*************************************************** RANELAGH HARRIERS E-NEWS # 319 18 November 2009 Editor: Steve Rowland mailto: steverowland@ranelagh-harriers.com *************************************************** HEADLINE NEWS ************* * Women's team finishes 3rd in Surrey League, men 8th * Liz Kipling and Phil Killingley lead the teams * parkrun placings for David Rowe and Paul Sinton-Hewitt * All needed for mob match v Thames Hare & Hounds this Saturday * Book for the Christmas Ball on Saturday 28th SEE HERE ******** CHRISTMAS BALL A reminder from Social Sec Michele Gibson: You are invited to the annual Ranelagh Harriers Christmas Ball. * Saturday 28th November 19.00hrs - 12.30hrs. * @ Strawberry Hill Banqueting, St Mary's University College, Waldegrave Road, Strawberry Hill, Twickenham TW1 4SX Tel: 0208 240 4044. Link. * 3 course dinner including choice of starter salmon parcels (lentil, coriander & carrot soup for veggies only), turkey or beef main meal, Christmas pud or Chocolate torte dessert (please let me know when you reserve your place - by 20th November if possible please). Also, let me know of vegetarian requirements. * DJ and dancing all night. * Bar with good selection of drink * £40 per person * Lots of fun Email, call, text or grab me at the club to reserve your place and give me a cheque (payable to Ranelagh Harriers). Payment can be received at the door only if you have reserved: 07703 518 956 or e-mail Michele micheleagibson@hotmail.com . MOB MATCH v THAMES HARE & HOUNDS Saturday 21st November on Wimbledon Common Niall O'Connor writes: "Our third mob match of the season is against the world's oldest cross-country running club - Thames Hare and Hounds. With age comes gravitas and this is what attracts runners such as former world xc champions, Sonia O'Sullivan and Benita Johnson as well as recent UK marathon Olympian Huw Lobb to their ranks. The saltires are flying high in the Surrey League at the moment with their men's team leading division 1 so it's important that as many blue vests as possible are on the start line in order to nullify their speed advantage. Last December, In Richmond Park, they were disappointed to be beaten by us when, despite placing 9 of the top 10, we outnumbered them by approx 60 runners to 40 to take the cup. In 2007 at Wimbledon Common they also placed 9 of the top 10 but we started with 38 runners making it difficult to overturn their advantage gained by placing so many white vests at the head of the field and we were duly defeated. The race is 7.5 miles on a one lap figure-of-eight course, Ken has put a map plus details of how the scoring works on our website. It's a varied course - some grassland, some tracks, some woods and some hills. The finish is a flat half-lap of a rugby pitch and makes for great viewing. Once you've got your breath back cheer in a few runners finishing behind you. There are parking, changing and showers at the Thames clubhouse near the Robin Hood Roundabout, and tea/cakes will be available afterwards (the mob matches are great social events!) Entry is free and it's perfectly acceptable to use it as a training run if you don't feel like racing. The mob races are for all standards, both sexes, and, in general, the club with the most representatives wins the cup that goes with each race. If you are one of the many that struggles to feature among the Ranelagh 'counters' at races this is a great chance to don the Ranelagh vest, take part in a club event, and contribute to the final result. Registration for the race will be from 1:45pm with the race to begin at 2:30pm outside the Thames clubhouse. Location details are here: and on our website here: here:. This will be the 36th mob match against Thames, with us trailing by 7 losses (14 to 21). Having experienced defeat in our two earlier matches this season it's time to turn the tables. Come along on Saturday 21st November and represent Ranelagh in a classic race on Wimbledon Common!" Thames will be providing us with food afterwards served from 6.30pm at the Telegraph Pub on Putney Heath here: . Thames need to know the numbers for the food so if you haven't already told Marc Snaith that you'd like to stay then please do without delay (contact details in What's Coming below). DYSART AND ELLIS CUPS Saturday 5th December These events are open races for women and men respectively in Richmond Park and all members are welcome to take part. It's a particularly important race for the women as it incorporates the club's women's championship for the Hugh Jones Salver and the club women's veterans (over 40) championship for Trish's Trophy. Marie Synnott-Wells is the current holder of both. There is also a sealed handicap. Several other clubs will be taking part and the Dysart Cup goes to the winning team (five to score). Start time is 1.45pm and the distance is 4 miles. Register at the clubhouse on the day. Following on at 2.30pm is the Ellis Cup, which is a men's inter-club race over 5 miles. It's ten to score. Again, all are welcome: register at the clubhouse or at our usual start opposite Pembroke Lodge. CLUB PLACES FOR THE LONDON MARATHON A reminder from Hon Sec Simon Burrell: "Don't forget that we will be hoilding a ballot for the five club London Marathon places at the Christmas Party on Saturday 28th November. If you want your name to be included in the draw please email me (e-mail Simon simon_burrell2000@yahoo.com ) by Friday 27th at the latest. To qualify, you will need to have either been rejected in the main Virgin ballot or have run a mob match this season or last." FREE SPORTS MASSAGE Cindy Croucher writes: "Free sports massages are available at St Mary's University College on the following weekends: 21/22 November, 5/6 December, 9/10 January, 23/24 January, 6/7 February and 28 February at 10am in R112 which is on the first floor of the sports centre. They are carried out by students who are all qualified holistic masseurs training to be sports masseurs and are supervised by a qualified member of staff. They are at 10am until 11am and are first come first served." THE RUNNING SCHOOL Steve Whitehead writes: "I coordinate the Running Club at Barclays Capital and after a relatively successful year we had a celebration on Wednesday evening to give us the opportunity to enjoy the champagne and wine that we'd won in various City based races over the last 12 months. To give us some structure to the evening we invited James Dunne from the Running School to come and speak to us about their approach and how they can help all of us improve many aspects of our running. It was a very good session and a number of the Barclays Capital runners are likely to sign up for a course of sessions. The Running School is based in Chiswick and so is local to many of Ranelagh's runners. Their website is ." TRAINING AT MILE END More from Steve Whitehead: "I also help coordinate a weekly track session for the Barclays Capital Running Club on Tuesday evenings at Mile End Stadium (a 10 minute jog from Canary Wharf). The session is open to all (we have several runners from other firms join us) and so any City or Canary Wharf based Ranelagh runners who cannot get to the club Tuesday sessions are welcome to join us. I can provide further details to anyone interested: e-mail Steve stephen.whitehead@mac.com." CORRECTION Mike McDowell writes regarding the trophy for the club over 50s championship, as reported in the last e-news: "Somebody does not know the difference between a cup and a tray! It is the McDowell Salver...I hope the new holder is not too disappointed he cannot fill it with champagne!" WHAT'S COMING ************* More details of the following from Marc Snaith (07717 213035 mailto ( mdsnaith5@hotmail.com ) or Marie Synnott-Wells (07983 430264 (After 5pm Weekdays) / mailto nandmwells@aol.com ) Saturday 21st November Mob match v Thames Hare & Hounds. 7.5 miles at Kingston Vale (Wimbledon Common). 2.30pm start. Saturday 28th November South of the Thames 5 miles championship at West Wickham. 2pm start. Saturday 5th December Dysart Cup 4 miles women's race including club women's champs in Richmond Park. 1.45pm start. See above. Ellis Cup 5 miles men's race in Richmond Park. 2.30pm start. See above. Saturday 12th December Surrey League Div 1 in Richmond Park: women at 12 noon, men at 3pm. parkruns every Saturday at 9am Bushy Park Diana Fountain car park Richmond Park Richmond Gate Wimbledon Common Windmill car park Banstead Woods Car park off B2219 Park Lane, Chipstead Bedfont Lakes Bedfont Lakes Country Park, Ashford, Middlesex Other venues, more details and registration at www.parkrun.com WHAT'S HAPPENED *************** SURREY LADIES LEAGUE DIVISION 1 Saturday 14th November at Dorking The "perfect storm" that was sweeping across the south of England seemed to reach its peak just as the 300+ runners peeled off layers of rain wear for the start of the combined Division 1 / Division 2 League race. The course, at Denbies Vineyard near Dorking, would have been attractive in fine weather, but today the wind howled through the grape vines and the rain lashed horizontally. The course varied underfoot from firm tracks to soggy grassland and stony paths. It was deceptively tough, with no steep climbs but lots of long drawn-out drags. Liz, Marie, Estelle and Sara all took up positions just behind the leaders on the uphill start but first Sara and then Estelle began to slip back on the short first lap. As the race developed it was Liz who proved the strongest, or perhaps she just wanted to get out of the rain...at any rate, she held on to finish 5th in Division 1, one of her best ever League results. The ever-reliable Marie was half a minute back in 8th place with Estelle hanging on well to finish the same distance behind in 18th. After a steady start Emma Tomlinson made steady progress to finish 26th, an excellent run. Sara Grosvenor's 34th closed in the Ranelagh A team ahead of any other club bar the day's winners Belgrave Harriers. However, South London packed in better and finished in second place, one point behind Belgrave, and Ranelagh took third place. Overall, despite being overtaken by Belgrave, we moved up from 7th to 4th place very close behind 2nd and 3rd. Sarah Smith, in her first League race for two years, led our B team followed by Louise Piears, Sarah Doe (in her first League race for a decade!), Sonia Rowland and Evelyn Joslin. They finished 18th on the day and stand in 24th place (4th B team) overall. Kirsty Bangham was a one-woman C team. SWEATSHOP SURREY LEAGUE DIVISION 1 Saturday 14th November at Coulsdon The weather had abated only slightly by the time the men were in action on South London Harriers' course at Coulsdon. After finishing a poor last in the opening fixture our main task now is to climb out of the bottom two places, which form the relegation zone. Marc Snaith takes up the story: "The comeback has begun! We may have finished only 8th but we made up nearly eighty points on Guildford, however it was disappointing to lose ground on Epsom so we are still over a hundred points from safety. It was great to have Phil Killingley back to spearhead the team and for once the weather was unable to prevent Chris Illman's presence. Both are admittedly not yet in great shape but still managed to finish in the top 30 with the evergreen Peter Haarer sandwiched between them. Unfortunately there was a long wait before the next Harrier crossed the line and then there were three in quick succession: Al, Niall and myself crossing the line within 15 seconds of each other but only in 77th, 81st and 83rd positions. In the last couple of years this would have been a battle to make the scoring team but there is a big gap in our team right now that is currently the difference between us and the teams in 4th and 5th. John Shaw, Howard Gleave, Andy Bickerstaff and Trevor Maguire completed the scoring ten. The next League race is in Richmond Park on December 12th. Three weeks may not be enough time for our 'middle order' to regain enough fitness to fill the gap so we are going to need big performances at our home meeting to start moving up the league table. The club has the runners to achieve this and the two month gap between the Richmond Park fixture and the final race at Guildford means there should be a very different look to our team for the final fixture. It wasn't that long ago that we were scoring under 400 points and I am confident that we can do that again in February." BOSCHENDAL HALF MARATHON Saturday 7th November at Franschhoek, South Africa Nick Wright reports: "The course description said 'flat and fast'...this couldn't have been further from the truth and I was cursing that great bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon I'd tucked into the previous day as we climbed a mile long hill, up through the Drakenstein Mountains in gale force wind! It ended up being a very lonely run, with no-one behind me for minutes and two guys leaving me for dust up the long hill at mile 2. But top marks to the marshals with their little red flags at every possible turn; plentiful water stations in the middle of nowhere and offerings of Boschendal Chardonnay in the finishing funnel... at 08:30am...! How could I resist??! Surely that goes down as carbo-reloading??!" 21 Nick Wright 86:19 OLD DEER PARK RICHMOND 10km Sunday 8th November Some results finally appeared for this event, but only the first hundred. 1 M Goose (Norwich) 30.51 60 David Kelly 43.19 82 Daniela Mingham 44.32 BUSHY parkrun 5km Saturday 14th November 1 A Orr (Serpentine) 16.58 30 Darren Wood 20.16 53 Roger Wilson 21.33 59 Chris Camacho 21.52 121 Peter Fordham 23.36 209 Danny Hobbs 25.51 230 Gill Wilson 26.56 281 Val Lowman 28.56 289 Peter Lowman 29.35 296 Luke Wilson 29.46 346 Wally Garrod 34.09 RICHMOND parkrun 5km Saturday 14th November 1 C Wilder (W Horse) 17.48 6 Jerym Brunton 19.06 7 Bill Neely 19.21 26 Si Martin 21.39 32 Tony Appleby 22.07 36 Ben Shore 22.12 37 Andrew Brown 22.20 62 Jo Sinton-Hewitt 24.53 100 Marina Quayle 29.37 BROMLEY parkrun 5km Saturday 14th November David Rowe finally secured a parkrun win - much to his own surprise, as this was supposed to be a gentle warm-up for the afternoon's League race. Mr parkrun himself, Paul Sinton-Hewitt, was third. 1 David Rowe 19.36 3 Paul Sinton-Hewitt 21.28 BEDFONT LAKES parkrun 5km Saturday 14th November 1 B Martin-Dye (Brac F) 17.05 16 Michael White 24.10 26 Paul Martingell 25.44 49 Wiebke Kortum 36.50 FINSBURY parkrun 5km Saturday 14th November 1 A Macaulay (UCL) 17.13 33 Jar O'Brien 27.58 35 Alison Dicks 28.47 BRIGHTON 10km Sunday 15th November Anna Scally on the comeback trail... 1 C Davies (Telford) 29.04 (chip time 29.03) 584 Anna Scally 45.34 (44.52) 900 Sharon Dooley 49.11 (48.27) 1120 Heather Martingell 51.29 (49.16) 1216 Kirsty Bangham 52.42 (50.29) 1297 Janet Turnes 53.44 (52.26) 1563 Julie Drummond 56.40 (55.12) FINALLY... "Mind is everything: muscles are pieces of rubber. All that I am, I am because of my mind." Paavo Nurmi, multiple Olympic gold medallist in the 1920s