Thames Hare & Hounds - England Athletics x Athletics Weekly Club of the Month

Thames Hare & Hounds, the oldest adult cross-county running club in the world, is our latest England Athletics x Athletics Weekly Club of the Month.

Each month, we will be selecting one affiliated club to celebrate with a mini-documentary, produced with our partners at Athletics Weekly, which captures some of the unique stories at our club.

A home for the local community

Thames Hare & Hounds' clubhouse acts as a central meeting point for the growing running community in the area, as Will Utley, Men's Vice Captain, explains:

"It's great that we have our own clubhouse over on Wimbledon Common. That's a really good base for everyone. It gives us a home from which the community can build around. There's a really large running scene based out of that clubhouse."

"Because of all these big numbers we get, there's a nice, close-knit community as well of regulars."

Understanding the history of the club

Thames Hare & Hounds have been running on Wimbledon Common since 1868, when they were formed as an offshoot of the local rowing club as they looked for a way to train in the winter when they couldn't get on the water, as Club President Andy Weir explains:

"It's developed significantly from those days, of paper-chasing, chasing the litter in the streets and parks, and from that, the concept of actually racing developed. Thames were at the forefront of that, in fact we won the first ever National Cross County Championships. I think there were only three teams in it, but we still won it!"

Eliot Nevill, Men's Captain, says that learning from the older members of the club is key to bringing together those more experienced members, with new members and youngsters.

"It's not uncommon to have members who have been part of Thames for 30 years, or ones who have recently moved to London. Over the years, you get to meet more and more of these faces who have been around for so long and have had such a long-standing involvement in the club. I think that's really what drives the sense of community."