Croydon Harriers’ men got off to the best possible start in Division Two of the 2XU Surrey cross-country league on Saturday with a clear team victory at Wimbledon Common.

The 19-strong squad triumphed on 254 points, clear of nearest rivals Dulwich Runners (299) and Full-on-Triathlon club (351pts).

UCL student Peter Chambers (25 minutes and 38 seconds) enjoyed a welcome return to action after a long lay-off, winning ahead of club colleague Ben Savill (26:16) over the 7.5km course out of 165 finishers.

The pair would have placed 9th and 22nd in the top flight race which was held on the same course.

Brunel student Alex Penfold (14th, 28:14) and coach Simon Loughran (22nd, 28:34) were next home, and solid packing followed thanks to David Brown (28th, 29:03), David White (29th, 29:09) and Ernie Hann (30th, 29:10).

The remainder of the scoring 10 consisted of debutant Jose Concha (40th, 29:55), coach Alan Burn (3rd M50, 29:56) and Glenn Barden (47th, 39:02).

A further nine Harriers made up the rest of the squad, including Keith Brown who was the fifth M60 home.

In the young athletes ranks, Jordan O’Dongo finished 34th in a high quality field, with Isaac Flanagan giving chase in 47th.

Theo Flanagan (82nd), Ifetobi Salako (93rd) and Muralitharan Varathan (96th) completed the Croydon contingent in the 101-strong field. The U15/17 boys were 10th overall and the U13s were 12th.

At Roundshaw Downs in the Surrey women’s league, the U15 girls enjoyed a solid sixth place finish in the young athletes ranks.

Jessica Moore (21st, 16:29), Saarah Nawaz (23rd, 16:39) and Megan Driver (33rd, 17:09) also enjoyed solid outings over the two-mile course.

In the U13 ranks, Croydon placed 12th out of the 20 teams that closed in. Kyra Sethna-McIntosh led home the challenge in 26th and was supported by Cassandra Howard (37th) and Leanne Moore (47th).

In the women’s race, debutant Maria David was 209th and Jules Williams were 291st. There were 420 finishers. They placed 29th in Division Two.

This Sunday (October 18) sees the return of the Lexus Croydon 10km road race, with more than 500 runners expected to toe the line at Lloyd Park Avenue at the race start of 10.15am.

There is also a young athlete’s fun run for nine to 14-year-olds of 3km.

Entries are still available via nice-work.org.uk and will be available on the day of the race from 8am.

Your Local Guardian:

Megan Driver, Jessica Moore, Saarah Nawaz

Your Local Guardian:

Leanne Moore, Kyra Sethna-McIntosh, Cassandra Howard