the first round of the 2025/26 Kent cross country league. We were blessed with sunny warm weather down at Footscray Meadows where despite the parking being very challenging, the running from the squad was fabulous. Big thank you’s first of all to our tent crew of Paul A and Dave Cordell who had the tent set up in good time, in a good spot and giving us all great views of the start, finish and mid lap points. We had over 50 from the squad taking part along with 10 mums and dads joining the senior races. 

The under 13 girls kicked off the day with a great team win. Jazzy led the team home in a fabulous second place followed by Elsa Matthews in 6th and Holly Tallack in 8th. Just outside the scoring team we had a very strong run from Lucy Beeraje in her first Kent league finishing 10th. Olivia wasn’t far behind in 16th, followed by Lena in 17th, Louisa 19th and Alice in 25th.  

Up next it was the under 13 boys. Unlike last year, Emery had a comfortable win with Zach Evans not far back in 3rd. Akul ran well to complete the scoring team coming home in 9th which gave us the team win. We had strong runs from first years Anthony in 10th, and George DB in 12th. It was an unfortunate DNF for Harry B who had suffered a start line stomp on his Achilles but did the smart thing in not continuing. We had strong runs from our first timers Fletcher, Hayden, Freddie and Ethan all running well on the tricky Footscray surface.

As we moved on to the U15 girls it was another team win with a 4th, 5th and 6th from Harriet, Alba and Evie DB. Special well done to Evie who struggled to keep her breakfast in check over the last km… Melody and Holly had super runs finishing 16th and 18th with Stella, Imogen and Nancie completing a strong showing from our U15 girls. 

In the under 15 boys we had an incredible turn out of 21 runners out of a field of 90. The boys all ran incredibly well to take second team just behind Tonbridge. Leading the team was Johnny in 4th, Ricardo in 6th and Jack Barlow in 12th. We had strong running from Alex S, Billy P, Benj, Matthew, Finn, Josh and Jesse. Teddy who ran a well judged race to finish sandwiched between Matthew and Edward. And first time running for the club for Patrick in a great 23rd, with Edward and Akin not so far back. JP was a DNF unfortunately, but did the right thing when his breathing became a problem. And a final mention to James B. Who is ordinarily one of our super strong U15s, but is currently out just now with an injury. It was great though to have James there supporting the other boys as well as the rest of his family !

It was great to see such strong turn outs from our U17/20s. We had 11 U17W, taking 3rd team position. Aoife McD was first home in 10th and we had really strong, well paced runs from Charlotte, Rowan, Niamh and Lily. Most tackling the challenging 5km course for the first time. Kyla was our only U20 on the day but finished in a very strong 4th. 

In the boys race, the Joes were as strong as ever, a win for Joe S and close 4th for Joe H. Alex Martin completed the winning team in 5th, with Nathan, Aniket, Kian, Daniel and Madalitso all finishing like a train in the top 20. Competing at the same time and distance, Andy Lawes was our sole representative in the Masters 70+ event, but starred with a win by over a minute over his nearest rival and been several of the competitors in the U17 event.

Finally it was the turn of the seniors. Our ladies, picking up where they left last year, took team wins in the 3 and 6 to score. Hannah moving up to the 8km senior race, was a fabulous 2nd behind Chloe. We had 3 ‘mums’ running. Big well done to Jennie, (Billy’s mum) who was 3rd to score and to Angie (Jazzy’s mum) and Liz (James and Alice’s mum) Both running in the Kent league for the first (hopefully not last) time!

Supplemental report on SM from Micah Evans

In the SM race numbers were somewhat thin on the ground with 45 minutes to race time, but thankfully very welcome latecomers boosted our numbers to 20+ toeing the start line, after the obligatory team photos and welcome brief!

The course was firm and dry with some unseasonably warm weather and sunshine during the race itself – a far cry from previous season openers at Footscray where rain, wind and cold were then the order of the day.

There was an excellent battle at the front of the field between Tonbridge’s Higgins twins and our Jack Shayler (Mille Smith’s boyfriend, signed second claim for his second season with us), who led the race out with his brave front-running style, though the twins managed to reel him in and finish in a brotherly 1-2, with Jack finishing a very strong 3rd position and our first man home.

Sam Parsons has been a very welcome addition to Mike Reeves’ group as well as our team, including running the fastest leg at the recent Southern 6 stage road relays at Aldershot – on his XC debut for the club Sam ran really well for a top 10 finish in 9th place – an excellent result.

3rd man home in 25th place was one of our growing band of Dads (with a son and daughter racing earlier in the day), Leon De Bruyn, who is much improved over the past year or so having been a relative latecomer to running and only joining the club in the last few years – a very strong run from Leon beating some good runners.

Completely the 4 to score was Micah Evans, placing 37th in his first race back after injury and a couple weeks back in training – a solid performance.

We had a number of runners not far behind, with Dave Adams in 40th the day before racing the Petts Wood 10k!, Will Reedman-White continuing his comeback in 46th, Martin Richardson in his first XC race as a Masters athlete with full family support in tow in 55th, Scott Poulier another of our Dads, also making his debut with his son running for our juniors in 66th, Christian Clement making a welcome return to racing for the club after a long injury layoff, another Dad with full family support in 69th, Paolo Lancini on debut with great family support in attendance in 74th, club stalwart Gareth Evans making his XC return in 78th and the evergreen Paul Sharpe aka Sharpey in 85th completed our 12 to score.

Another of our Dads with full family support Phil Bunn was inside the top 100 in 95th and then we had Greg Firth in 114th, Darren Corneille in 133rd, Jon Pairman in 136th, Barry Horgan in 168th, Jason Meers in 172nd, Colin Pearson in 181st and Chris Martin in 194th, out of a field of 253 finishers.

James Naylor was also making his club xc debut (also part of Mike Reeves’ group) and was going well after getting out keenly but then had to pull out some 3/4 of the way in – some say it was the shock of racing 10 x his usual distance on grass and hills as he’s usually an 800m track runner – he’s promised a finish in his next xc race!

This meant we finished 4th in the 4 to score behind Tonbridge, Cambridge Harriers and Medway & Maidstone and 3rd in the 12 to score behind Tonbridge and Cambridge, though with a number of our guys racing the Petts Wood 10k the following day, others choosing to focus on Autumn / Winter marathons and some away / on hols, we’re hoping for greater numbers and team performances going forwards!

A very well done to all. We’re off to Somerhill on Saturday for round 2. The emphasis on “hill”

Full results  are on the Kent Athletics website here