November Reminders
Howdy Ranelights.
The next stop… the MOB!
All hands on deck for our first mob match of the season as we host Thames Hare & Hounds in Richmond Park on 22 November. The current tally is 23 Ranelagh wins to 26 Thames, and we’re well placed to close the gap.
If you’re new to the mob tradition, we compete annually against our fellow founding members of the English Cross-Country Union: Thames Hare & Hounds, South London Harriers, Orion Harriers and Blackheath & Bromley AC.
These historic fixtures are a cornerstone of our club’s identity, with our first mob match against Blackheath dating back to 1907.
Mob matches are for everyone aged 20+, and numbers matter more than pace — run it hard or treat it as a training run.
Every runner counts, and your presence can make a real difference, so we’re expecting to see as many of you as possible lining up to part.
Details, course & other race info @ https://ranelagh-harriers.co.uk/news/mob-thh-2025 ⬅️
PRIORITY dates
FIXTURES
▪️Sat 22 Nov Mob Match vs Thames Hare & Hounds @ Richmond Park: Register ro run on the day.
▪️Sat 13 Dec Middlesex XC Champs @ Hillngdon Hill Farm: Enter via Teamer / Captains
▪️Sat 10 Jan Surrey XC League #3 @ Mitcham Common (Women) and Oxshott (Men). Look out for Teamer entries.
SOCIALS
▪️Sat 22 Nov Post Mob Supper @ Fox & Duck. FINAL CALL TO BOOK @ https://forms.gle/gRtz2k3VxJZYFsvT7
▪️Sat 6 Dec XMAS Party & End of Year Awards @ All Bar One Richmond. Book by 1 Dec @ https://bookings.designmynight.com/place-your-order?booking_id=689a4a4770f7e0f87805d655
REMINDERS
▪️Sat 22 Nov If you’re not running the THH Mob, please email coordinator@ranelagh-harriers.co.uk to volunteer.
▪️Sun 30 Nov End of Year Awards voting deadline. Vote for your Ranelagh superstar @ https://forms.gle/ZHoHsrX32QYjKRTM9
COMING UP
FIXTURES
▪️Sat 29 Nov SEAA XC Masters Championship @ Greenford
▪️Sat 20 Dec South of the Thames Championships @ Wimbledon Common
▪️Sun 4 Jan Surrey XC Champs @ Denbies
▪️Sat 10 Jan Surrey XC League #3 @ Mitcham Common (Women) and Oxshott (Men)
▪️Sat 17 Jan Mob Match vs Blackheath @ Richmond Park
For the latest updates, go to https://ranelagh-harriers.co.uk/fixtures ⬅️
SOcial / community
▪️Thurs 11 Dec Christmas Curry Night at The Indian Gymkhana Club after Osterley track. All welcome.
▪️Sunday 11 Jan: 9am Richmond Park social run with Bearcats; followed by coffee & croissant after. All welcome (including Serpies).
▪️Jan/Feb 2026 Friday TBC: Ranelagh Quiz Night. Details soon.
Race Roundups
▪️SEAA London XC Champs:
The latest event on our XC calendar was the SEAA London Championships at the iconic Parliament Hill on 8 November - a firm favourite that never disappoints.
There were certainly gutsy runs all around by the 16 Ranelagh women and men in attendance — from first-timers taking on Parliament Hill for the first time to seasoned XC veterans powering through the final stretch with trademark determination.
Facing that hill in conditions that were thankfully drier than the mud-fest of Nationals back in February, Suzy Whatmough led the women’s charge superbly, finishing 29th in 23:59. She was followed by Edel McKeever (28:28), then Rebecca Bissell (30:27) and Claire Warner (31:03).
Ann Kearey (32:34) continued the steady flow of blue vests in, with Carol Aikin (34:00) and Solene Pezot (35:31) rounding out a determined squad. Their combined efforts earned the women’s team an excellent 18th place overall.
Our men also delivered a strong showing. Peter Robbins (38:13) led the charge with an impressive 23rd place finish, closely followed by Joe Killip in 38:40. David Lawley (41:26) secured a top-100 finish, with Mark Herbert (43:35), James Stokes (45:12), and Ed Smith (45:19) packing well.
Further down the field, Michael Thomas (48:07), James Ritchie (50:09), Neil Rae (55:06), and Hadi Khatamizadeh (56:09) all finished strongly to complete our men’s efforts. Together, the squad brought home a solid 14th place for the men’s team.
A brilliant collective effort from both teams, showing once again why Parliament Hill continues to bring out the very best of Ranelagh spirit. A huge well done to all runners.
Full results @ https://results.sporthive.com/events/7392163320901402624 • Ranelagh only results >
▪️Surrey XC League #2 Division 1 @ Beckenham | Report by Aoife Kilpatrick, Women’s Captain
17 fabulous females signed up for the latest Surrey League fixture at Beckenham Place. It was a long trek across London - two trains and a tram on a gloomy day - but we were determined to show up and give it our best.
The course was two laps, featuring a very sharp hill. With such a highly talented Division 1 field (where even Becky Briggs only placed 7th), competition was fierce. That made Suzy’s performance all the more impressive: she was our first finisher, coming 36th overall in a superb time of 22:09.
Next home was Lizzie, in fine form with 23:32, closely followed by Natalie, who had a fantastic run in 24:03. Agnes came in at 24:36, and I rounded off the A team scorers with 25:15.
Special mention to Agnes, who slowed on my second lap to give me words of encouragement when I was contemplating a DNF!
Edel, back in excellent form, was the first scorer for our B team, finishing just seconds behind me. She was followed closely by Clare Fowler, Robyn Smith, Claire Woolf, and Fiona Smith.
Fiona’s effort earned her the second Anchor woman trophy for the B team, alongside me as the fifth scorer for the A team. Thirty seconds later, Claire Warner crossed the line, followed by Bec Bissell - remarkably, she had run 20 miles the day before! Solene, Clare Day, and Carol were our final finishers.
Sadly, new recruit Jo had to drop out due to injury, but she joined Sarah Carnwath to cheer on the runners. The team spirit was fantastic, and afterwards we shared the usual cakes and some delicious flapjacks baked by Agnes.
We breathed a collective sigh of relief knowing we had done enough to stay in Division 1 finishing 10th out of 15 teams and safe from relegation (for now.)
I’m now taking cake orders for the next Surrey League at Mitcham Common, so keep the date free and join us for more (type 2) fun!
A big shout‑out to everyone who has taken part this season so far, whether it was your first time or you’re a cross‑country regular. Thank you all, and see you at the next one on 10th January!
Full results @ https://surreyleague.org/sl/match/188/pdf/
▪️Surrey XC League #2 Division 2 @ Hurst Green | Report by Jonny Smith, Men’s Captain
Deep in the very East of Surrey, at the foot of the North Downs, Oxted is not your classic Surrey XC League venue. The suburb of Holland, which gives its name to the local running club who are taking the league by storm, supposedly means land by the hill. It's an etymology which clearly doesn't apply to the XC course, which struggles to include anything worthy of the name. Last year the venue gave us a flat, solid and quick surface. This year it was noticeably softer and greasy in places. Picking the right line was critical.
The men came into the fixture off the back of a superb start. But a flat course was likely to play to Woking's road pedigree. And sure enough, after a furious short lap around the sports ground fields, Woking's lead runner was well out in front. Chasing him down was one of Ranelagh's newest recruits. Jack Eggington, replete with Jon McEnroe perm and headband, is a really exciting talent and he didn't hold back. Jack went out hard to try and go with the early leaders but paid the price a little in the end, still coming in a hugely impressive 9th.
Not far behind, two of our top five from the first fixture were again putting in classy displays - Joe Killip and Peter Cook both working themselves comfortably into the top ten and finishing 4th and 6th respectively to lead the team home. Meanwhile, Gareth Hopkins was a man out to prove a point. With an XC record for Fulham that didn't quite match his undoubted talents, he went out hard and, to quote a watching Coach Riley, "He gave it absolutely everything. The look on his face when I saw him twice was something to behold". A 17th place finish was his just rewards.
That left Woking and Ranelagh with 4 runners each in the top 20 and gave Woking a lead of 3. Our big guns had matched theirs, and Ranelagh needed their old-timers to come in clutch. But where were they?
Having their usual slugfest, that's where they were. But they were also having to compete with this season's young interloper, Joel Pierson-Hagger, who set out hard and made himself the hare to catch. Unfortunately for Joel, a hip issue forced him out of the race on the second lap. We know he'll be back to terrorise the stalwarts.
Meanwhile, the perfect-record duo of Marc Leyshon and Ross MacDonald were running neck and neck. Captain Jonny Smith and VC Dave Lawley were right behind them, knowing full well that Jimmy Whistler and Ted Mockett weren't too far back either. The positions changed a lot but in the end Smith (21st) just pulled ahead of Leyshon (24th), Mockett (32nd) made his usual late surge ahead of Lawley (35th and a particularly gutsy run given injury problems), and Whistler (38th) definitely wasn't allowed to pip MacDonald (39th) to the line so that the latter could secure the Ron Burgundy anchorman trophy (which his Movember moustache was beautifully emulating).
Those six were separated by just 39 seconds. Meanwhile, Woking closed out in 70 to give Ranelagh a huge A team win by 115 points. In the end, Woking only just beat Reigate, who in turn knocked Epsom & Ewell into 4th.
One thing which is quickly becoming apparent this season is that the B team are not to be out done. With a turnout of 30 runners (reduced from 34 after Olaf Wasternack succumbed to illness and the triple R threat of Reed, Riley and Ramsay were taken out by a combination of injury and work) Ranelagh were always going to pack well, and so it turned out.
Chris Davidson led them home with a 49th place finish on his season debut. A really solid run and we know he'll be knocking on the A team in the final two fixtures.
Next in, with arguably the performance of the day, was new Dad, Sam Roberts (71st), storming into a 12th place finish to utterly destroy coach Riley's prediction of 19th (taking into account non-starters). He was closely followed by Graham Weller (74th), who took a stunning 2nd place in the V50 race. And they kept on coming. Stew Stanton (76th) built on some really strong recent form to come in 14th scorer, Mark Herbert was a couple of seconds back in 77th taking people on the line, with Dave Ready making a welcome return from injury in 79th. The V55s were also determined to make their mark, with club legend Peter Haarer (86th) finishing just ahead of Frankfurt hero Jonathan Moore (87th), and Mike Morris (giving Ross a run for his money for best moustache of the day) in 89th. That left Matt Hirschler to round out the team in 93rd.
So how did the B team look? Well, if you thought ten in the top 40 was good, the Bs took out 10 of the first 11, just a lone Woking runner getting in the way of a perfect score. In fact, their score of 61 was briefly bounded around as a possible B team record, only for stats guru Ed Forbes to point out that they had in fact achieved a perfect score of 55 in the 2019/20 season. But the result was still outstanding, with the next team (Woking again) a barely believable 232 points behind in 2nd.
And the runners didn't stop there. Ed Forbes (96th) only just missed out on the B team anchorman. Andy Starr (116th), Ed Perry (117th), and Rick Jenner (122nd) were all testament to the incredible strength in depth. Stephen Hird (133rd), Mike Thomas (137th) and Hadi Khatamizadeh (143rd) showed fantastic representation from Advanced 2. James Ritchie (160th), coming into the line, was like a running version of Hodor, desperately trying to hold back the maurauding youngsters behind him. Neil Rae (164th) was not far behind and happy with his run, whilst Andrew McLauchlan didn't seem too unhappy at taking home the C team anchorman trophy for the 2nd race running.
And so the first half of the league season is done. The teams have now got commanding positions, but Oxshott in January will be a very different test. In the meantime, all eyes turn to our home mob against Thames next weekend. Can the men and the ladies combine forces to slay the dragon? There's only one way to find out...
Full results @ https://surreyleague.org/sl/match/192/pdf/
End of year awards
It’s time to celebrate the heart and soul of Ranelagh…
Our inaugural End of Year Club Awards are here to highlight the people you feel bring warmth, inspiration, and joy to our community.
Whether it’s remarkable performances, constant encouragement, or exceptional team spirit, these awards recognise the members who keep Ranelagh thriving.
Thank you to everyone who submitted their nominations.
After thoughtful review, the panel has carefully considered each one and selected this year’s shortlist. Congratulations to all who made it.
And now it’s over to you!
Your vote really matters, so please cast it today to help us celebrate the Ranelagh members who make our club truly special.
Voting will close on Sunday 30 November.
The winners will be announced at the Ranelagh Christmas Party on 6 December at All Bar One, so make sure you're booked in to be there!
Training
Not only is is getting darker - it’s also getting colder!
So a reminder to please wear hi-vis or reflective clothing at all times — not just during training, but also when travelling to and from the clubhouse or track. Plus don’t forget your lights or head/chest torches - staying visible is key to staying safe.
For Tuesdays’ sessions, please meet at our clubhouse for 7pm.
The Richmond Park deer cull is currently in operation and during this time, pedestrian gates will be locked from 20:00 until 07:30, 7 days a week. Tuesdays’ training schedules will be adjusted to reflect this.
For Thursdays’ track, please meet at Osterley track for 7.30pm.
Aimed at improving speed endurance, track is suitable for all levels and ideal for those those looking to improve. There’s a great social and encouraging aspect to track, with everyone - across all pace groups - training together and supporting each other.
Plus you can tailor the session to suit, making it ideal for those coming back from injury.
London marathon
Ranelagh Harriers have been given 2 club entries to the 2026 London Marathon on 26th April. Both places will be awarded by way of a ballot. Any member who wishes to apply to enter the ballot, will need to meet ONE of the following 2 criteria:
1. Has taken part in at least 3 Ranelagh races this year, either Surrey League, mob matches, club handicaps or a combination, OR
2. Has volunteered at a minimum of 3 Ranelagh races this year (either cross country or road events)
To ensure that we give people who have not recently had a chance to run the London Marathon, applicants also need to meet both of the following criteria:
A. Has not taken part in the London Marathon in the last 5 years, AND
B. Has not obtained a championship/Good For Age qualifying time in the last 5 years.
Should you wish to apply, please email ranelaghpresident@gmail.com by 6pm on 5th December.
The ballot will be drawn at the Ranelagh Xmas Party on 6th December. Good luck!
Notices
Club
1️⃣ Green Belt Relay 2026: There has been an overwhelming response to registration so to join the waitlist, please email ranelaghgbr@gmail.com. Don’t forget to join the Greenbelt Relay WhatsApp Group (via the Ranelagh WhatsApp Community) for updates and team chat.
2️⃣ Kit: Thank you to everyone who’ve recently placed their orders. A bulk order has been submitted to Pressio and we will be in touch as soon as delivery has been fulfilled. Any queries, please message our Kit Secretary Agnes Nagy via WhatsApp Community, or email coordinator@ranelagh-harriers.co.uk
3️⃣ We Need You: We’re looking for budding content creators, writers or social media gurus to help with Ranelagh comms. If that sounds like you, or even if it’s not but you’re happy to learn, then please chat to Ed Perry or Narissa Vox about it via WhatsApp Community
4️⃣ Save the date: From 30 Nov, we’re going to trial opening the clubhouse on Sunday mornings for runners to leave kit, and provide breakfast (coffee & croissants) pre/post run. A great place to finish your long run! More details coming soon.
5️⃣ Club Subs: A reminder that 2025/2026 subs are due. Payments to Ranelagh Harriers | HSBC | 40-23-29 | 81109847. For other options, go to www.ranelagh-harriers.co.uk/join-info ⬅️
6️⃣ Share: Your running related celebrations & achievements in our ‘General Club Chat’ group. We love seeing what you get up to!
Community
1️⃣ Preparing for a Marathon: An evening with Mara Yamauchi: Organised by the Stragglers AC, Mara Yamauchi will be giving a marathon-focused talk at Bushy Park Sports Club on Friday 21 November from 6.45 to 8.15pm.
Join Britain’s fifth’s fastest ever women’s marathon runner as she covers training, nutrition, mental preparation, recovery, and how to handle setbacks, followed by a Q&A and time to share experiences. Mara will also sign copies of her book Marathon Wisdom.
If you have questions for Mara, please contact Nicky Hornzee (number in form) in advance. Places can be reserved here , with a £5 donation payable on the night. Drinks will be available from the BPSC bar. ⬅️
2️⃣ Mental Elf Festive Fun Run: Festive 5K run, walk, or jiggle in costume 7 Dec at Marble Hill Park, Twickenham. All proceeds support Richmond Borough Mind’s vital services. Sign up to run or volunteer @ https://www.rbmind.org/support-us/mental-elf-fun-run-2025/ ⬅️
3️⃣ Home of England Rugby 5k: Stadium charity run 7 Jan 2026. Details @ https://allianzstadiumtwickenham.com/hospitality/home-of-england-rugby/5k/information ⬅️
4️⃣ Thames Towpath 10: This popular 10 miler will return on Sunday 12 April 2026, following the same fast, flat and scenic Thames-side route. Entries will open soon. For now, please save the date and head to https://www.west4harriers.com/thames-towpath-10-mile-2025/ for general info.
