Alex Howard and Molly Smith win South of the Thames cross-country titles

Pre-Christmas period round-up from the cross-country scene around the UK.

SOUTH OF THE THAMES CCA 12km CHAMPIONSHIPS, Wimbledon Common, London, December 20

The race returned to one of its historic venues, for the first time in a dozen years, with two new names as champions, when Molly Smith and Alex Howard came out on top.

Whilst the five-mile race of the Association a month earlier highlighted and gave medals to winners of the under-20 races, this event recognised leaders of the veteran age groups as well as providing one of the longest championship distances for women.

Howard had a comfortable victory over his Tonbridge team-mate Jamie MacDonald as their club retained their championship team title comfortably from 2023 winner Belgrave Harriers also adding the 12-to score trophy for good measure.

After finishing sixth in this event in 2024, Howard went on to place seventh in the South of England Championships.

The Tonbridge third scorer, in ninth place overall, was 2022 and 2023 individual winner Ben Cole who, here, annexed the veteran M40 first place medal.

This run came less than 24 hours after the 40-year-old had run the fastest veteran five-mile time for 25-years at 23:53 in the Friday Night Under the Lights event in Battersea Park.

Further back, Simon Coombes and Mark Tennyson took the M50 and M60 gongs.

Women’s winner Molly Smith had an even more comfortable victor when coming home more than a minute clear of Phoebe Barker as third placed Emily Bradley led Belgrave to the team gold medals, their fifth in consecutive years.

This completed a double for the Herne Hill Harrier who had won the 5-mile event four weeks earlier at Lloyd Park, Croydon before setting a personal best 10km time of 33:33 at Leeds. Those two races followed a 2:34:07 clocking in the Frankfurt Marathon at the end of October.

The third scorer for Belgrave was 2018 individual 5-mile winner Saron Haileselassie as their six runners finished in the top 13 women’s places.

Overall: 1 A Howard (Ton) 40:12; 2 J MacDonald (Ton) 40:40; 3 N Armitage-Hookes (Kent) 40:48; 4 S Somerville (Belg) 40:57; 5 J Turner (B&H) 41:03; 6 T Foster (G&G) 41:12; 7 E Chuck (Dulw R) 41:29; 8 J Sanderson (G&G) 41:32; 9 B Cole (Ton) 41:57; 10 J Claridge (Ton) 41:58

M40: 2 Z Arasaretnam-Hale (B&H) 43:28

M50: 1 S Coombes (Herne H) 44:32; 2 A Whitwah (Ton) 48:05; 3 N Tearle (G&G) 48:16

M60: 1 M Tennyson (G&G) 50:47

M65: 1 D Ogden (S Lon) 53:11

TEAM (6 to score): 1 Tonbridge 51; 2 Belgrave 105; 3 G&G 161; 4 Kent 226; 5 Herne Hill 275; 6 Dulwich R 365

TEAM (12 to score): 1 Tonbridge 247; 2 Belgrave 381; 3 G&G 648

Women: 1 M Smith (Herne H) 44:14; 2 P Barker (Ton) 45:26; 3 E Bradley (Belg) 46:43; 4 R Whyte-Wilding (Belg) 47:25; 5 A Bloomfield (E&E) 47:32; 6 S Haileselasie (Belg) 49:24

W40: 1 S Swaine (Herne H) 53:38

W50: 1 S Biggs (Strag) 52:08

W60: 1 P McHutchon (Strag) 65:58

TEAM (6 to score): 1 Belgrave 49; 2 Herne H 94; 3 Kent 124

WEST YORKSHIRE LEAGUE, Leeds, December 20

Host club City of Leeds dominated at Middleton Park over 9.23km with the top six senior men to finish, led by Joe Firth.

It was a similar story in the women’s race where sisters Ellie and Hannah Hobbs led Leeds to the top three placings.`

Men: 1 J Firth (Leeds) 28:44; 2 W Tigue (Leeds) 28:54; 3 S Flanaghan (Leeds) 29:05; 4 N Marsh (Leeds) 29:14; 5 H Butler (Leeds) 29:53; 6 T Antcliffe (Leeds) 29:59

M40: 1 M Snow (Leeds) 31:09

M45: 1 M Burrett (Leeds) 32:48

M60: 1 S Webb (Bing) 40:26

U20: 1 W Walker (V of York) 30:40

TEAM: 1 Leeds 21; 2 City of York 122; 3 Knavesmere 202

U17: 1 A Robson (H’gate) 15:47; 2 L Richardson (York) 16:03; 3 Y Alem (Leeds) 16:14

TEAM: 1 York 16; 2 Leeds 25; 3 Halifax 29

U15: 1 T Hastings (Wake) 13:27; 2 C Sanderson (Settle) 13:35; 3 J Bastow (York) 13:38

TEAM: 1 Wakefield 22; 2 York 28; 3 Leeds 30

U13: 1 W Thornton (Wake) 11:24; 2 J Neil (Hali) 11:25; 3 A Hadfield (York) 11:44

TEAM: 1 Leeds 21; 2 Wakefield 25; 3 Bingley 39

Women: 1 E Hobbs (Leeds) 22:57; 2 H Hobbs (Leeds) 23:03; 3 C Van Zelst (Leeds) 23:04; 4 B Penty (Knaves, W40) 23:16; 5 J Robrrtson-Dover (York, U20) 23:51; 6 J Jagger (Holmf, W40) 23:52

W50: 1 J Jones (Holmf) 25:17

W65: 1 S Cordingley (Bing) 28:34

TEAM: 1 Leeds 14; 2 York 50; 3 Knavesmere 73

U17: 1 I Tutt (Wake) 14:09; 2 C McKie (K&C) 14:55; 3 C Clark-Taylor (Otley) 15:41

TEAM: none closed in

U15: 1 McGoldrick (Settle) 11:48; 2 J Lovett (York) 12:06; 3 I Forsythe (H’gate) 12:26: 1

TEAM: 1 Leeds 17; 2 York 20; 3 Halifax 44

U13: 1 S Levine (P’fract) 11:37; 2 E Deverill (Vall St) 12:02; 3 E Simpson (Bing) 12:13

TEAM: 1 Bingley 22; 2 York 25; 3 Valley Striders 38

GLOUCESTERSHIRE LEAGUE, Inc Avon, Gloucestershire, Somerset & Wiltshire Championships, Bath, December 14

Felix McGrath, who was fifth in the 2025 Midland championships, took the main men’s race and with it the Avon title as Tom Chandler was an isolated second ahead of Gloucestershire winner Ben Robinson’s third place overall.

The Bath University pair of Sophie Jacobs, who was sixth in the South of England under-20 championships and Madeline Barker came out on top of the women’s race but the first county qualified runners was W45 Amber Gascoigne, who took the Wiltshire title.

Men: 1 F McGrath (B&W/Avon) 31:51; 2 T Chandler (Bath U) 32:37; 3 B Robinson (B&W/Glouc) 33:01; 4 S Wilson (Chelt/Glouc, U20) 33:53; 5 M Threlfall (T Bath/Wilt) 34:14; 6 B Pearce 34:26

U17: 1 T Vesty (Taunt/Som) 17:43; 2 A Enstone (T Bath/Wilt) 18:11; 3 O Gagg (Taunt/Som) 18:26

U15: 1 J Maynard (Swin/Wilts) 12:01; 2 T King (T Bath/Wilt) 12:07; 3 J Shingler (Chelt/Glouc) 12:18

U13: 1 H Rogers (B&W/Avon) 10:00; 2 C Cox (Swin/Wl;ts) 10:02; 3 A Jakubowski (T Bath/Avon) 10:02

Women: 1 S Jacobs (Bath U, U20) 23:21; 2 M Barker (Bath U) 23:53; 3 A Gascoigne (T Bath/Wilts, W45) 24:02; 4 F Davies (Bath U/Glouc) 24:09; 5 J Taylor (Bath U/Som, U20) 24;10; 6 E Ingram (Taunt/Som) 24:12

U17: 1 O Paul (T Bath/Wilt) 20:12; 2 M Thomson (Chelt/Glouc) 20:41; 3 O Avery (Glouc/Glouc) 20:49

U15: 1 E Hutchins (Avon) 13:34; 2 J Hathway (Stroud/Glouc) 13;36; 3 I Wightman (Cjelt/Glouc) 13:39

U13: 1 R Shaw (Wells/Somerset) 10:21; 2 O Lynch (T Bath/Wilts) 10:44; 3 L Leach (Stroud.Glouc) 10:52

WESSEX LEAGUE inc Dorset Championships, Canford, Dorset, December 14

Men: 1 C Collins (Poole, U20) 33:11; 2 C Wadlow (Poole) 34:28; 3 B Penfold (W’borne, U20) 34:37; 4 H Reynolds (TVH) 34:39; 5 B Smith (B’mth) 35:10

M40: 1 L Terry (Poole) 36:09

M50: 1 J Bassinder (Poole) 37:54

M60: 1 J Critchlow (Purb) 38:31

U17: 1 B Mitchell (Poole R) 14:51; 2 O Canavan (B’mth) 14:58; 3 I May (B’mth) 15:17

U15: 1 R Austin (B’mth) 12:12; 2 H Samways (Poole R) 12:17; 3 C Harrison (Poole) 12:40

U13: 1 Z Armitage (N For J) 11:39; 2 S Hollyman (Poole R) 11:45; 3 A Ewen-Matthews (Poole) 11:49

Women:1 N Taylor (Poole, U20) 24;19; 2 D Davies (Wells) 24:55; 3 D Andrews (Poole) 26:29;

U17: 1 I Cherrit (B ‘mth) 16:24; 2 D Abernethy (Wells) 17:45

U15: 1 I May (B’mth) 14:25; 2 O Eves (W’borne) 14:43; 3 A Magill (Poole) 14:40

U13: 1 A Moores (Poole) 12:25; 2 E Fowler (Ports) 12:54; 3 I Beasley (Poole) 13:04