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Newsdesk 2003
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RANELAGH HARRIERS E-NEWS # 122 10 DECEMBER 2003
Web site: www.ranelagh-harriers.com
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SURREY LEAGUE DIVISION ONE Saturday December 13th
This is the second League fixture of the season. Our women currently stand
in 3rd place in Division One and our men are 5th. Our forces are split on
this occasion, with the women at Lightwater Country Park, Woking (just off
the M3 at junction 3) and the men at Priory Park, Reigate. The senior
women's race is at 12.30pm followed by the two junior races at 1.15pm and
1.45pm. The junior men are off at 2.30pm and the seniors at 3pm. All are
welcome to run - no pre-entry required, just turn up!
STUBBS CUP MOB MATCH v SOUTH LONDON HARRIERS Saturday December 20th at
Coulsdon
A quick reminder that our next mob match is on the 20th, away to SLH at
Coulsdon. The course is 7.5 miles on Farthing Downs and starts at 2.30pm.
We're also invited to SLH's Christmas Party at their club house in the
evening.
DYSART CUP and ELLIS TROPHY RACES Saturday December 6th in Richmond Park
Opening the proceedings was the women's Dysart Cup race, which included our
club women's and women veterans' championships. 36 runners started and seven
clubs were represented but only ourselves and regular supporters of this
race Serpentine and Stragglers fielded the five required for the team event.
Fixture clashes unfortunately took away some of the possible championship
contenders - Sarah Seal and Estelle Damant were representing Surrey at the
South of England Inter-Counties at Stowe and Alice Beverly was on duty for
Oxford University in the Varsity race on Wimbledon Common. But 2001 winner
Liz Kipling was there, as were Lynsey Morris and Sara Grosvenor who seemed
to be coming into form at just the right time.
Sara set her stall out early and raced into a 20 metre lead after the first
short lap. She was comfortably increasing her advantage over the next mile
when calamity struck. Mistakenly assuming we were using the same course as
for the Surrey League, Sara turned right at the bottom of Queen's Ride
instead of continuing on up to White Lodge. This unfortunately cost her a
lot of ground before she was called back and, chase though she might, she
could not quite regain the lead. So the individual victory went to Dee Smale
of the Stragglers, repeating her win of two years ago on which occasion she
too ran off course - must be something about this race!
Sara finished 2nd but had the consolation of leading the Ranelagh team to
victory in the Dysart Cup and clinching for herself the Hugh Jones Salver as
club women's champion. Sara thus becomes the third first-time winner of the
Salver in as many years. Lynsey and Liz finished 4th and 5th overall and
filled the minor places in the championship, while behind them came the race
for the second club trophy up for grabs today. This was Trish's Trophy for
the club veterans (over 40) championship. Margaret Auerback retired after
the short lap feeling unwell, so it was left to Kathy Mallett and Sonia
Rowland to battle it out. Kathy always had the edge and came home a minute
clear of Sonia, the inaugural winner of the trophy last year. These two
closed in the scoring team, but alas there was no Dysart Cup to present to
them. We won it two years ago but it failed to materialise last year and
doesn't seem to have been seen since. Does anyone have it tucked away in a
cupboard?
The sealed handicap held in conjunction was won by Lynsey Morris ahead of
Sonia Rowland and Emma Corbett. Full results of the race and the handicap
can be found on our web site.
In the men's race for the Ellis Trophy 13 clubs were represented amongst the
129 finishers, but of those only five could muster the requisite ten to
score for the trophy competition. Eight closed in for the subsidiary
6-to-score.
As usual for Ranelagh it was a pretty low-key affair but the Stragglers
pulled out all the stops in a bid to reclaim the trophy they last won in
2001. Led by the individual winner Wayne Smith they packed their scoring ten
into the top 40 and ran out comfortable victors ahead of the trophy holders
Serpentine.
Paul Graham led the Ranelagh contingent just ahead of Captain Bix, both in
the top ten. Next came Simon Hedger, on a flying business trip from Sydney,
who assured us later in the pub that he was definitely shouting for England
in the rugby world cup final - once a Pom, always a Pom.
It was good to see some new names amongst the Ranelagh scoring ten,
including Jacus Engelbrecht in his first club race, as well as some old
names - we had a pretty nifty over 60s team out today!
Complete results of the Ellis Trophy race are also on our web site.
SOUTH OF ENGLAND AA INTER-COUNTIES Saturday December 6th at Stowe School
Sarah Seal reports:
"The last race I'd taken part in at Stowe School was the National XC,
February 2000. I like to think I'm a little quicker now and a good job too,
or else I'd have probably come last in Saturday's Southern Inter-County
race. This is the second time I've run for the Surrey team and I feel very
lucky to have been selected. 12 months ago it had never even crossed my mind
that I'd be running in the county team.
As for the course, it was in a different part of the school grounds to the
Nationals in 2000. For the senior women, the race consisted of 3 laps of a
loop just over 2km in length. It was a very undulating loop with only 200m
of flat. A real rollercoaster of a course - it was pretty tough on the legs!
Luckily it wasn't muddy though, just rather breezy, especially on the uphill
finishing stretch. I really enjoyed the race working with another member of
the Surrey team to claw our way up the field. It proved to be a good tactic
as the team finished in 3rd position. I finished 5th for Surrey so was just
outside the scoring team, but like to think I played my part and I was
certainly satisfied with my run. Another satisfied Ranelagh runner was
Estelle Damant. Estelle has run for Surrey several times before in younger
age groups, but now running for the U23's this was her debut in the senior
race. She put in a very strong and very impressive performance, finishing
just a short way behind me. Lots more to come from Estelle I think!!
Estelle and I weren't the only Ranelagh members representing Surrey though.
Jessica Harvey ran for the U20's. This age group is always a bit thin on the
ground and a thin field makes it mentally a tough race. Jessica put in a
great performance though, finishing 29 th out of 34 and was another very
satisfied runner. Unfortunately Surrey didn't have enough runners to
complete a full team.
Anair Beverly, after playing for the winning side in a Lacrosse match in the
morning, dashed up to Stowe to compete in the U17 race. She was full of cold
too - but still managed to run well. Finishing 36th out of 64 she was the
fourth scorer for Surrey, the team finishing in 5th place.
Alex Hook was the fifth Ranelagh runner for Surrey, competing in the U15's
she put in a solid run finishing 46th out of 79, all with a smile on her
face (I think!)".
Senior Women
1 S-J Pickett (Surrey) 23.04
20 Sarah Seal 24.18
33 Estelle Damant 25.01
Under 20
1 J Pereira (Kent) 22.13
29 Jessica Harvey 28.47
Under 17
1 N Sykes (Beds) 18.07
36 Anair Beverly 20.52
Under 15
1 S Twell (Hants) 15.38
46 Alex Hook 18.00
BARBADOS MARATHON Sunday 7th December
Hugh took his annual Caribbean sunshine top-up, though running a marathon
there seems an excellent way of spoiling a good holiday!
1 W Komen (Kenya) 2.32.50
3 Hugh Jones 2.38.48
LAST FRIDAY OF THE MONTH 5Km Friday 28th November in Hyde Park
1 J Anderson (Unatt) 15.38
71 Stefan Parkins 19.44
156 Brian Chard 22.44
192 Wally Garrod 24.56
196 John Hanscomb 25.16
WINDSOR GREAT PARK
Clive Beauvais is organising a series of long Sunday runs for SLH and
Ranelagh in Windsor Great Park aimed particularly at those building up
towards next year's London Marathon. The first of these, 10-15 miles, will
start from Bishops Gate (parking at the gate) this Sunday, December 14th, at
11am. All welcome. Details of the later runs will follow.
TUESDAY NIGHT SESSIONS
Speed / hill sessions lined up to torture you - starting from the clubhouse
at 7pm.
Dec 16th 3 x 5 mins effort, 3 x 3 mins
Dec 23rd Christmas special!
RICHARD CLAY-JONES
Upwards of 20 Ranelagh Harriers were amongst Richard's final "full house"
for a very moving funeral service today at Mortlake Crematorium. RIP
Richard.
NEXT...
A full fixture list for the 2003/04 winter season is available on our web
site.
More details of the following from Andy Bickerstaff (07966 552302 /
mailto:andy@norris-hobs.co.uk ) or Paul Graham (mailto:paulgraham28@hotmail.com )
or Clare Nicholson (07710 348030 / mailto:clarenicholson@hotmail.com ).
Saturday December 13th Surrey League Division 1 - men at Reigate
(2.30pm juniors, 3pm seniors), women at Lightwater Country Park (12.30pm
seniors, 1.15pm and 1.45pm juniors)
Saturday December 20th Stubbs Cup Mob Match v South London Harriers
at Farthing Downs, Coulsdon. 7.5 miles, start at 2.30pm. All runners
welcome!
Followed by SLH's Christmas Party to which
we are all invited.
Tuesday December 23rd Junior Points Prize race 2, 2.30pm in Richmond
Park. Hot mince pies promised afterwards!
Saturday December 27th Henty Relay in Richmond Park. Our Christmas
fun relay for all members and friends. 2km legs, start time 2pm but be at
the clubhouse by 1.30pm to be sure of getting in a team.
FINALLY
Jon Brown's failure to run faster than 2.18 in the Fukuoka Marathon in Japan
at the weekend makes it virtually certain that Paula Radcliffe will end 2003
ranked the number one marathon runner in the UK, male or female!
Steve Rowland
e-mail: srowland@calor.co.uk
Tel: 01926 318734
Fax: 0870 4006901