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Newsdesk 2007
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RANELAGH HARRIERS E-NEWS # 253 28 May 2007
Editor: Steve Rowland
mailto: steverowland@ranelagh-harriers.com
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HEADLINE NEWS
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* Vets' and women's teams both runners-up in the Green Belt Relay
* Sam Perkins wins BPTT
* Peter Haarer 7th in Oxford Town & Gown 10km
* Middlesex track silver for Sam Hunton
SEE HERE
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DORKING 10 miles Sunday 3rd June
There is still time to enter this, which is the next race in the Ranelagh
Grand Prix series. It is also the next event in the Surrey Road League and
the Surrey 10 miles championship. The organisers have introduced a new
course this year, comprising one short lap and one long.
DYSART DASH 10km Sunday 24th June at Ham
Over 200 entries have already been received for our second "home" race, so
don't delay too long in getting your entry in.
As usual we will need helpers in various capacities on the day - marshals,
recorders at the finish, water station attendants and so on. The start time
is 9am. If you can spare an hour or two to help, please volunteer to Bev Ali.
TRAIL CHALLENGE Tuesday 19th June in Richmond Park
We have agreed to host another event for SLOW - the South London Orienteers
and Wayfarers. This time it is one of their summer series of Trail
Challenges. These events are designed - like the Street O we hosted in
February - as gentle introductions to orienteering. In fact they are best
described as a cross between orienteering and a cross-country race. You are
given a map and you have to visit a series of controls, but all the
competitors start together, so for the inexperienced there is plenty of
scope for following others! There is a choice between a 10km (starting at
7.30pm) and a 6km (starting at 7.40pm). Our event will be entirely within
the confines of the Park. Entry is £4 in advance or £6 on the day. Full
details are on the SLOW web site: www.sloweb.org.uk/trail/Index.htm
STRAGGLERS JUNIOR HANDICAP SERIES
Roger Wilson writes:
"Ranelagh junior runners can represent the Ranelagh team at the Stragglers
Junior Handicap races at Hawker Centre, Ham on Thursdays in the summer on:
31 May, 28 June, 12 July, 26 July and 30 August. "
SUBSCRIPTIONS...
...for 2007/08 are now due. Rates are unchanged this year and will cover the
new £3 affiliation fee required by UKA:
Juniors £6, Seniors £30, Over 60 AND retired £5, Family £60, non-running,
second claim or "country" members £10.
Cheques should be payable to Ranelagh Harriers. See Chris Owens at training
nights or send your cheque to the clubhouse in an envelope marked
"Membership Secretary". Address is Ranelagh Harriers, 135A Petersham Road,
Richmond, Surrey TW10 7AA.
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WHAT'S COMING...
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More details of the following from
Andy Bickerstaff ( 07772 111491 / mailto: andy@norris-hobs.co.uk ) or
Anna McLaughlin (07971 606521 / mailto: anna.mclaughlin@talk21.com ).
Sunday 3rd June Dorking 10 miles. Ranelagh GP race and Surrey 10m
championship. See above.
Sunday 10th June MABAC League 5 miles at Holmwood Common (near
Dorking). 11am start.
Tuesday 19th June Trail Challenge 10km or 6km in Richmond Park. See
above.
Sunday 24th June Dysart Dash 10km at Ham. Ranelagh GP race and
Surrey 10km championship. See above.
Every Saturday Bushy Park Time Trial: 9am start at the Diana
Fountain car park.
Wimbledon Common Time Trial: 9am start
at the Windmill car park.
TIME TRIAL NEWS
From this week the Wimbledon Common event will revert to a 9am start and a
new course is being introduced. From 16th June, a new event is being
introduced to the UKTT family, the Banstead Woods time trial.
See www.parkrun.com/ for details of all of the Time Trials.
RANELAGH ROAD GRAND PRIX
The next GP event is the Dorking 10m. Full details
SURREY ROAD LEAGUE
The second League event is the Dorking 10m.
WHAT'S HAPPENED...
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GREEN BELT RELAY Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th May
We didn't carry away any trophies this year, but as it invariably does the
GBR provided a memorable and enjoyable weekend for all who took part. We
entered two teams of eleven runners - one men's vets team and one women's
team. These were the two categories we won in 2006, but this time the vets
in particular were really up against it. The Millennium Group - winners in
2002, 2004 and 2005 - were out to regain the Walking Stick trophy and put
out a strong eleven. They are a composite team, so a team raised from a
single club is hardly competing on a level playing field, but nevertheless
we managed to overcome the odds to record a clear victory last year. This
time though we were without multiple stage-winners Mick Lane and Marcus
Gohar, not to mention our perennial secret weapon Hugh Jones, who has more
stage wins in this event - nine - than any other runner. And when Sonia
O'Sullivan lined up for Millennium on the first stage the writing was on the
wall. Chris Owens yielded only a couple of minutes to her but from then on
the deficit grew steadily. We had top ten finishes during the first day from
Simon Hedger, John Molloy, Iain Wilson and Tim Sizeland, and on the final
stage into the overnight stop at Blackmore Andy Bickerstaff finished 2nd,
which was the closest we were to get to providing an overall stage winner.
At the end of the day we were just about an hour behind Millennium.
The great thing about the GBR, though, is that it's never over until it's
over: injuries or navigation problems can quickly turn the race on its head.
Our script of course called for these misfortunes to alight on Millennium.
Unfortunately, they alighted on us instead! The rot set in with Niels
Andersen's knee giving out half way through the first stage on Sunday
morning (those late night beers with the Captain failed to provide
sufficient lubrication!). He couldn't get to the finish under his own steam
and so incurred the "cut-off" time of 115 minutes for the 10-odd miles. Then
on the very next stage Chris Read went astray (with others) on a section of
the course that had not been properly marked. He did eventually make it to
the finish but the result for us was another "cut-off" time. Thus in just
two stages Millennium's lead over us had more than doubled. We did pretty
well to hold them to that lead for the rest of the day, with more top ten
finishes coming from Iain Wilson, Andy Bickerstaff, Simon Hedger - 3rd on
Box Hill - and Chris Owens. Millennium finished with an advantage over us of
some two hours and ten minutes. We finished 9th overall, the second vets
team and the first club vets team - a very creditable effort.
The Ranelagh women were officially designated the Hens this year. Captain
Anna McLaughlin is to wed next month and the GBR was of course an ideal
opportunity for an early Hen party! Pink nail varnish became part of the
team kit, and plenty of bling ensured that they would at least be the
sparkliest team in the race. But would they be the fastest? Serpentine had
recorded three wins in a row before we upset them last year, so they were
out to regain their title.
Liz Kipling ran the opening stage- before heading off to compete on the
track for St Mary's Richmond! - and gave us a four minute lead over the
Serpies. We still enjoyed a narrow advantage after stage three, but from
there on they began to slip away. Stage wins from Lizzie Clifford and Anna
McLaughlin pegged them back a little, and there were top three finishes from
Sonia Rowland and Sue Ashley. Going into stage ten we were trailing by about
twenty minutes, but we had Marie Synnott-Wells on this stage for us and she
looked set to reduce the deficit substantially. Alas, the GBR gods were
frowning on us this weekend. Marie got comprehensively lost in the latter
part of the stage, taking with her three or four others - but sadly not the
Serpentine runner! What might have been a ten minute gain turned into a loss
of another twenty minutes and we ended the day about three-quarters of an
hour down.
In truth, though, the Serpies had marginally the better team. We suffered no
disasters on day two but they extended their lead by another twenty minutes.
There was a second stage win for Anna on the North Downs and also one for
Mandy Westlake, while Lizzie, Marie, Liz and Sandra Prosser added to our
"top three" count. But in the overall reckoning we had to settle for second
place, 65 minutes down on Serpentine.
So no cigars for us this year, but the champagne flowed at the Hawker Centre
nevertheless. One consolation is that the victorious vets' and women's teams
both ran about half an hour slower than the 2006 winning Ranelagh teams. We
will definitely be back for revenge! Oh, and we can claim one eleventh of
the overall champions this year in the shape of Andrew McLauchlan, who was a
member of the winning Stock Exchange outfit.
There are photos from David Rowe and Steve Rowland on our website and
others - including some from Iain Wilson - on the GBR website, here.
You can also find full results on the GBR website.
Overall
1 Stock Exchange 22.41.37
5 Millennium Group 24.55.46 (1st vets' team)
9 Ranelagh Old Dogs 27.04.09 (2nd vets' team)
11 Serpentine Ladies 27.14.48 (1st women's team)
15 Ranelagh Hens 28.19.43 (2nd women's team)
Stage 1 Hampton Court - Staines 12.8m
1 T Doran (Elmbridge) 73.02
6 Chris Owens 78.48
11 Liz Kipling 88.37
Stage 2 Staines - Boveney 10m
1 H Torry (Serpentine) 63.19
15 Pete Warren 81.42
20 Sophie Spink 83.36
Stage 3 Boveney - Little Marlow 11.2m
1 E Phillips (Serpentine) 64.26
3 Andrew McLauchlan (SE) 67.15
4 Simon Hedger 70.22
16 Sandra Prosser 84.10
Stage 4 Little Marlow - Great Kingshill 13m
1 A Reeves (Serpentine) 76.56
22 Phil Aiken 108.53
23 Evelyn Joslin 110.18
Stage 5 Great Kingshill - Chipperfield 13.8m
1 A Weir (Stock Exch) 76.20
15 Chris Read 98.07
17 Mandy Westlake 99.01
Stage 6 Chipperfield - St Albans 8.7m
1 I Higgins (Millennium) 54.33
5 John Molloy 57.05
15 Sonia Rowland 64.38
Stage 7 St Albans - Letty Green 12.2m
1 T Woodthorpe (St Exch) 69.26
7 Lizzie Clifford 80.51
11 Bukhard Fehsenfeld 82.22
Stage 8 Letty Green - Dobbs Weir 10.6m
1 D Alcock (Thrift Green) 60.57
9 Iain Wilson 69.45
22 Sue Ashley 85.12
Stage 9 Dobbs Weir - High Beach 10.5m
1 M Forrest (London FR) 62.15
4 Anna McLaughlin 67.50
10 Tim Sizeland 76.42
Stage 10 High Beach - Toot Hill 9.75m
1 G Stevens (St Exch) 56.57
13 Niels Andersen 82.09
27 Marie Synnott-Wells 103.00
Stage 11 Toot Hill - Blackmore 7.6m
1 G Brook (Stragglers) 43.22
2 Andy Bickerstaff 46.22
17 Louise Piears 61.39
Stage 12 Blackmore - Thorndon Park 10.9m
1 S Barrett (Serpentine) 63.17
16 Lizzie Clifford 80.28
27 Niels Andersen 115.00
Stage 13 Thorndon Park - Thames Chase 6.9m
1 E Phillips (Serpentine) 41.23
17 Sue Ashley 58.42
26 Chris Read 76.00
Stage 14 Thames Chase - Davy Down 8m
1 G Kennedy (London FR) 53.01
12 Phil Aiken 59.42
19 Sonia Rowland 63.52
Stage 15 QEII Bridge - Lullingstone Park 9.2m
1 T Woodthorpe (St Exch) 57.36
7 Iain Wilson 66.57
21 Evelyn Joslin 77.45
Stage 16 Lullingstone Park - Tatsfield 13.3m
1 A Weir (St Exchange) 77.26
9 Andy Bickerstaff 96.29
13 Marie Synnott-Wells 102.10
Stage 17 Tatsfield - Merstham 10.5m
1 A Reeves (Serpentine) 60.58
13 Burkhard Fehsenfeld 74.08
17 Mandy Westlake 76.40
Stage 18 Merstham - Box Hill 8.9m
1 L Watson (Millennium) 53.38
3 Simon Hedger 56.13
14 Sandra Prosser 64.59
Stage 19 Box Hill - West Hanger 10.5m
1 A Barnes (St Exch) 63.57
10 Anna McLaughlin 72.33
11 John Molloy 75.08
Stage 20 West Hanger - Ripley 5.7m
1 M Hillary (Clapham) 31.16
2 Andrew McLauchlan (SE) 31.58
13 Pete Warren 39.00
17 Louise Piears 42.07
Stage 21 Ripley - Walton Bridge 8.4m
1 D Alcock (Thrift Green) 48.30
11 Tim Sizeland 57.11
22 Sophie Spink 68.51
Stage 22 Walton Bridge - Ham 9.5m
1 C Martin (London FR) 52.09
5 Chris Owens 56.04
15 Liz Kipling 62.44
BUSHY PARK TIME TRIAL 5km Saturday 19th May
Sam Perkins battled all the way with Ray Ward of HBT before crossing the
line a couple of metres clear in a time of 15.44, only three seconds outside
his best time for the course. This was Sam's fourth BPTT victory.
1 Sam Perkins 15.44
15 Niall O'Connor 18.19
21 Marc Snaith 18.40
28 Darren Wood 19.21
57 David Rowe 20.31
60 Chris Camacho 20.34
68 Joss Moran 20.44
106 Layla Smith 21.55
131 Adam Wright 22.51
230 Gill Wilson 26.51
231 Roger Wilson 26.51
243 John Hanscomb 27.08
302 Sharon Rowe 30.54
PARKLAND RELAY Wednesday 16th May in Richmond Park
Our scratch team was led off by soon-to-be-departing Mark Middleton and
eventually finished 9th, the winers being the event organisers Thames Hare
and Hounds.
1 Thames H&H 59.32
9 Ranelagh 67.44
Mark Middleton 16.47
Andy Bickerstaff 17.09
Howard Gleave 16.44
Niall O'Connor 17.04
EUROPEAN MASTERS' NON-STADIA CHAMPIONSHIPS Thursday 17th - Sunday 20th May
at Regensburg
Alan Davidson travelled to Germany one week after passing his 60th birthday:
"I travelled to Regensburg for the Euro Vets non-stadia championships but
had been unable to race or train for six months due to injury. The 10k was
run in a remotely situated 'business park' (trading estate, the venue
unsigned from the hourly bus route) and the weather, course and organisation
were poor. The race HQ had no showers or changing facilities, the course was
nine laps of the trading estate and it was cold, windy and very wet. The
nine lap course for the 10k was awkward, as well as trying to remember our
laps we had to avoid deep puddles and slippery manhole covers, and there was
confusion as lapping runners weaved in and out of the spreadeagled field.
Some runners did eight laps (including one GB male very pleased with his
time until DQ'd by the chip) and some ten. Katrin Dorre ex-London winner was
3rd W45 for Germany.
Not sure if I could get round I started tentatively at the back in GB vest
and fashionable lycra shorts to protect my injured area and was delighted to
complete the course in a modest 44.26 and my chip accepted I was the genuine
40th M60 finisher. Spectator support was very good in the drenching rain
providing a cacophony of cowbells, whistles and hooters. I gave back my chip
to ensure I didn't consider risking the half marathon (31 euro deposit but 6
euro kept to cover the loan; even the purchased coffee had a hire fee on the
cups!).
A few days later I was enlisted in the cross-country relays GB M60 'C' team
(I won't say how far down the alphabet it went). These were run in a real
park by the Danube on a warm, sunny day on grass and gravel with 2 short
inclines. Now being ancient I only had to run 2x1k laps completed in 9.13,
not long enough to get a sun tan. If you could find it there was fizzy water
in a van for finishers to drink. The organisers generally didn't help
provide stress-free conditions in my races but the later ones combined with
the town's own marathon were well organised. I enjoyed being part of the
event".
MIDDLESEX TRACK CHAMPIONSIPS Sunday 13th May at Copthall
Congratulations to Sam Hunton who won an 800 metres silver medal.
U15 800m
1 Z Turray (Cd Pole Sch) 2.15.7
2 Sam Hunton 2.23.5
FARTHING 5km Saturday 19th May at Coulsdon
Clive Beauvais was the leading over 60.
1 J Burdett (SLH) 17.58
17 Clive Beauvais 21.54
OXFORD TOWN AND GOWN 10km Sunday 20th May
Peter Haarer just missed 33 minutes in 7th place.
1 C Rees (Poole) 31.50
7 Peter Haarer 33.03
STAINES 10km Sunday 20th May
1 N Mapp (OWLS) 31.57
376 Alan Meaden 59.44
LAST FRIDAY OF THE MONTH 5km Friday 25th May in Hyde Park
1 O Edwards (Shaft B) 15.51
93 Alan Davidson 21.26
158 Mike Rowland 26.10
BUSHY PARK TIME TRIAL 5km Saturday 26th May
409 finishers this week, and a personal best by 36 seconds for our first man
home, Chris Jones. Other improvements came from David Rowe, Sam Hunton and
Luke Wilson. Kerry Anley and Mandy Westlake were 6th and 8th in the women's
section.
1 R Baugh (unatt) 15.29
15 Chris Jones 17.52
30 Marc Snaith 18.39
31 David Rowe 18.39
41 Darren Wood 19.03
51 Chris Read 19.27
53 Sam Hunton 19.31
59 Edward Smith 19.44
62 Kerry Anley 19.49
84 Mandy Westlake 20.24
109 Phil Aiken 21.12
149 Luke Wilson 22.02
183 Karen Broadbent 22.59
217 Amelie Hunton 23.51
232 Roger Wilson 24.30
291 Gill Wilson 26.22
339 Wally Garrod 27.44
369 Sharon Rowe 30.26
WIMBLEDON COMMON TIME TRIAL 5km Saturday 26th May
1 N Aitken (Clapham) 17.05
22 Stephen Instone 20.16
BROADLAND HALF MARATHON Sunday 25th March at South Waltham
This excellent pre-London result from Nathan Mills nearly escaped the e-news
net!
1 G Amos (Norwich) 71.58
5 Nathan Mills 73.56
FINALLY...
Was Roger Bannister the first? Walter Thom, in his 1813 book
'Pedestrianism', records that in 1770 "a pedestrian, for a bet, ran the mile
from Charterhouse Wall to Shoreditch Church in four minutes"...