Striders beat Harriers at annual Mob Match

The sixth annual ‘mob match’ between Striders of Croydon and Croydon Harriers took place on Saturday morning. Whereas the previous five matches had been held in Lloyd Park, this year’s match was held in conjunction with the weekly South Norwood parkrun. 60 Striders and 42 Harriers took part, and there were a total of 300 finishers in the parkrun.

Harriers were led by Patrick Lucas, who placed seventh overall in 18 minutes 11 seconds. The next three finishers were all Striders. Andrew Aitken placed eighth (18:16) and Lee Flanagan ninth (18:17), while Striders’ team manager Krzysztof Klidzia was tenth overall and first in the over-50 age-group (18:20), just two seconds ahead of Harriers’ Alan Burn who was second in the over-50 age-group. Matthew Stone of Striders was 12th overall and first in the over-55 age-group, recording 18 minutes 32 and achieving the highest age-grading of 83.63%. Harriers had the next two finishers with Isaac Flanagan 13th (18:40) and Kartik Iyer 14th (18:49). Martin Filer of Striders was 15th (18:55), Henry Butt of Harriers 16th (19:02), Steve Corfield of Striders 17th (19:02) and Robbie Tambling of Harriers 18th (19:10). The first over-60 to finish was Jon Dean of Striders, who placed 31st overall in 20 minutes 01.

Harriers had the first two women to finish, with Madeleine Armstrong placing 49th overall (20:57) and Jessica Moore 50th (21:03). Niamh Vincent of Striders was the third woman to finish, placing 59th overall (21:30), closely followed by her team-mate Charlotte Nusca who was 62nd overall (21:35). The first under-15 girl to finish was Holly Perks of Harriers who was the sixth female finisher, placing 81st overall (22.27). Nikki Javan of Striders was 82nd (22:31) and Kyra Sethna-McIntosh of Harriers was 83rd (22:34).

Harriers had 19 runners finishing in under 21 minutes, whereas Striders only had 15. However, Striders had a further 23 runners finishing between 21 minutes and 24 minutes, whereas Harriers only had ten. Striders had a total of 47 runners finishing in under 28 minutes, while Harriers had 35. The result was that Striders won the match by 2907 points to 2346.