16
Toby Pearson	04:30	15:36:51	00:43:06
Bernt Erik Roed	14:45	15:37:08	00:53:38
Johnnie Powell  	07:00	15:37:27	00:46:12
Julia Kendall	23:15	15:37:58	01:02:58
Andrew Johnson	23:15	15:38:07	01:03:07
Giles Stimpson	21:15	15:38:25	01:01:25
Andy Stainsby	14:00	15:38:34	00:54:19
Peter Blair-Fish	14:45	15:38:43	00:55:13
Michael Johnson	14:00	15:38:52	00:54:37
Ric Turner	10:45	15:39:17	00:51:47
Hugh Arnold	10:15	15:39:36	00:51:36
Tim Nightingale	10:45	15:41:04	00:53:34
Mike Sandford	10:15	15:41:07	00:53:07
Simon Leathes	23:15	15:41:27	01:06:27
Paulina Stephens	28:00	15:42:15	01:12:00
David Symons	04:30	15:43:01	00:49:16
John Bryant	28:00	15:43:46	01:13:31
David Jenkins	21:15	15:48:00	01:11:00

A number of THH members were in action at Brighton. Naomi Warner placed sixth lady with a time of 1:24:42, and Susan Snell ran well for 1:50:40 escorted around by Vikki Filsell. In the men's race Alex Mackula recorded 1:41 and super vet Jeffrey Gordon completed the line up with an impressive 2:12:22.

Competitors “enjoyed” the benefit of a drier course than usual and benign weather conditions, but there was enough mud left around to make it a very tough 7 ½ miles round. Our mens team performed extremely well to place 8th team. We were led home by Julian Rendall in 65th place (42:00), proving that his ultra distance exploits have not dulled his speed over the country. Close behind was Simon Wurr in 79th (42:16), typically excelling in the tough conditions, and the evergreen Ben Reynolds in 84th (42:22), maintaining a proud record of always finishing in the top 100. Mark Tuckett continued his recent good form to place 147th in 44:12. The conditions were not to Johnny Macfarlane’s liking, but he ran well to place 190th (45:06), with the team closed by the ever reliable Andy Weir in 206th (45:23). A very fine effort indeed, and we also finished a very respectable 12th in the 9-to-score competition, sandwiched in between our local rivals Belgrave and Herne Hill. Simon Molden capped his impressive form this winter with a very creditable 239th place (45:56), Olly Mytton ran well to finish 423rd (48:43), with the old warrior Jerry Watson in 707th (52:48). Al Kennis (806th – 54:16) and Bernt-Erik Roed (1,210th – 61:17) were also in action.

65	Julian Rendall		42.00
79	Simon Wurr		42.16
84	Ben Reynolds		42.22
147	Mark Tuckett		44.12
190	Johnny Mac		45.06
206	Andy Weir			45.23
239	Simon Molden		45.56
423	Olly Mitton		48.43
707	Jerry Watson		52.48
806	Al Kennis		54.16
1210	Bernt-Eric Roed		61.17

Julian Rendall ran strongly for 65th to lead the 11 Thames runners home. In an uncharacteristically sunny and balmy Parliament Hill, Thames closed in 8th position overall. Results below

65	Julian Rendall		42.00
79	Simon Wurr		42.16
84	Ben Reynolds		42.22
147	Mark Tuckett		44.12
190	Johnny Mac		45.06
206	Andy Weir			45.23
239	Simon Molden		45.56
423	Olly Mitton		48.43
707	Jerry Watson		52.48
806	Andy Howse		54.16
1210	Simone Canters		61.17

Last week's snow has melted but the Common is still pretty waterlogged so times were down this week but the THH vets had a good battle to place 19th (Keith) 22nd (Anna) and 23rd (Vikki) with Colin Price and Ian Higgins also in action.

Despite the traditional confusion as to start time and place, Andy Weir placed first gent and Envys Jones placed first lady over the 9 mile course.

The final fixture took place at Ham over a fairly flat and fast, if rather wet, course adjoining the Thames, in exceptionally chilly weather. Our defeat in the previous fixture and essentially impregnable 2nd place in the League meant that we were competing for pride, so it was very heartening to see another very impressive team performance. Leading the way again in 10th place was Stuart Major, whose tremendous consistency resulted in winning the overall Individual prize for the League this season. This is a very tough title to win, and Stuart joins a very select group of Thames runners to have won the individual title. Stuart was closely followed by Simon Wurr, continuing to show great form in 11th place, with the evergreen Ben Reynolds in 14th and a slightly weary James Mcmullan in 15th. James narrowly missing out on the individual prize. Mark Tuckett continued his recent good form in 18th, with the ultra reliable Andy Weir in 22nd, once again outsprinting Belgrave skipper and Thames member Will Cockerell. Darren Talbot also showed signs of a return to form in 26th, and it was good to see Andrew Mcnamara back in action in 34th. The team was closed out in a respectable 205 points by Toby Pearson and Simon Molden in 38th and 39th place respectively. Herne Hill once again turned out a very impressive team to win the fixture comfortably, and the League by a final margin of 196 points. Thames overall total of 761 points was good enough to finish 2nd by an immense margin, and in previous years might have been enough to challenge for victory. The ever elusive title will have to wait another year I’m afraid, but many congratulations to Herne Hill for an awesome performance. “We’ll be beck”.

http://www.stragglers.org/results/xcountry/2009-02-07-SurreyLeague-Men-Full.htm

The early morning start meant that the course was pretty icy and certainly not a day for pbs. Anna ran well for second ladies spot and David Jenkins and Colin Price took it steady over the course.

Thames men had to settle for second spot behind Herne Hill Harriers for a second year but Stuart Major scored a well deserved victory in the individual placings. Captain's report to follow, link to full results below.

http://www.stragglers.org/results/xcountry/2009-02-07-SurreyLeague-Men-Full.htm

Thames scored a blinding win over the local rivals at Saturday's Flyder Cup with captain Larry Matthews leading by example. Report lifted from the defeated Belgrave captain's website...

As with the inaugural event, this was a nail-biting affair with the result in doubt almost until the last dart. Herne Hill Harriers joined the fray fresh from their triumph in one of the most bruising and violent Surrey League campaigns since the infamous Belgrave massacre of 2000. Thames had put up a valiant struggle all winter and it soon became clear that it wasn’t just over the mud that these two clubs desired to wage all out war, but over the oche too. 36 players descended upon the stage, with no fewer than 15 supplied by Thames, armed with a handful of reserves, wives, girlfriends, infants, and newborns – all designed to intimidate or distract the opposition. The format was for each club to play 6 doubles matches against each other club, thus 18 points to fight over. Defending champions Belgrave came out of the blocks like startled Rottweilers and armed with their secret weapon Mark Humphrey, who had his opponents, spectators and referee cowering in trepidation, surged into a 2, 1, 1 lead. Thereafter Belgrave struck something of a void for the next hour or two, as they gallantly offered the floor to Thames and Herne Hill to try and rip each other’s kidneys out, as they so desired. Herne Hill tore into a 5, 3, 2 lead but then Thames had a purple patch in the final three-quarters of an hour, and with the final two matches out on the course they led 7, 6, 3. However, both of those matches involved Herne Hill, and only one Thames. Belgrave were wounded furry animals by now and the wise heads were already chalking up another point to the Brixton bombers. Thus, the deciding match saw Larry Mathews and Ian Harkness going into a nip-and-tuck race with Spencer Mason and Keith Newton. Neither team was able to conjure up a 9-dart finish in their 501 match, but both were flirting with the equally rare 90-dart finish. Herne Hill had the slim lead and looked as though they’d have first go at the out-shot; but then Mathews, multiple-Surrey League winner, and undefeated in two years of Flyder Cups stepped up. A high-scoring dart gave him the out-shot – double seven. He took brief aim and pulled the trigger. DOUBLE-SEVENS – very first dart! The finest player in Flyder Cup history had produced its equal finest dart (along with the Trondheim stallion’s master-stroke from last year), to secure the famous Lord of the Rings tankard.

Croydon Council slightly misunderstood the nature of cross country running in ordering that the ladies race should be postponed due to the adverse weather. The race will now take place at Lloyd Park on 28 February.