Highgate Harriers’ glory came when they won the Southern Cross Country relay Championship for men at Wormwood Scrubs on the 20th of October. The team comprised Pete Chambers 14:35; Roger Poolman 13:55; Robert Wilson 14:44 and Sean Renfer, on anchor leg, who did 14:33. They totalled a time of 57:47 for the 4x 4.5k course and beat the recent heroes for several years, Belgrave Harriers, who were 2nd in 57:48 and TVH were third in 57.49.

Johnny Laybourn, was the leading Highgate Harrier runner in the historic Liddiard Cup cross country trophy race a Kingsbury on 27th October finishing sixth out of 141 finishers; and in the recent Amsterdam Marathon Shaun Dixon showed he is still pretty fit, running 2hrs and 41 minutes.

On the 3rd of November on Hackney Marshes, Darryl Davison came 10th in the North London Cross Country Championships in 30:27 out of 113 finishers; and for the Highgate women Kani Hinshelwood came 11th in 25.46 and Catherine Airey came 14th in 26.17 out of 82 finishers.

Last one for 2018. Registration from 11.30 for 12 noon start at Parliament Hill Track. £3 entry. 
Aimed at Under 11s but years 7 &  8s welcome. 

North West London League (#2)  on 27th October at Kingsbury.
Great opener to the day’s racing - Ellie Chadwick winning the opening  U11 girls race  with  Tilly Talbot following in her wake for 2nd - a  particularly impressive run as Tilly beat no less than 5 girls who finished in front of her in the first outing of the season. Klea Karanikolas closed the team in with a 5th place- guaranteeing another team victory for the U11 girls. Another team victory came from U13 boys. Remy Weinbrecht taking a solid 3rd. Paul Opie, also in his first race for the Harriers in 5th, Woody Nicole 12th  and Thomas Chadwick 15th. That team shows depth as Luca, Caspar and Sander finished 21st, 26th and 48th. Standout runs from newcomers in the U11s Billy Cooke who finished 10th and Carla Cutler 27th both just 9 years old. Other team results- 3rd places for our U13 (Lauren Russell finishing 2nd) and U15 girls. A second for U11 boys, lead home by Jacques Lorraine in 6th and 4th team place for  U15 boys.

24 clubs compete in the Start Fitness Metropolitan League and after the first fixture at Claybury (13 October) Highgate Harriers top the combined men and women’s league with 46 points; 2nd are London Heathside with 42 points and 3rd Victoria Park & Tower Hamlets on 42. So that bore out what Highgate Harriers’ men’s Cross Country Caption Robert Wilson said beforehand to put down a marker. “It would be the 7th consecutive League were Highgate men to win’.

However, the edge on this one should go to the Highgate women; after the winner, Naomi Taschimowitz of Shaftesbury Barnet finished in 21:43.6, Highgate packed extremely well to be the first team: 2nd Rebecca Johnson 22:54.6; 3 Yasmin Goater 23:11.2; 4th, in easily her best run in the league, came Emma Burgess with 23:31.8; 12th Rachel Baker 24:13.1; and 14 Tessa Strain in 24:23.3. Sarah Bailey was the first over 45 in 49th place in 26:39.8. Two athletes, one from TVH and one from Serpentine collapsed in the unseasonably hot weather over the tough course but both of them were released from hospital within 24 hours.

In the Men’s race out of 489 finishers, the individual winner was international steeplechaser, Adam Kirk-Smith of London Heathside in 25:19.4 but only after an intense battle with Highgate’s Robel Bahelbi. It was only in the last 300m that Kirk-Smith went clear. Abdishakur Abdulle of Hillingdon AC, the Middlesex 10 Road Champion, was 3rd in 25:26.8. Highgate’ ‘B’ team were 6th in division 2 and the ‘C’ team were 10th in Davison 3.

The 12 men in the winning Highgate team were 2 Robel Bahelbi 25:20.9 (his best position in the league), 11 Roger Poolman 26:37.1 (improved just under 100 places from last year); 12 Rob Wilson 26:41.1; 15th Terry Fawden (Under 20) 26:55.9; 21 Sean Renfer 27:12; 25 Henry Murdoch 27:26.1; 26 was Peter Chambers 27:37.0; 27 Murray Strain 27:42.2; 29 Jon Laybourn 27:46.9; 39 Charlie Haywood 28:12.8. 46 Ben Noad (Ist Veteran 40) 28:28.2; 47 William De Donker 28:33.3.

There were some good runs for the younger element of the club. Under 13 Lauren Russell was 8th in 12:36.3 out of 49 finishers; Theo Machin-Paley was 23rd in the combined under 15/under 17 men’s race but 7th under 15; and Ellen Donald was 7th in the combined Under 17/Under 15 women’s race but 4th under 15.

In the Men’s National six stage road relay Championships Highgate Harriers, came 9th of 77 starting teams in 1:48:48. The winning team was Stockport Harriers & AC 1:45:07. Highgate were ahead of ‘Big’ hitters like Birchfield Harriers, Derby and Morpeth.

Highgate’s fastest man was Roger Poolman, who was 6th on the first leg in 17:25, followed by Chris Rainsford (5th) in 17:44 and then, briefly, Highgate were in the frame on leg 3 when Robel Bahelbi came in 3rd in 18:07. In the incessant rain that was forecast to come, Robert Wilson was on leg 4 and recorded a time of 18:24, then came Alex Crossland who came home in 18:26 and finally Charlie Haywood ran 18:42 to anchor the team home in 9th position overall.
 
The amazing thing was the ‘B’ team for the club came 38th of the 77 and were ahead of the ‘A’ teams of Salford and Sale Manchester Harriers, who were serious contenders. Highgate’s overall time for the ‘B’ was 1:54.20. The team showed the depth of the club, which will be again illustrated in the first Metropolitan League cross-country this coming weekend. In leg order:- Jon Laybourn, 18:44; Sean Renfer 18:22; Henry Murdoch, 19:08; Pete Chambers, 18:33; Andres Chau, 19:46 and William De Doncker,19:47.

Highgate Harriers’ women did very well to come 12th of 83 starting clubs and their overall time was 1:03:08. The winners were Aldershot Farnham & District in 57:58. The Highgate Harriers team, in order of running the four stages, comprised: Emma Burgess, 15:46; Yasmin Goater, 15:24; Hannah Viner, 14:58; and Kani Hinchelwood, 18:53. The Highgate team finished ahead of some strong clubs like Herne Hill Harriers and Liverpool.