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Newsdesk 2018
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RANELAGH HARRIERS E-NEWS # 538 30th November 2018
Editor: Steve Rowland
mailto: sandsrowland@btinternet.com
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HEADLINE NEWS
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* Ranelagh women finish 3rd in the Surrey League race at Nonsuch and move
up to 4th overall
* Ranelagh men finish 8th in the Surrey League race on Wimbledon Common and
stay 8th overall
* Freya Thomson and Anthony Haynes lead our League teams
* Ranelagh women finish 8th and the men 9th in the London Championships
* Suzy Whatmough and Ben Anderson lead our London Champs teams
* We suffer a narrow defeat to Thames Hare & Hounds in our mob match
* Our mob is led by Pat Wright and Suzy Whatmough
* Club masters championships won by George Howard, Peter Haarer and David
Wright
* All needed for home mob match on December 8th against South London
Harriers including club championships
* London Marathon guaranteed places ballot
* Date change for women’s Surrey League
ATTENTION PLEASE
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SURREY CROSS-COUNTRY LEAGUES Race 3 - note change of date and venue for the
women’s race
The next Surrey Cross-Country League races were due to take place on January
12th, the women at Happy Valley, Coulsdon and the men on Mitcham Common. The
men’s race will go ahead as planned, but unfortunately the scheduled venue
for the women’s race is unavailable and it has been necessary to shift the
race to March 2nd at Lloyd Park, Croydon. The remaining races are therefore:
Men
Saturday January 12th on Mitcham Common 3pm start for seniors, 2.30pm for
juniors
Saturday February 9th at Lloyd Park, Croydon 3pm start for seniors, 2.30pm
for juniors
Women
Saturday February 9th in Richmond Park (Kingston Gate) 11am start for
seniors, 12 noon for Under 15s and Under 17s, 12.30pm for Under 13s
Saturday March 2nd at Lloyd Park Croydon 1pm start for seniors, 12 noon
for Under 15s and Under 17s, 12.30pm for Under 13s
NEXT JOB FOR THE MOB
As you’ll see below, we fielded an excellent 65 runners for last week’s mob
match against Thames Hare & Hounds but lost by the smallest of margins. So
next week, Saturday 8th December, we have the opportunity to make amends!
We’re being visited by South London Harriers and the Stubbs Cup is at stake.
It’s the same 7.5 miles course in Richmond Park and the start time is
2.30pm. The race also incorporates the club championship for the magnificent
Wynne Cup and a sealed handicap. As ever with mob matches we need as many
runners as we can get, male or female, fast or slow, young or old. Register
on the day, preferably at the clubhouse but if necessary at the start
opposite Pembroke Lodge.
MARSHALS
We’ll be needing marshals and officials for the mob match mentioned above.
If you can help, contact Andy Bickerstaff at
andy.bickerstaff@goodrunguide.co.uk.
SOUTH OF ENGLAND MASTERS CROSS-COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS Saturday 8th December
at Horspath, Oxford.
11.43 start for the women’s race, in which we have a team entered.
SOUTH OF THE THAMES 7.5 MILES CHAMPIONSHIP Saturday 15th December at
Beckenham Place Park.
2pm start. No three-line whip for this one, anyone wishing to run please
contact the Captains or team managers.
LONDON MARATHON 2019 CLUB GUARANTEED PLACES
We have been assigned three guaranteed places this year, and as usual there
will be a ballot to decide the lucky trio. To qualify for the ballot you
need to have run two mob matches during 2018 or run one mob match and
helped marshal at a cross-country event. The draw will be made at the club
Christmas Party on 8th December. To put your name in the hat please reply
to this email by 7th December.
CLUB KIT
We now have a new supplier for our club singlets, men’s and women’s. This is
iProsports. Visit their website here:.
Coats, fleeces and long and short sleeved T-shirts are still available from
our former supplier AlleyCatz, and most items are still offered at a 40%
discount to clear. Take a look here:.
TUESDAY NIGHT SOCIALS
Don’t forget that we meet for a casual drink after training on the first
Tuesday of each month. Venue is upstairs at the Roebuck on Richmond Hill.
All welcome.
THURSDAY NIGHT TRACK TRAINING AT OSTERLEY
The club is continuing to subsidise track sessions on Thursday evenings at
the Osterley track. All groups and all abilities are welcome. The sessions
are every Thursday 7.30-8.30pm. Link to the map is here:
FACEBOOK
Follow Ranelagh on Facebook.
WHAT'S COMING
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More details of the following from the men's Captains ranelagh.men@gmail.com
or the women's Captain / Team Manager ranelagh.women@gmail.com
Saturday 8th December Mob Match v South London Harriers at home in Richmond
Park. 7.5 miles, 2.30pm start. Includes club championships.
Saturday 8th December South of England Masters Cross-Country championships
at Horspath, Oxford
Saturday 15th December South of the Thames 7.5 miles Championship at
Beckenham Place Park. 2pm start
Saturday 29th December Henty Relay – our Christmas fun relay, all welcome.
12 noon start, register at the clubhouse by 11.30am.
5km parkruns every Saturday at 9am and 2km junior parkruns weekly or monthly
on Sundays.
Venues, more details and registration at www.parkrun.com or
www.parkrun.org.uk/events/juniorevents/.
WHAT’S HAPPENED
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START FITNESS SURREY LADIES LEAGUE DIVISON 1 Saturday 10th November in
Nonsuch Park
In contrast to the stygian deluge that awaited the men a little later on
Wimbledon Common, conditions for the women were pleasantly bright and mild.
We had sixteen starters and it was exciting to see 17 year-old Freya Thomson
leading our team in her first senior race. Freya was up with the leading
group on the first circuit and though losing a little ground in the later
stages she held on well to finish in an outstanding 15th spot. Cordy Parker
was closing on Freya at the end and Cordy in turn was being caught by Suzy
Whatmough – great runs by all three. Not far behind as a valuable fourth
scorer was Laura Blazey and then there was a finishing dust-up between Fanny
Vein and another 17 year-old Izzy Atkins. Izzy just got the verdict, giving
us a very pleasing two 17 year-olds in our five A team scorers. For good
measure, just-18 year-old Alice Patterson was fourth scorer in our B team.
Aside from Fanny and Alice, the B team also featured Sarah Palmer , Becky
Northmore and Eugenie McLachlan, while Marie Synnott-Wells led the rest.
This was a good team effort and we were rewarded with 3rd place on the day
and a jump up from 6th to 4th overall. Our B team finished 4th and remained
4th overall.
START FITNESS SURREY LEAGUE DIVISON 1 Saturday 10th November on Wimbledon
Common
Phil Killingley reports:
“After an overnight deluge the morning of Saturday 10 November dawned bright
and autumnal - beautiful conditions for cross country with the course nicely
softened up for the 9mm spikes. With the thermometer reading around 14C at
lunchtime, many of us ventured out with a couple of light layers... and paid
the price. Just as the boys race climbed back to the finish, it got really
wet. It didn’t seem to bother U17 Jacob Patterson who logged a superb 14th
place in the boys race, with Finlay Sinclair also running well in a stacked
field.
And then it got wetter. The men started. At one point in the woods on lap
one visibility was atrocious, the paths were rivers, and it became a battle
for survival. Anthony Haynes did just that, scoring 8th place to go one
better than last time in what was a stronger field. The team welcomed back
Ben Anderson, returning from injury into the top 40, and Carl Assmundson
just outside the top 50. Hercules, Kent and Thames had shortly after this
point closed their scoring tens - Hercules securing a win of around 100
points to put them in the hot seat of the league.
A mini blue wave of Jackson Creegan (‘unfit’), newbie Pat Wright and George
Howard made up our middle order, before captain Killingley came in ahead of
newly-wed Marc Leyshon and the winner of the V50 race (by a whole minute)
Peter Haarer. Graham Brook closed us out. Many of us ran well and were
shocked to be so far down the field. 8th place it was, like last time, and
we’re still in the relegation zone. We're now 143 points off the pace, which
is quite a lot, but we turned it around after Christmas before - Ranelites
are famed for putting in the hard miles in the dark and cold over
Christmas.
The B team ran nicely, going one better than last time for 5th place. Marc
Snaith anchormanned us yet again - it's almost like he plans it! The team
was led home by Ted Mockett, followed by David Ready - who had an excellent
race and is going from strength to strength. Nick Twomey also ran well just
behind him and was followed by Mark Herbert, Dave Lawley, Al Morgan, Marco
Perinelli, Ed Perry and Vaughan Ramsay, who had one eye on the rugby.
Kudos to Alan Hedger, Ken Powley, Sonia and Steve Rowland and Gordon Whitson
for braving the elements to support us (and to anyone else whom I didn't
spot through the deluge), and thanks to all the runners for your overflowing
efforts.”
LONDON CROSS-COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS Saturday 17th November at Parliament
Hlil
Rich Kimber reports on the men’s race:
“A small but select group of ten Ranelites pitched up to the Parliament Hill
savannah, where conditions underfoot had rumours circulating that the South
of England Athletics Association was considering trucking in a few tonnes of
mud just to give some semblance of real cross country. Despite the
unprecedented dryness, the course was challenging as always, but the top end
of the Ranelagh team fared very well, with Ben Anderson placing 12th, and
Carl Assmundson following as second scorer in 26th. I missed out on the top
100 and Mark Herbert rounded off the scoring team to place us a very
respectable 9th. Mishap of the day went to Dave Ready, who wrote off a
strong run just behind me by forgetting to put on his ankle chip.”
The women’s team went one better by placing 8th. Suzy Whatmough led the team
with a great run to finish in 14th position less than a minute from a podium
place. Equally impressive was Holly McGuigan who was within striking
distance of Suzy in what appears to have been her first race since winning
the W35 category in the Surrey Half Marathon championships back in May.
Laura Blazey and Becky Curtis-Hall closed in the team of four with Eugenie
McLachlan not far behind and also breaking into the top hundred. .
MOB MATCH v THAMES HARE & HOUNDS Saturday 24th November in Richmond Park
On a brisk day with good running conditions 35 Thames starters faced 65 from
Ranelagh.
Phil Killingley reports:
“With Thames elite runners limbering around the Ranelagh Oak, it looked like
Ranelagh were going to have their work cut out to win this mob match.
Thames don't often have the numbers (with the exception of their 150th
anniversary last year, where they ended our unbeaten run), but they
certainly have the talent. They yielded victory in the chant to Ranelagh's
noisy Hobble Gobble and set out to win the race.
And that victory didn't seem in doubt at any point, from the spectator's
eye. I was out of action, supporting with my 2 year old who spent the whole
time chanting "Razzle Dazzle", and we witnessed what seemed like white vest
after white vest stream past, before a sea of blue, accounting for
Ranelagh's superior numbers, held up the rear of the race. The top eight
were mostly theirs, punctuated by gutsy runs from Pat Wright and George
Howard, with new member Joe Gomes securing an excellent ninth just ahead of
Ted Mockett. More white followed, but then a cool blue wave punctuated
their dominance from positions 18 to 24, starting with new member Jim Graham
and ending with Louis Randall. Traffic had held up Peter Haarer and he
surged through the ranks to produce an excellent 50:00 run, having started
around 5min late. Possibly the highlight was the first lady Suzy Whatmough,
who ran virtually the whole race behind Thames's Rebekah Edgar, only to
close a huge gap in the last 400m to surge past and win by a margin of two
seconds.
Thames only had one runner outside an hour and rumours were flying around
that they had clinched a narrow victory”. The rest of Phil’s original was
overtaken by events!
Tension mounted as Ken’s computer went on the blink and results were not
available at the clubhouse. Back at home Ken manfully set about calculating
the result manually and later in the evening announced that we had won the
match by the tiny margin of 24 points. However, in the best tradition of
matches against Thames the story does not end there. One Ranelagh runner, it
was discovered, had been inadvertently entered on the Thames declaration
sheet and was included in their points score. With margins so narrow,
restoring her allegiance to Ranelagh reduced the total number of scorers
and, sadly for us, pushed the result into Thames’s favour by the even
smaller margin of 11 points – 1044 to 1055!
So in the end it was disappointment for us but, as Phil Killingley added,
“Huge congratulations to a superb mob effort from Ranelagh.”
The race incorporated the club masters/veterans championships for all over
40s. The Hastings Cup for the overall winner deservedly went to George
Howard. Had Peter Haarer not missed the start he might have given him a run
for his money but George would have been tough to beat. Peter had the
consolation of winning the McDowell Salver for the first over 50 – having
chased and caught all the other over 50s in his headlong charge through the
field. David Wright won the Maslin Mug for the first over 60 by a wide
margin.
Included in the above:
Hastings Cup club masters/veterans championship
REGENTS PARK 10km Sunday 11th November
1 B Day (Kent) 35.33
221 Tom Reay 56.06
WINDSOR AND ETON AUTUMN CLASSIC HALF MARATHON Saturday 17th November
1 M Ryde (Reigate Priory) 73.06
7 Ross Macdonald 74.31
SOUTH OF THE THAMES 5 MILES TEAM RACE Saturday 24th November at Morden Park
Women
1 S Haileselase (Belgrave) 30.29
29 Marie Synnott-Wells 36.37
48 Becky Northmore 39.08
FLORENCE MARATHON Sunday 25th November
New Over 60 Martin Halvey finished 2nd in his age group, just missing three
hours. That performance puts Martin on top of our all-time Over 60 rankings,
albeit the late Ed Whitlock ran faster in the Over 70 category.
Martin writes:
“It was like the thief in the night, who arrived on the first of November
and stole away with my energetic and most fruitful years. Nothing left now
but the long stemmed pipe and ash coloured slippers. Ah! Woe is me.”
1 A Gelchu (Ethiopia) 2:11.32 (chip time 2:11.32)
363 Martin Halvey 3:00.43 (3:00.36)
3201 Ben Johnson 3:52.24 (3:50.04)
6043 Ruth Houlihan-Smith 4:34.58 (4:24.46)
6175 Tamsyn O’Connor 4:37.31 (4:27.18)
APHRODITE 5km Sunday 25th November at Paphos, Cyprus
Alan Davidson reports:
“I ran the Aphrodite 5k on a fairly flat course in warmish weather. I
finished well down the field in 28.22 only for the announcer to call me over
and very embarrassingly make the announcement that I had won a bottle of
wine for my sprint finish! I could only reply ‘Thanks, it made the effort
worthwhile!’”
KINGSTON 10km Sunday 25th November
1 J Fraklin (unatt) 33.48 (chip time 33.46)
8 Michael Everard 38.19 (38.17)
10 Nick Wright 38.32 (38.29)
RUNTHROUGH RICHMOND PARK HALF MARATHON Sunday 25th November
1 J Cocker (Burg H) 1:21.56 (chip time 1:21.54)
193 Roger Wallace 2:00.36 (2:00.13)
194 Colin Brett 2:00.37 (2:00.14)
parkrun results...
Follow this link for the latest Ranelagh results:. Then follow
the “Previously” link at the bottom of the parkrun screen to access previous
weeks’ results.
FINALLY...
The amazing story of runner Florence iliott.
Video:.
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