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 RANELAGH HARRIERS E-NEWS # 228                4 October 2006
 Editor: Steve Rowland
 mailto: steverowland@ranelagh-harriers.com  
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 HEADLINE NEWS
 *********************
 *  George Coates wins Page Cup handicap
 *  46 runners and four new records in first Junior Points Prize race
 *  Marie Synnott-Wells 2nd in Wimbledon 10 miles
 *  Nathan Mills 4th in Diss 15 miles
 *  Yvonne Hill 2nd in Croydon Switchback 5 miles
 *  Sara Grosvenor 3rd in Wimbledon 10km
 *  Surrey League opening fixtures this Saturday
 *  Bushy Park Time Trial second anniversary also on Saturday
 *  Entries needed for Surrey Vets Championships

 SEE HERE
 *************
 SURREY CROSS-COUNTRY LEAGUE
 The first league fixtures are on Saturday 7th October. Our men's team is
 back in Division One and our women are the reigning Division One champions.
 Unfortunately the two fixtures will be at the same venue only once this
 year, and that is when we host the final races on 10th February.

 For the men, the first race is at Brockwell Park.
 For the women it's at Epsom Downs.

 It's vital for both teams to get off to good starts, so it's a three-line
 whip for anyone who might even come close to the scoring team. All are
 welcome to run, the more the merrier. Just turn up on the day and find the
 Ranelagh crowd. No pre-entry required. 

 In the men's League, the official competition includes only a first team of
 ten, but we are running an unoffical B team contest against the Stragglers
 this year, so we need at least twenty runners in each race. Suggested travel
 is by train to Herne Hill, which is just a couple of hundred metres from
 Brockwell Park. The 13.23 from Wimbledon will get to Herne Hill in good
 time, and the 12.34 from Twickenham to Wimbledon will link up with it. The
 men's timetable is as normal, i.e. all juniors (U13, U15 and U17) together
 at 2.30pm and seniors at 3pm. 

 In the women's, there are A, B, C , D etc teams of five, so everyone who
 runs will be part of a team. NOTE there's a late change to the women's
 timetable for this race only. It's 1pm for seniors, 2pm for under 15s and
 under 17s and 2.30pm for under 13s. 

 SURREY VETERANS CHAMPIONSHIPS - URGENT!
 As usual, we are hosting this event in the Park - but it's a Surrey County
 promotion, so entries have to be made in advance. We have been late
 receiving the forms, and time is now short - the races are on Saturday 14th
 October, starting at 2.30pm (women) and 3pm (men). The women's race is over
 6km, the men's 10km. There are individual championships in 5 year age bands
 starting from over 35 for women and over 40 for men, and team championships
 in 10 year age bands. Entry fee is £3. There will be entries on the day but
 the fee goes up to £5 and entries on the day are ineligible for the team
 races. We have lost team medals because of this in the past, so if you are
 going to run, please get your entry in. Add your name to the list on the
 noticeboard in the clubhouse or contact Clive Naish (020 8977 1745 or
 mailto:clive.naish@bt.com). Don't delay please! He will need name, address,
 date of birth and (approx) date of membership. 

 BUSHY PARK TIME TRIAL
 The BPTT celebrates its second anniversary on Saturday 7th October.
 We'd like to have a big Ranelagh presence there. If you are not involved
 with the League races later in the day (or even if you are!) please try to
 get along to Bushy Park and please wear your Ranelagh colours.
 For those who haven't yet tried it: just turn up at the Diana Fountain car
 park in time for the 9am start. No pre-entry required, and no entry fee
 asked for. For the anniversary there will be a little alfresco breakfast
 celebration afterwards, so bring something along to contribute to the feast. 

 125th ANNIVERSARY
 Birthday Run
 The next anniversary event celebrates our actual 125th birthday. This is on
 Sunday 29th October, when we will be re-creating the club's first-ever run
 from the club's original home at the Green Man on Putney Heath. We will be
 running at 4pm sharp, so aim to arrive by about 3.30pm. The route will be to
 the Windmill on Wimbledon Common (a little over a mile) where we will
 re-convene before returning to the Green Man. Run or walk the route as you
 wish. And if at all possible, come in 1881 period costume! If you're
 running, take a look at the old photos in the clubhouse for some ideas.
 Basically, it's knee-length shorts (and old pair of cricket trousers cut off
 at the knee would do the trick) and a plain half-sleeved or sleeved top.
 Shoes are more tricky - I guess we'll have to overlook any anachronisms
 there. Of course, ladies did not run in 1881, so we might have to bend our
 history a bit there too. Non-running wives, husbands, friends and children
 are all welcome, and if they can appear in costume, so much the better. 

 After the run, the Green Man will be laying on a buffet at £4.50 per head.
 Please come along. The Green Man is here:

 Mass Mob Match
 The final event will be on the following Saturday, November 4th. It will be
 a run in Richmond Park against all our traditional mob match opponents -
 Blackheath Harriers, South London Harriers, Orion Harriers and Thames Hare
 and Hounds. The route will be the normal two laps making up 7½ miles but for
 those who might find 7½ a bit too much there will be the option of running
 only one lap. All competitors and officials will receive a special
 commemorative shot glass. For those who might not have taken part in a mob
 match before, the idea is that each club fields as many runners as possible
 and all might count towards the final result. So even if you do no other
 cross-country races this winter, please try to get ot this one! There will
 be a supper in the evening, details to follow. 

 BUILDING FUND DRAW
 Winners of the draw made after the Page Cup on Saturday: John Hanscomb
 (£125), David Dunn (£52) and Neil Walford (£31).

 THE WYCH ELM
 Janet and Manuel Turnes's pub The Wych Elm added to its long list of awards
 when it won the "London in Bloom" Bloomin' Pub prize last month. 

 *********************
  WHAT'S COMING...
 *********************
 More details of the following from
 Andy Bickerstaff ( 07772 111491 / mailto: andy@norris-hobs.co.uk ) or 
 Mark Middleton ( 07725 119649 / mailto: markjmiddleton@yahoo.co.uk ) or 
 Phil Aiken (07739 035189 / mailto: phil.aiken@rnid.org.uk ) or 
 Anna McLaughlin (07971 606521 / mailto: anna.mclaughlin@talk21.com ).     

 Saturday 7th October     The Surrey League gets underway! Men at Brockwell
 Park, women at Epsom Downs. See above.

 Saturday 14th October   Surrey Veterans Cross-Country Championships in
 Richmond Park. See above.

 Sunday 15th October    Cabbage Patch 10 miles road race at Twickenham.
 Entries closed.

 Saturday 21st October   Lee Cup mob match v Orion Harriers at Epping Forest.
 3pm start. All members welcome.

 Every Saturday             Bushy Park Time Trial. 9am start at the Diana
 Fountain car park. See www.bptt.net for details.

 WHAT'S HAPPENED...
 ***************************
 125th ANNIVERSARY DINNER  Friday 29th September at York House in Twickenham
 The historic York House in Twickenham proved to be an ideal venue for our
 125th Anniversary Dinner on Friday. We arrived in our glad rags to be
 greeted with champagne and then made our way into a spacious hall decorated
 with blue and yellow balloons. There, large round tables were set to
 accommodate ten people each. Over a hundred members and guests sat down to
 an excellent meal accompanied by more wine. 

 Our own President Frances Ratchford greeted our guests - representatives of
 Thames Hare and Hounds, South London Harriers, Orion Harriers, St Mary's
 Richmond AC and Surrey County AA, together with their partners. Thames
 President Michael Bostelmann kindly presented Frances with a specially
 engraved birthday tankard, which can now be seen in the clubhouse. 

 It then fell to Frances to introduce the only sad note of the evening, which
 was the absence of one of our scheduled speakers, 1984 Olympian Priscilla
 Welch. Priscilla's husband Dave died suddenly a few days previously and we
 can but send her our sincerest sympathies.

 Frances concluded by galloping through 125 years of history in 125 seconds
 before giving the floor to Hugh Jones, Britain's top marathoner through most
 of the 1980s. Hugh spoke about his earliest impressions of the club,
 mercilessly fingering those members who could be held in any way responsible
 for his choice of career! 

 Last up was the irrepressible John Bryant from Thames, who entertained us as
 wittily as ever and recounted the (mythical) first meeting between the
 Thames and Ranelagh packs in 1881. 

 All in all a very successful evening, and thanks go to Marina Quayle and
 Joanne Turner for their hard work in organising everything. 

 PAGE CUP 5 miles Handicap  Saturday 30th September in Richmond Park
 Ken Powley reports:
 "The Page Cup last Saturday, resulted in a clear win for George Coates.
 George has only run in four handicaps, but already has notched up two third
 places and an outright win. 

 All the smart money was on Clive Naish to win his first ever handicap, but
 Clive had his eyes on the Points Prize, striving for the ten points
 allocated to the fourth finisher in the handicap. Clive is a 'fourth place'
 specialist, having achieved this no fewer than six times in the past five
 years: in the Page Cup for '01, '02 and '06, the '02 and '04 Thomas, and the
 Baker Cup in '03.

 Minor places in the handicap were filled by Martin Clark and Trevor Maguire,
 who did an outstanding run, the only one in the field to dip under 30
 minutes".

 For the record, guest Ian Davies was actually the first across the line at
 the finish, and the fastest woman's time went to Liz Kipling. Simon Hedger
 made another of his flying visits from Sydney, but this time it was a
 precursor to a longer stay. From Christmas, Simon, Sue and family will be in
 the UK for a projected four years, so we'll loook forward to seeing a lot
 more of him.

 JUNIOR POINTS PRIZE RACE 1  Saturday 30th September in Richmond Park
 Not only was this the biggest points prize race to date - 46 runners in the
 six categories - but it was also by far the highest quality. Event records
 were set in no fewer than four of the six categories, some of them by a
 hefty margin, and eighteen personal bests were recorded.

 Best performance was probably that of overall winner Jamie Taylor-Caldwell
 who hacked 33 seconds off the under 15s record with a mightily impressive
 7.18. This is also superior to Dan Jermy's under 17 mark of 7.39 from 2004.
 Jamie finished well ahead of the pack but chasing hard all the way Taylor
 Nunn was also inside the old mark with 7.43. George Inman was third under 15
 but he was led home by the top two under 13s, Josh Keisler and Joss Moran.
 Josh knocked eleven seconds off the under 13 record and ducked inside 8
 minutes by one second. Joss was not far behind with 8.12, ahead of newcomer
 Alex Woolfenden and Luke Penney.

 Right up there with the boys was the leading girl, Stephanie Espinosa. Her
 excellent 8.15 demolished the under 15s record by almost as big a margin as
 Jamie, and again the second finisher Rachel Pryce was also inside the old
 mark with 8.36. Third-placed Lucy Edmunds was also inside nine minutes.

 The under 17 categories were the least well supported, with three girls and
 two boys taking part. Rebecca Clayden took 7 seconds off her own record from
 last year in winning the girls' event in 9.01 and the leading boy was
 Nicholas Harrison with 8.42. 

 The other record to survive was in the under 13 girls category, but this
 race produced the closest finish as Emily Johnston defeated Eve Edmunds by
 just one second in 9.05. Katie Bryant was third, with Amelie Hunton and Anna
 Richardson also within 24 seconds of the winner 

 The next race in the series will be on Saturday 9th December. 

 DISS 15 miles  Sunday 24th September
 A good run by Nathan Mills, just missing the prizes in 4th place but setting
 personal bests en route at both 10 miles and half-marathon.

 1 S Dawes (Guernsey) 1.26.38
 4 Nathan Mills 1.30.32

 BUSHY PARK TIME TRIAL 5km  Saturday 30th September
 Yet another PB from Niall O'Connor - 37 hours plodding around Mont Blanc has
 obviously done him the world of good! Improvement too for Iain Wilson, now
 seriously threatening 18 minutes.

 1 A Bodin (Belgrave) 16.18
 7 Iain Wilson 18.04
 11 Niall O'Connor 18.17
 29 Darren Wood 20.16
 57 Chris Wright 21.30
 59 Adam Wright 21.35
 115 John Hanscomb 27.52
 133 Sammy Harris 28.59

 GEOFF MOULDEN 10 miles  Sunday 1st October at Wimbledon
 Marie Synnott-Wells was second woman overall but first veteran. Her time of
 61.59 ranks her 9th in the UK women's over 40 rankings for 2006.
 1 M Steinle (Blackheath) 49.54
 7 L Hasell (Bristol & W) 57.35 (1st W)
 11 Marie Synnott-Wells 61.59

 WIMBLEDON AUDI 10km  Sunday 1st October
 Sara Grosvenor was third woman home in a PB 39.38, which takes her into 23rd
 place in Ranelagh's all-time list.
 1 T Kingsnorth (TH&H) 33.32
 23 D James (Unatt) 38.18 (1st W)
 37 Sara Grosvenor 39.38
 211 John Hanscomb 54.50 

 CROYDON SWITCHBACK 5 miles  Sunday 24th September at Lloyd Park
 Yvonne Hill was second woman in this alarmingly-named event.
 1 M Cummings (HHH) 29.18
 16 V Mitchell (SLH) 35.14 (1st W)
 25 Yvonne Hill 37.10 

 SHUTTLE MERCER 10km  Sunday 24th September at Stourport-on-Severn
 Clive Beauvais was first over 60 and beat all the over 50s into the bargain.
 1 M Roberts (Kidd) 35.12
 11 Clive Beauvais 40.33 

 GREAT NORTH RUN Half Marathon  Sunday 1st October at Newcastle
 At least two RH were amongst the huge throng. Rachel Fursman finished 7284th
 in 1.54.14 and Julie Naismith was either 11819th in 2.02.29 or 14728th in
 2.07.27. There are two Julie Naismiths in the results, and I don't know
 which one was "ours"!

 MABAC LEAGUE 5 miles  Sunday 1st October at Epsom
 1 J McMullan (Epsom O) 32.48
 106 Pat Hewlett 64.16
 108 Bev Ali 65.00 

 LEWIS AND CLARK MARATHON  Sunday 17th September at St Charles, Missouri, USA
 Andy Hayward reports:
 "The Lewis & Clark Marathon is named in honour of the explorers who set out
 from this point in 1804, pushing west up the Missouri River to attempt to
 find a water route to the Pacific Ocean. It was a tough one for me, two
 loops and flat apart from a hill that came at miles 12.5 and 25, but very
 hot and humid by the end (mid 80's F). The field at the start was around
 3500, but most of them were doing the half marathon, so the second lap was
 pretty lonely. The course was half on quiet roads, and half on the Katy
 Trail, which is an old disused railroad track (Kansas & Texas Railroad - KT)
 that has been turned into a long distance footpath. It bordered the river,
 so was quite scenic in places. 

 I wasn't very pleased with the performance (what runner ever is?)! I never
 went as fast as I thought I would, and started struggling at about mile 20.
 I don't know if it was the 14 mile training run the previous Sunday being
 too long, too close (although it has worked for me in the past) or the fact
 that I only arrived at the hotel from London at 9:00pm, 8 hours before the
 shuttle bus left the hotel at 5:00am for the start, but I faded over the
 last 6 miles. The heat didn't help, but wasn't the cause. I wanted to break
 3:15, but after the first few miles realised I was on 3:18 pace, which I
 thought I would be able to hold. Went well from 15 - 20 miles, overtaking
 loads of people, but then started to hit the wall. Ended up with 3:21:45 -
 actually 40 seconds slower than I ran the Stockholm Marathon in June. With
 lots of mileage since then, I should have been able to improve on that. I
 can't really complain too much though -  I came 20th overall, out of 435
 finishers, and third in age group 44-49, so should receive a plaque. (If I
 had maintained the 3:18 I would have won the age group). Oh well, back to
 the drawing board to try and do better in November (Philadelphia Marathon,
 and then Florence, Italy a week later)". 

 RON WHEELER 2.6 miles  Wednesday 27th September at Wapping
 1 M Bridgeland (Chelms) 13.25
 11 Chris Read 15.15
 12 Andy Hayward 16.26
 15 Alan Davidson 17.02 

 LAST FRIDAY OF THE MONTH 5km  Friday 29th September at Hyde Park
 1 O Edwards (Shaft B) 16.15
 70 Alan Davidson 20.55
 153 John Hanscomb 27.12 

 KINGFIELD CANTER 2.85 miles handicap  Wednesday 4th October at Woking
 1 D Nichols (Woking) 23.30  (actual 19.30)
 10 Sonia Rowland 26.09  (actual 20.24)
 27 Steve Rowland 26.46  (actual 17.46)
 28 Alan Davidson 26.46  (actual 18.46) 

 READING O2O 10km  Sunday 3rd September at Reading
 1 C Coleman (WSEH) 33.03
 358 Alison Cullen 53.45 

 FINALLY...
 Research at King's College, London, suggests that women whose ring fingers
 are longer than their index fingers are likely to be more athletically
 gifted. All together now, check....hand!