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Newsdesk 2007
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RANELAGH HARRIERS E-NEWS # 263 9 October 2007
Editor: Steve Rowland
mailto: steverowland@ranelagh-harriers.com
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HEADLINE NEWS
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* Women 12th and men 33rd in South of England Road Relays
* Clare King and Kerrie O'Connor 1st and 2nd in BPTT
* Andy Bickerstaff and Jenny Lloyd-Jones age-group winners in Wimbledon 10
* Another Welsh vest for Anna Scally
* Busy weekend coming up - Surrey Leagues, Cabbage Patch 10 and inaugural
RPTT
SEE HERE
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SURREY CROSS-COUNTRY LEAGUES
Our men's and women's teams are both competing in Division One. The opening
fixture is on Saturday 13th October. All members are welcome to run, but we
particularly need all those who might make the scoring team to be in
attendance if they possibly can. In the men's league it is ten to score. In
the women's it is five to score, but there are B and C teams and so on, and
so all finishers will count.
The women are at West End Common, near Esher, and the timetable is: Seniors
at 12.15pm; Under 17s and Under 15s at 1.15pm; Under 13s at 1.45pm. Parking
and toilets are at Garson Farm. Venue and map of course:
The men are on Wimbledon Common (the Belgrave Harriers course) and the
timetable is: Under 17s, Under 15s and Under 13s at 2.30pm; Seniors at 3pm.
See the Belgrave website for maps of the venue and course: www.belgraveharriers.com/
SURREY VETERANS CHAMPIONSHIPS
As usual we are hosting these in Richmond Park on Saturday 20th October. Our
clubhouse will be the event HQ. The races are: women over 35 6km at 2.30pm;
men over 40 10km at 3pm. Individual championships are in five year age
groups, teams are three to score in ten year age groups.
Entry is £3 and the closing date is 15th October. Entries will be accepted
on the day at £5 but these will not be eligible for the team scoring.
Entries to Clive Naish (mailto:clive.naish@btinternet.com) or Marie
Synnott-Wells (mailto:nandmwells@aol.com) Details and individual entry
forms are also available on the Ranelagh web site.
RICHMOND PARK TIME TRIAL
A last reminder that the RPTT kicks off this Saturday at 9am from Pembroke
Lodge. Like the other UKTT events it's an accurate 5km and entry is free.
But to take part you do need to have registered with the UKTT in advance. If
you have ever run one of their other events, you are already registered.
Ranelagh's Karen Broadbent is the RPTT Chairman and is keen to get plenty of
Ranelagh members out as runners, supporters and volunteers. Anyone who is
prepared to volunteer as a helper, either at the inaugural event or at
subsequent ones, should contact Karen at mailto:richmondhelpers@parkrun.com
THE FIRST 125 YEARS OF RANELAGH HARRIERS
If you haven't already got your copy of our updated club history, you can
buy one from Steve Rowland at most club events, price £12, or by post for
£14 including p&p to Ranelagh History, 2 Sapte Close, Cranleigh, Surrey GU6
7HA. Overseas orders: Europe £16, rest of the world £20.
ANGUS'S ANTARCTIC ADVENTURE
This time last year, Angus Cater was ferrying a small party of fellow
Ranelagh Harriers across to the Channel Islands in his yacht Harrac in order
to take part in the Alderney Half Marathon. This year an altogether more
epic trip is under way. On September 9th, Angus set sail from Hamble on an
eight month voyage to Smith Island in the South Shetland Islands off
Antarctica.
The inspiration for the adventure was a trip that Angus did not take thirty
years ago. In 1977 an old climbing and sailing friend Simon Richardson
invited Angus to join him and veteran yachtsman Bill Tillman on a voyage to
Smith Island. Angus's wife was expecting their first child at the time and
he regretfully declined the offer. Tragically, the yacht containing
Richardson and Tillman disappeared somewhere between Rio and the Falklands
and no trace of them was ever found. Ever since then Angus has felt that he
had unfinished business in the southern oceans.
Now after years of planning the voyage is under way. The route is taking
Harrac from Hamble via Falmouth to the Portugese coast and thence to
Madeira, the Canaries and the Cape Verde Islands before crossing the
Atlantic. Grenada will be the first landfall in the Caribbean, followed by
Aruba and the transit of the Panama Canal into the Pacific Ocean. Lima in
Peru is the next stop and then Harrac will follow the west coast of South
America all the way down to Ushuaia on Tierra del Fuego. From there Harrac
will cross the Drake Passage to Smith Island, the westernmost of the South
Shetland Islands that lie off the Antarctic Peninsula. Estimated date of
arrival on Smith Island is January 28th, and Angus has allowed ten days
there for an attempt to scale the highest mountain on the island, Mount
Foster at 2105 metres.
The route home will be via the Falklands, Montevideo, Rio and Recife, then
across the Atlantic to the Azores, Spain and finally back to Hamble where
Angus hopes to arrive on May 2nd. The total distance to be covered is 18,185
nautical miles.
Angus has divided the voyage into eight legs. As skipper he will be on board
throughout, but his crew will change on each leg. Three of those who sailed
with Angus to Alderney last year have taken the opportunity to be a part of
the great adventure. Tim Woolmer joins the crew at Las Palmas in the
Canaries, where on November 3rd Harrac begins the Atlantic crossing to
Grenada. Estimated arrival is November 25th. Tim leaves the crew there and
is replaced by Alan Craig and Sally Meekley who stay on board until Lima is
reached on December 22nd.
You can keep up to date with Harrac's latest position at yachtplot.com/.
Log in using harrac as both the yacht name and the password.
At the time of writing, Harrac has just reached the Canaries.
CONGRATULATIONS...
...to Janet and Manuel Turnes, whose pub The Wych Elm has won the Fuller's
brewery best garden competition for the fourth year in a row.
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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
Marie Synnott-Wells (07956 431319 / mailto: nandmwells@aol.com ).
Saturday 13th October Surrey Cross-Country League. Men at Wimbledon,
women at Esher. See above.
The Richmond Park Time Trial also
starts today, see above.
Sunday 14th October Cabbage Patch 10 miles at Twickenham.
Saturday 20th October Surrey Veterans Cross-Country Championships in
Richmond Park. 2.30 pm start. See above.
Sunday 21st October Founders' Challenge 26 miles walk / run in the
Surrey Hills from Peaslake. Details:
Saturday 3rd November Lee Cup mob match v Orion Harriers. 7.5 miles in
Richmond Park, 2.30pm start. All members needed!
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.
Banstead Woods Time Trial: 9am start
off B2219 Park Lane, Chipstead
Richmond Park Time Trial: 9am start
near Richmond gate.
More details at www.parkrun.com
WHAT'S HAPPENED...
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SOUTH OF ENGLAND ROAD RELAY CHAMPIONSHIPS Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th
September at Aldershot
Men 6 x 6km
90 or more teams lined up at the start in Rushmoor Arena and as ever the
opening stage was a torrid affair. Ed Barker revelled in the task of getting
us off to a solid start and came in 56th at 20.29, within half a minute of
at least 15 other teams. Then Justin Webb was thrown in at the deep end in
his first race for the club and pulled us up three places with a 21.05
stint. Jonathon Stacey took two seconds off Ed's time in passing ten teams
on stage three, and handed on to Marc Snaith for the fourth leg. Marc ran
well but slipped back four places with his 21.48. Then Peter Haarer got
stuck in and recorded our only sub 20-minutes lap in gaining ten places.
Duncan Bell on anchor gained another four with the team's second fastest
time, 20.15.
Captain Bicks had held out hopes of qualifying for the National Relay, which
would have required a top 25 placing. Even allowing for the fact that three
B teams finished ahead of us, we still missed the target by five places, but
a total time about a minute and a half faster would probably have got us in.
1 Belgrave 1.49.39
33 Ranelagh 2.03.55
Ed Barker 56 20.29
Justin Webb 53 21.05
Jonathon Stacey 43 20.27
Marc Snaith 47 21.48
Peter Haarer 37 19.51
Duncan Bell 33 20.15
Women 4 x 3.8km
After two consecutive top ten finishes in this event we slipped back a
little to 12th this year, but this was still an excellent performance. Anna
Scally ran a fearless opening stage and finished in a fine 11th place but a
little frustrated that she had just missed her course PB of 14 minutes dead.
Fari Shams and Sara Grosvenor - both short of racing recently - took the
second and third stages. Fari had a lot of teams chasing close behind her
and slipped back a little to 17th, and then Sara passed three runners before
herself being caught on the line by two others. This set Marie Synnott-Wells
up on the anchor stage with plenty of targets and she hammered past them to
finish in 12th place. Our anticipated vets team failed to materialise in
full, but Michele Gibson and Kathy Mallett covered three stages between
them.
1 Aldershot F&D 51.31
12 Ranelagh 58.59
Anna Scally 11 14.02
Fari Shams 17 15.30
Sara Grosvenor 16 15.01
Marie Synnott-Wells 12 14.26
Women Over 40 4 x 3.8km
1 Reading RR 57.26
nf Ranelagh
Michele Gibson 8 17.08
Kathy Mallett 7 17.30
Michele Gibson 8 18.57
GEOFF MOULDEN 10 miles Sunday 7th October at Wimbledon
Niall O'Connor reports:
"Conditions were perfect for the 47th Geoff Moulden 10-mile race. Climatic
conditions that is, as it was still an 'undulating' 3-lap course. The
advantage of a 3-lap course is that you have an opportunity to pick up
course knowledge for subsequent laps, however the disadvantage is that you
know what's coming up. Naively I had thought that 'Henman Hill' was the
highest point in Wimbledon, but now I know that the only flat bits are the
tennis courts!
Huw Lobb, Britain's Olympic marathon runner, led us around the first lap of
the Wimbledon Park track with South London's Ranelagh half-marathon winner,
Jason Simpson on his shoulder. We then ran a second lap before heading out
onto the streets/mountain ranges of Wimbledon. Cap'n Bicks and I ran
together until the 2-mile mark before a downhill stretch and gravity
combined to help my heavier frame into a 20m lead in the sub-plot Ranelagh
race.
Resolutely refusing to look at my watch until the 5 mile sign I was
disappointed see that it then read 31:46. Mentally I packed my bags and
headed back to Isleworth. In reality my bag was still at the race HQ in
Wimbledon so I had to carry on. Later it transpired that we should have run
just one lap of the track, rather than two, so we were 400m ahead of the
distance on each of the mile markers.
With Marc Snaith shouting encouragement, i.e. he had a camera, I perked up
for the third lap, picked off a few runners and earned the Hercules mug that
the first twenty finishers received. A relaxed looking Cap'n Bicks arrived
just behind me, the leading over 45, followed by the consistent Trevor
Maguire to close the scoring team (in which we came 2nd), and the South
Downs based Neil Walford, who enjoyed his day on the Wimbledon Downs. New
member Duncan Mallison had a good race possibly setting a p.b. and a
fresh-faced Jenny Lloyd-Jones came home 5th lady and 1st vet (is it
acceptable to refer to a lady's age?)
Despite a few blemishes I think this is a race worth remembering for 2008,
with its nearly fifty years of tradition, friendly organisation and low
entry fee, and it's a good run out before the xc kicks off in earnest".
1 H Lobb (Bedford) 51.58
16 Niall O'Connor 61.08
22 Andy Bickerstaff 62.00
28 Trevor Maguire 63.43
37 Neil Walford 66.26
43 Duncan Mallison 67.21
78 Jenny Lloyd-Jones 73.45
CHICHESTER PRIORY 10km Sunday 7th October
There was another Welsh vest for Anna Scally and she was the second finisher
for the Principality in the inter-area match incorporated with this
high-class 10km.
Women
1 K Reed (Bristol & W) 32.07
40 Anna Scally 37.57
105 Joanne Turner 47.37
DISS 15 miles Sunday 23rd September
1 G Amos (Norwich) 85.52
9 Nathan Mills 97.54
BUSHY PARK TIME TRIAL 5km Saturday 29th September
A wet morning kept the numbers down to 280 but did not hold back Clare King
and Kerrie O'Connor who were the first two women home. Nor did it prevent
new PBs for Duncan Mallison and Sharon Rowe and an equal PB for our first
man home Sean Paynter. This was the final event of the 2006 - 07 BPTT
"season" and in the points competition for the John Hanscomb Trophy David
Rowe was beaten into second place by just 79 points.
1 W Clark (Epsom & E) 16.16
7 Sean Paynter 17.54
14 David Rowe 18.28
15 Andrew Forth 18.30
20 Duncan Mallison 18.44
22 Clare King 18.46
24 Darren Wood 19.02
29 Edward Smith 19.15
33 Kerrie O'Connor 19.22
40 Simon Collingridge 19.52
78 Phil Aiken 21.58
112 Jo Turner 23.04
167 Sharon Rowe 26.04
WIMBLEDON COMMON TIME TRIAL 5km Saturday 29th September
1 C Bevins (Unatt) 17.06
5 Andy Bickerstaff 18.08
11 Stephen Instone 19.46
16 Chris Read 20.36
20 Steve Grout 21.02
47 Catherine Carthy 31.02
HAMMERSMITH RIVERSIDE 3.3 miles Handicap Tuesday 25th September
Alan Davidson reports:
"Today while the sun shone brightly on one side of the Thames we ran in a
cold shower the other side! Ranelagh times: Alan Howard 23.35, Alan Davidson
22.43. I wasn't around for the August race but have seen the results and
worth noting is that 70 year-old Alan Howard ran 23.19, recording the
highest age graded result on the day (82.81%)".
RAVENS QUARTERLY RON WHEELER 5km Thursday 27th September at Wapping
1 D Moore (Unatt) 16.53
10 Andy Hayward 19.44
20 Alan Davidson 21.34
LAST FRIDAY OF THE MONTH 5km Friday 28th September in Hyde Park
1 E Phillips (Serpentine) 16.57
98 Alan Davidson 22.00
KINGFIELD CANTER 2.85m Handicap Wednesday 3rd October at Woking
1 D Lott (unatt) 25.42 (actual time 25.12)
2 Sonia Rowland 25.59 (20.44)
21 Steve Rowland 26.49 (18.19)
33 Alan Davidson 27.37 (19.22)
BUSHY PARK TIME TRIAL 5km Saturday 6th October
The combination of a fine morning on a weekend with few other races and the
fact that the BPTT was celebrating its third anniversary predictably brought
out the crowds in unprecedented numbers. Not only did the number of
participants break the 500 barrier but it went almost half way towards the
600. Surprisingly though, the quality did not match the quantity, with only
the first two finishers beating 17 minutes. Ranelagh were led by the rapidly
improving 17 year-old Sean Paynter in 6th place with a big 33 seconds
personal best. Chasing Sean and also setting a PB was Marc Snaith. Clare
King was another to break new ground, though this week it was only good for
second place amongst the women. Other PBs came from David and Sharon Rowe
(another 42 seconds hacked off by the latter) and Deirdre Inman.
Prizes for the year-long points competiton were awarded after the race, and
John Hanscomb presented his trophy for the men's competition to Tom Morgan
of Thames Turbo. David Rowe and former winner Darren Wood finished 2nd and
3rd. The Sonia O'Sullivan trophy for the women's competiton went to
Stragglers' Liz Souness, with Sharon Rowe highest placed for Ranelagh at
7th.
1 M Hegan (ASL) 16.55
6 Sean Paynter 17.21
12 Marc Snaith 17.32
14 Charlie Pedlar 17.52
26 David Rowe 18.04
29 Darren Wood 18.16
33 Clare King 18.29
92 Nick Wright 20.11
107 Chris Camacho 20.26
122 George Inman 20.56
141 Finn Hughes 21.18
149 Roger Wilson 21.32
159 Phil Aiken 21.42
163 Emma Tomlinson 21.50
178 Adam Wright 22.07
213 Paul Bisping 22.44
260 Stephanie Croucher 23.38
338 Sharon Rowe 25.22
339 Heather Martingell 25.22
396 John Hanscomb 26.49
495 Deirdre Inman 31.22
WIMBLEDON COMMON TIME TRIAL 5km Saturday 6th October
1 I Higgins (TH&H) 17.14
8 Stephen Instone 19.42
29 Martin Clark 23.19
47 Catherine Carthy 27.30
BANSTEAD WOODS TIME TRIAL 5km Saturday 6th October
1 W Smith (Stragglers) 17.39
7 Simon Hedger 18.57
37 Steve Rowland 23.12 (late starter - actual time 21.25)
50 Brian Chard 27.13
St MARY'S RICHMOND AC OPEN MEETING Sunday 9th September
Roger Wilson reports:
"Ranelagh colours were flown high at the St Mary's Richmond AC (SMRAC) Open
Athletics event on Sunday 9th September. Runners showed great flexibility in
competing at the 3000m, 1500m, 800m, and even the 100m! In addition a number
of Ranelagh members competed in SMRAC colours. Next year come and run the
3000m for a spot of late summer speed training!
Competing in Ranelagh colours:
800m U15M 3rd Sam Hunton 2.24.7
1500m U20M 2nd Sean Paynter 4.41.2
100m W40 1st Gill Wilson 16.8 (1st out of 1)
3000m U13W 1st Amelie Hunton 12.07.3
Ranelagh athletes competing for SMRAC (apologies if I've missed any):
800m SM 6th Marc Snaith 2.09.5 (the day after the road relays)
1500m U13M 2nd Josh Keisler 4.51.2
1500m U15M 1st Edward Smith 4.49.9
3000m U15M 3rd Joss Moran 11.01.3
Triple J U15M 2nd Toby Piachaud 9.24m
100m U13W 2nd Holly Wilson 14.2
200m U13W 3rd Holly Wilson 30.1
100m U17M 6th Jay Cash 14.9
200m U17M 5th Jay Cash 32.0
400m U17M 3rd Jay Cash 75.1
400m U15M 2nd Toby Piachaud 69.2
3000m U20W 1st Rebecca Clayden 11.51.5
David Rowe's photographs here:
MABAC PAIRS 10km RELAY Sunday 19th August at Leatherhead
Roger Wilson reports:
"The Mabac Pairs is a great little event held on the soggy playing field of
Downsend School. Each runner runs a lap of 1k before tagging their partner,
5k each runner, 10k per pair. We were the only Ranelagh runners this year,
finished the 10k in 42.24 and 14th out of 31 pairs - family honour says that
there are no split times available. Some years the results are age-graded
based on the average age, although two 30-year-olds would have an advantage
over us, a 13 & 47-year-old. (Maybe average age difference from 28 would be
a better way of age grading, but that's for next year?). Do support the
MABAC runs, wide range of abilities run, website www.mabac.org.uk/".
1 R Turner & J Hart (Epsom O) 33.34
14 Luke and Roger Wilson 42.24
EVERTON 10km Sunday 19th August at Lymington
An excellent result from Jonathon Stacey which almost escaped the net...
1 M King (Winchester) 33.48
4 Jonathon Stacey 34.52
NEW FOREST HALF MARATHON Sunday 16th September
Phil Aiken protests that it was not he finishing outside 2 hours!
FINALLY...
A personal training company called www.moveyourbutt.com is offering a "Run
with a View" service:
"Fed up with the same old running haunts and workouts? Looking for something
extra? Try our Run with a View series. It offers you a personalised workout
in your chosen location around London allowing you to see the city and get
some serious cardio all at the same time - perfect for all you
multi-taskers! You simply tell us the area where you would like your run to
begin and end, together with your level of fitness and we will design a
bespoke running route and exercise programme".
All this, a snip at £300 for five sessions.
Or you could join a running club...