F&C win the Southern League at Alder Valley on Sunday!

Words by Mike Hegesippe

Alder Valley was a new venue in the Southern League Cross Country competition, added late in the calendar due to cancellations earlier in the season because of flooding.

The pressure was intense on our runners as we were standing 1^st in the league before this event, and we knew that due to Alder Valley being on Easter Sunday it was always going to be difficult to have a big turnout

We had a few hiccups before the start and uncertainty as to who would be taking part because 3 car parks were suggested on the league website but it turned out that one indicated as 15 minutes away was more like 50 minutes away from the venue (15 minutes by car, not by foot after you’d parked!). I nearly got caught with that one myself but checked Google map and could see that one car parks seemed quite far, so I headed for the main one in the park instead.  

Finally with 10 minutes to spare everyone due to attend was there ready to start. 18 people in total represented the club, 11 men, 7 ladies. Not bad for an Easter Sunday and a venue 50 miles away from Fleet!

It was sunny and slightly on the cool side. Perfect weather for running, though maybe not for those who like the mud. In contrast to a few weeks before it was very dry under foot. But with dry ground came another challenge, at least for me. A lot of grass running, particularly in the first ½ mile, and some fear of stepping in a rabbit hole and flying over face first onto the ground!

It was not the usual Southern cross country run. No woodland, just park paths and grass. It looked more like the kind of venue that we find in the Hampshire League, run on Saturdays.

Zig-zagging our way round the park

The route itself looks like a complicated zigzag when looking at it on a map. The organisers managed to fit a 5+ miles route in quite a small park but all credit to them it did not feel too much that you were just zigzagging back to the same spots when you were running it, and it was very enjoyable.

F&C showed their intention by starting fast with Aaron taking the lead right from the start.  In the end the men secured 4 places in the top 10 men. Ewan 5^th, Aaron 6^th, Stevyn 8^th and Richard 10^th. The ladies also had strong finishers with 4 F&C athletes in the top 20. Becky 7^th, Penny 10^th, Jolene 15^th and Debbie 17^th.

Winning team for the race day

Quickly the results came. F&C had won the whole 2025-2026 Southern Cross Country League, and won outright 4 of the 5^th events in the season! That’s what you call domination. What a team we have at the moment!

Winning this league is something that we had not achieved as a club for 20 years! In fact it was so long ago that only 1 person who ran any race in the 2025-2026 season had also competed for f&c the last time we won 20 years ago. Penny managed to do it twice for the club! And she even managed to score in multiple events on both occasions, 20 years apart - superb achievement!

Congratulations to everyone for a fantastic achievement in the final event at Alder Valley, and the whole Southern league!