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Newsdesk 2004
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RANELAGH HARRIERS E-NEWS # 125 7 JANUARY 2004
Web site: www.ranelagh-harriers.com
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HEADLINE NEWS
* Sarah Seal wins individual bronze in the Surrey Championships and the
women's team narrowly misses gold
* Peter Haarer 5th in the Oxfordshire Championships
* The return of Tim Woods
SURREY LEAGUE DIVISION ONE Saturday January 10th in Richmond Park
This is the third of the four Surrey League fixtures this season and it's on
our home course in Richmond Park. Proceedings start early with the senior
women's start at 12.30pm, followed by the junior women's events at 1.15pm
and 1.45pm. Then the junior men run at 2.30pm followed by the senior men at
3pm. All members are welcome to run but if you can't or don't want to take
part please come along if you can to give a hand with the organisation and
support our valiant teams.
Be aware that with so many runners taking part the Pembroke Lodge car park
is likely to fill up, especially if it's a fine day. So allow yourself
plenty of time.
SURREY CHAMPIONSHIPS Saturday January 3rd at Lloyd Park, Croydon
Captain Clare describes the women's and junior events:
"Lloyd Park was the firmest under foot I've ever seen it. It was a brisk,
cool, but very bright morning and I was actually pretty sorry knowing I
wasn't fit enough to run myself. Gone were the knee high waters of last
spring, the course was 9-12mm spike length with some sections positively
race track-like.
The youngsters were up first and Ranelagh fielded a good smattering of our
young athletes. Victoria Elbourne finished 10th in the U13 girls. Matt
Hirshler was a last minute entrant, but clearly ran his socks off to finish
16th in the U15 boys. Alex Hook was looking somewhat apprehensive and cold
before the start of her race but against stiff competition in her first year
at the county champs in the middle age group fought through to take 13th
place - the sort of excellent performance we almost expect from the
youngster these days. Anair Beverly finished 10th in the combined under 20s
and under 17s in a field somewhat swollen due to university and school
holidays - but was 5th under 17 home - well done Anair!!!
The gun went for the Senior Women's 8km race with 10 Ranelagh vests on the
start line. We'd seen a few Belgrave and SLH women around but didn't really
know who'd succumbed to the excesses of the season, skipped training etc.
until a good way round the first lap. The first time I saw Sarah Seal
running round in 3rd place behind Jo Kelsey and Eleanor Baker I assumed
either I must have blinked and missed a couple of other athletes or that
Sarah had drunk a gallon of coffee for breakfast. Alice Beverly, Jo
Ronaldson, Estelle Damant, Liz Kipling and Sara Grosvenor appeared to be
packing well shortly behind her and a couple of Belgrave vests. As the
first lap went on, and the girls started to string out it became clear that
Sarah was actually on some sort of mission. The look of absolute resolute
determination on her face I have never seen the like of before. Shortly
behind her our girls were clearly working well together and against each
other as it just looked like one determined face after another. On the last
lap I passed Julian "Stats" Smith who had worked out who needed to overtake
whom in order for our girls to win the team event - all of a sudden my
stomach was in my throat. Despite being somewhat depleted, Belgrave had
their 4 scorers between 4th and 11th - I'm not that good at "on the fly"
maths. Sarah had secured 3rd by at least 1/2 a minute, Alice took 7th (a
fantastic result for her first year in the county champs at Senior level)
with Jo and Sara fighting it out with a pack of girls to take 12th and 13th
(Sara overtook two in the last 1/2 mile). Estelle gave the team strong
backup finishing 16th and Kathy (31st), Eliete (38th), Sophie (49th) and
Louise (53rd) should feel mighty pleased with their efforts. Unfortunately
Lloyd Park got the better of Liz's back again and she didn't finish - speedy
recovery Liz!!!!
When the points were added up, Ranelagh drew 33 all with Belgrave, only
losing out on the gold team honours on count back. Not one of those girls
had an ounce of energy left when crossing the line. A brilliant performance
by all. It goes without saying a fantastic bronze individual medal for
Sarah. Her performance of finishing 6th at the County Championships last
year put her name on the club honours board. What happens when you take an
extra couple of places off that????
To quote Robin Drummond "Tuesday nights are clearly working". The quality
and distance training sessions our women are doing by themselves and with
the assistance of the club coaches - Frances, Robin and most notably Sarah
and Margaret (who put together and take the fast groups training on Tuesday
nights) over the last few seasons are clearly paying huge dividends. The
girls should be mighty excited (as indeed Sarah is :o)) going into our own
home Surrey League fixture this coming weekend with what looks like
(although it does beggar belief) a STRONGER????? team than the one fielded
on Saturday - hurrah!!!!!"
Julian Smith reports on the men's race:
"Having accepted that we're not going to win either the Surrey League, the
Southern or the National this year, it was decided to concentrate instead on
winning medals in those events where we had a chance. We succeeded in the
South of Thames junior (a race from which your correspondent was barred),
and next target was the Surrey Champs, where we have not won medals for
decades, if ever.
Encouragingly the specified team all made it to the start line, even Paul
Doyle, who ran round with a phone in his pocket as his wife was in hospital
expecting a baby (Surrey medals mean a lot!). Then even more encouragingly a
Thames runner dropped out early on, leaving them without a full team. We
were in there! But since this is Ranelagh, it couldn't last. The frost
turned to mud, and our spikes were suddenly too short... Rob Stillwell hurt
his foot and had to drop out... but still we could do it. Then your
correspondent developed a calf injury and had to stop. The rest battled on
gamely, especially Paul Doyle - whose phone didn't ring - but at the end we
worked out that had this correspondent finished in the position he stopped,
we would have sneaked medals by a single point. Instead of course we got
nothing: no prizes for guessing Mr Popular that evening. Next target is the
South of Thames Senior in March, when I shall have pneumonia".
Andy Bickerstaff adds:
"Having thought we had outside chance of our first Surrey Medals since
.........it turned into a comedy of errors. The team consisted of cross
country veterans (and just veterans full stop). So at the gun we had two
facing the wrong way and chatting, one in the bushes having a leak and one
tieing up his shoe laces (plus re-tieing them during the race). Seeing
Julian pulled up at the side at the end of lap one just put the lid on it!
At the end of the second lap we were cheered on by half of a very good team
consisting of Julian, Rob Stillwell and Paul S-H. Nice course, good day out
...next year!
Can I add my plaudits to Sarah and the women's team for an awesome
performance, inspiring to be there, and very unlucky not to win".
OXFORDSHIRE CHAMPIONSHIPS Sunday January 4th at Oxford
Peter Haarer finished one place lower than last year but almost exactly the
same distance behind the winner Kevin Sheppard. 5th place should be good
enough to see Peter into the Inter-Counties team.
1 K Sheppard (Tipton) 32.45
5 Peter Haarer 35.01
HENTY RELAY Saturday December 27th in Richmond Park
The return of Tim Woods! Our erstwhile club champion and Honours award
winner had not been seen at the Dysart since the 1980s but seemed to have
changed little in the intervening two decades and ran only a little slower.
He finished the opening lap in third place, chasing hard after Marcus Gohar
though both were well behind Paul Sinton-Hewitt, the only man to crack 7
minutes.
But it was another Woods, Tim's 9-year-old son Alexander, who stole the
show. He sprinted round his lap in 9.51 to put his team into a clear lead
which Marcus and Wyn Williams duly consolidated. Paul Sinton-Hewitt was
closing on Marcus on the final circuit but Marcus had a little in reserve
and the result was never in doubt.
JUNIOR POINTS PRIZE RACE 2 Tuesday December 23rd in Richmond Park
The second of the four race series for juniors was just before Christmas and
saw a slight drop in numbers from the first event but no drop at all in
enthusiasm. Matt Hirschler was fastest of all on the day but having missed
the first event he has some catching up to do on Joseph Rake who fiished 2nd
to Matt in the under 15 age group but leads the series overall. George Brown
Griffiths also won today after missing the first under 13 race but lies 2nd
overall to David Ready.
There's a real head-to-head in the under 13 girls category, with Alex
McKenna turning the tables this time on Victoria Elbourne. They are now
equal on 11 points each. None of the under 15 girls ran this time so Alex
Hook retains the overall lead.
The next race of the series will be on Saturday January 31st and will run
while our mob match with Blackheath is under way. The start will be shortly
after the mob match start at 2.30pm.
HOLLY RUNS Sunday December 21st at Reigate
In a Beverly family day out, Anair was 4th under 17 home in the combined
senior / junior women's event.
Women
1 G Gardner (G&G) 18.05
14 Anair Beverly 20.56
52 Celia Beverly 29.33
Men
1 J Baker (Chichester) 31.52
75 Michael Beverly 44.40
CHRISTMAS MORNING PAARLAUF Thursday December 25th on Wimbledon Common
1 A Weir (THH) & M O'Halloran (HW) 5m 1567yds
4 Paul Sinton-Hewitt & M Ciglia (HW) 5m 1264yds
11 Mike Peace & C Farr (HW) 5m 755yds
LAURISTON 7 MILES Saturday December 27th at Wimbledon
1 R Ward (Belgrave) 34.40
19 Stephen Instone 44.07
SERPENTINE NEW YEAR'S DAY 10Km Thursday January 1st in Hyde Park
Hugh Jones measured a new course for 2004 and obligingly rode the lead bike
to make sure nobody went the wrong way. The revised route certainly suited
Mick Lane who ran his fastest 10km for some years and won the first veteran
prize. Pete Warren was 2nd over 60 and Ranelagh finished 2nd to the
organising club in the team race.
1 H Lobb (Serpentine) 30.32
9 Mick Lane 34.17
44 Stephen Instone 39.28
60 Alan Davidson 40.47
78 Pete Warren 41.33
261 Brian Chard 50.05
BUILDING FUND DRAW
Winners of the regular draw held after the Henty Relay: Robin Drummond
(£149), Jean Hedger (£62) and Trevor Maguire (£37). There was also a special
Christmas bonus prize which was won by Catherine Carthy (£65).
A TREE FOR TRISH
A tree is to be planted in Richmond Park next week in memory of Trish Macé
who sadly died of cancer just over two years ago. The planting ceremony is
to take place at 12 noon on Thursday January 15th. Anyone who is able to
attend would be most welcome. Meeting point is the noticeboard at Kingston
Gate. If the ground is frozen hard the planting might have to be postponed,
so if you are in any doubt please contact Sonia Rowland on 01483 278217.
Sonia is planning soup and sarnies at Janet Turnes's pub the Wych Elm
afterwards. Please let her know if you're likely to be able to join in with
this so she can give Janet some idea of numbers expected.
MIKE HUBBERT
...is still looking for some accommodation to rent for a month. He has now
finalised his travel arrangements and will be in the UK from April 23rd to
May 20th. Can anyone help? Here's Mike:
"My partner Joy's daughter and son-in-law are living in Surbiton and
daughter is due to produce the first grand-child in late March. Since the
daughter's flat is rather small, we're looking for a room for about 4 weeks
from the end of April - preferably nearby.
I wonder whether anyone in the club might have a spare room for rent to two
very quiet (and mostly absent) boarders for a month, preferably with
reasonable access to Surbiton?"
Contact Mike at mailto:mikehubbert@ozemail.com.au
.
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 January 10th Surrey League Division 1 on our own course
in Richmond Park. Women at 12.30pm (juniors at 1.15pm and 1.45pm), men at
3pm (juniors 2.30pm).
Saturday January 17th v Bank of England and others. 6 miles in
Richmond Park (Roehampton Gate) starting at 2.30pm.
Saturday January 24th South of England Championships at Parliament
Hill
Saturday January 31st Pelling-Ratcliff Cup mob match v Blackheath
Harriers 7.5 miles in Richmond Park. Incorporates the Wynne Cup club
championship and a sealed handicap. Start 2.30pm. All runners welcome and
needed.
Also the third Junior Points
Prize races, starting soon after 2.30pm.
Saturday February 7th Surrey League Division 1. Men at Coulsdon
(juniors 2.30pm, seniors 3pm), women at Lloyd Park (seniors 12.30pm, juniors
at 1.15pm and 1.45pm).
Sunday February 8th Richmond Mini-Marathon Trial in Richmond
Park
FINALLY
Overheard by Paul Graham as runners were lining up to start their race at
the Surrey championships:
A lad addressed his team-mates and said "'Right everyone, we've all eaten
and drunk far too much over Christmas so take it easy at the start!"
This was in the U15's race!!!
Steve Rowland
e-mail: srowland@calor.co.uk
Tel: 01926 318734
Fax: 0870 4006901