Great results for Thames at 3rd Men’s Surrey League

The third round of the Men’s Surrey League on Saturday surpassed expectations. As with the previous League races, the racing at Mitcham Common was high quality and hard fought and it was a day of great results for Thames. Jamie Parkinson made his Surrey League debut with a brilliant victory, a full 22 seconds clear of second place making him the first Thames winner of a Men’s race since 2011. He was backed up by superb runs from Jim Allchin in 9^th and Luuk Metselaar (also making his League debut) in 10^th and the strong performances kept coming with Paddy Roddy 17^th, Simon Baines 24^th (1^st V40), Howard Bristow 26^th (2^nd V40), James McMullan 33^rd, Neil Chisholm 43^rd, Martin Shore 46^th and Simon Wurr was 10^th scorer in 48^th. This resulted in an excellent second team position, beating Kent on count back and not far behind lead leaders Hercules Wimbledon. The Thames B team also made the podium as third B team with Richard Ollington 62^nd, James Chettle 67^th, Ben Reynolds 71^st (1^st V50), Matt Jones 75^th, Paul Cheetham 96^th, James Meiklejohn 98^th, Joe Gale 117^th, Richard Hewitt 138^th, Anthony Doolittle 150^th and Ed Catmur 154^th. John Bull was 180^th, Andrew Crichton 182^nd and Brian Lynch 182^nd giving us 23 finishers in total. A fantastic turnout and performance from one of the strongest Thames Men’s teams of recent times.