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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