The South Of England Cross Country Championships remains one of the highlights of the Winter season and a good number of athletes from Blackheath & Bromley were in action at the 2009 contest at Hillingdon, albeit with a mixed set of results. While there was another good team performance from the Senior women and some encouraging performances in the younger age groups, the Senior Men had a disappointing afternoon.

Bryony Proctor continued her return to fitness finishing 25th in the Senior Womens' race in her first year in the age group. Veteran Jennie Butler enjoyed the challenging conditions making light of the mud and water to finish in 30th and another veteran Jane Bradshaw also ran well to finish 54th. Julie Reynolds just pipped Sarah Dowling for the 4th scoring place and they finished in 104th and 106th respectively. Captain Kate Pratten closed in 154th with Anne Cilia 215th and Carolyna Jones Baldock 248th.This gave them a very good 7th place in the team race.

The Senior Men have a rich tradition in this race stretching back to their first appearance in 1884. After over 100 years of fielding teams in every race they won the team title for the first time in 1986, to begin a golden era which saw them win the title seven times in the 1990s and provide four separate individual champions. Sadly at Hillingdon they failed to finish a team for the third year in a row.

The one bright spot was the fine individual performance of Andrew Conway. The St Marys University student bounced back from missing the Kent Championships because of an achilles injury to have his best run on the country to finish in 76th place. Alex Gibbins did not enjoy the conditions but still finished a useful 105th while Roy Priestley closed in 290th and Richard Hall 370th. Peter Tucker started well but had to pull out because of a severe stitch.

Frank Kilama ran well in the under 20s race to finish in 40th place while Alex Bruce Littlewood’s injury strewn Winter meant he had to settle for 61st place.

Highest placed athlete on the day was Jen Hamer. She produced another good performance to finish 19th in the under 17 womens' race with Chelsea Crouser 54th and Melody Kane 78th. Hector Kurtyanek was a useful 63rd in the mens' race.

Amber Reed had a tough time as she lost a shoe early on in the under 15 girls race. She finished with a cut foot in 28th place, a brave effort from one of the Club's most promising athletes. With Rachel Robinson in 149th, and good packing from Hope Stenning, Ella Self and Lauren Heria in 159th, 161st and 163rd, the team finished 22nd.

For the boys Will Mercer had his best run of the Winter finishing in 42nd place. Oliver Taylor and Greg Proctor were 83rd and 84th and Sam Jackson completed the scoring in 100th place. Adam Willis and Tom Greenhill provided good back up in 145th and 185th to help the team to 12th place.

There were some promising runs in the under 13s age group. For the girls Georgina Kennedy finished in 50th place with Izzy Jackson 131st and Sonia Woolhouse 201st. Will Ruiz led the boys home in 83rd place with Richard Webb 98th, Alex Punnett 129th, Tom Desborough 187th and Oliver Sims 216th.