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Newsdesk 2002
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RANELAGH HARRIERS E-NEWS # 56 6 MARCH 2002
Web site: http://www.surreyweb.net/rharriers
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This Saturday at 2pm we are hosting the annual Ranelagh Cup schools race
in Richmond Park, followed by our own Clutton Cup 10 miles handicap. All
are welcome to run the Clutton, but if anyone can make it down a little
earlier to help with results and teas for the schools race, that would be
greatly appreciated.
BILL DAY MEMORIAL BAKER CUP SUPPER AND PRIZE PRESENTATION
This year's Baker Cup supper will be in memory of Bill Day who died last
year. Thanks to Bill's bequest the supper, to be held at the Rose of York
on Saturday March 23rd, will be FREE OF CHARGE to all members. There will
be a charge of £5 for guests. We're limited to 65 places, so early booking
is advised. When you book please state your menu selection, which you must
then keep to! No changing your mind on the night. Book with Bev Ali at the
club on Tuesday and Thursday nights or mailto:bev.ali@fluor.com or
mailto:bxali@hotmail.com; you can also book with Mike Peace on Wednesday
nights or mailto:admin@frimley.surrey.sch.uk; or just add your name to the
list on the clubhouse noticeboard. Menu choices are: (Starter) Eggs
Mayonnaise or Pate and Toast or Prawn Cocktail or Mixed Salad; (Main
Course) Roast Chicken or Roast Beef or Lasagne or Vegetarian (tba).
Desserts can be selected on the night.
Trophy winners, please make every effort to be there to collect your
silverware, or we might give them to somebody else. Alan Hedger should by
now have contacted last year's prize winners to arrange for the return of
their trophies, but if you're holding one and haven't yet heard from Alan
please give him a call on 01372 740626.
Last Saturday we were in the Park again for a 5 miler (actually 5.53 miles
according to Computer Ken) against Hercules Wimbledon and others. Paul
Doyle was again thwarted by HW in his efforts to score a win and the gold
and red vests also cleaned up in the team scoring. Behind Paul it was
mostly a case of the usual suspects...
Paul and Mike were out again on Sunday for the Camberley Half Marathon.
Paul reports:
"Mike Peace & I turned up to a well organised half marathon. The route was
a two lap course of mainly very quiet roads, at one point going through a
nice residential estate. There was one big hill, with a number of smaller
hills. There were also two long downhill stretches. Bizarrely it felt like
the course was more downhill than uphill. The course was well marked out,
with lots of water stations, officials and supporters. There was quite a
lot of fun runners and a very good atmosphere. The very nice medals were
awarded to all finishers along with free bananas! It was my first half
marathon I was quite pleased with 1hr 16min 4th place. Mike Peace came in
in 1hr 21ish. The event doubled up as the Surrey championships, so it's a
shame we didn't have another Surrey qualified runner as we would have
certainly picked up team medals. Camberley Athletic Club are keeping the
official results a very closely guarded secret, so I don't know the
results of the champs, my only criticism of the event".
Allan Lang and Alan Davidson were first over 60 and third over 55
respectively in the Ringwood 5km on March 3rd. Allan recorded 19.40, Alan
18.39. On the same day, Margaret Auerback was first over 55 in the
Hillingdon 5 miles at Ruislip in 34.07.
Chris Owens provides a belated account of the National Championships at
Bristol but includes a "Hello" mag scoop to justify keeping us waiting:
"I thought we might need to instruct the club barristers to sue the
organisers of the races in Bristol for defamation of harriers, as after
three days they had still have not found our two lead runners - Peter
Haarer and Mick Lane. They both finished well ahead of me, but had been
excluded from the results we saw that weekend. I'm pleased to see that by
the end of the week they had been found and restored to their rightful
places. To lose one harrier may be regarded as a misfortune, but to lose
two......
Bristol was really an excellent venue - open and grassy, it didn't cut up
into a muddy quagmire, and there was enough slope and enough flat to
satisfy everyone, so it was a pity about the gale-force winds (find a big
guy and hide behind him on the upwind legs), and when it started to snow
after the first mile in the Men's race, it made the next 10k or so very
interesting. This interesting combination of the elements also affected
some of the earlier races, and made Sophie's sprint to the start (up the
steepest part of the hill) to arrive 5mins before the off, all the more
noteworthy.
The cold also seemed to affect Julian, as he had an asthma or allergic
reaction to something and more or less had to stop, although he did
finish, and did recover quickly, thank goodness. As this sort of weather
goes, once the race was over and the frozen fingers had undone the muddy
laces, and the shivering bodies pushed back inside damp kit, the wind
dropped and the sun came out. Still, nothing beats the welcoming face of
Alan Hedger at these events, as you limp out of the finish area to be
presented with your kit and a coffee with "a bit of something in it....".
Special thanks go to Alan and Kevin, not just for the refreshments, but
also the Scott of the Antarctic struggle from the start to the finish with
the kit through horizontal snow. The results have already been published -
enough said.
We wondered why Andy Bickerstaff had looked stressed before the race, but
going back to the B&B and reading the long sign where each line started
with 'No...'(think Orwell and '...anything not specifically allowed is
forbidden') for the general idea, we began to get the picture. However,
why worry? - the place was warm, there was a tray to catch the drips from
the (electric) shower, and Kevin had his own personal TV - any more
personal and it would have been in bed with him. Perhaps he was worried
about the gig. Andy had run for GWR (Great Western Runners) before seeing
the light, so GWR had prevailed on him to tour Mystery Virus in his home
town. (Ed's note: for those baffled by the previous sentence, 'Mystery
Virus' is the latest incarnation of the club band formerly known as Zis
Boom Bah, PB Junkies and various other less polite names). GWR run from
Bristol Tennis Club, so we carried the kit in there. Perhaps it was the
beer, but the evening seemed to go down well, even some wandering THH
agreed to be suitably impressed. Lana managed to steal the mike from Kevin
before he gave a description of the B&B (Paul from GWR arranged it) so
peace broke out about 11.30. Somehow we found our way back to the Alpha
Guest House, and slept like tops - probably due to Tennis Club beer.
Perhaps Andy was less stressed now ?
The older hands among us rolled out of bed to find breakfast in the cellar
(think it was the family front room) accompanied by the end of the Korean
version of Crossroads - with English subtitles, followed by the Korean
news in English - with Korean subtitles. Andy had paid (he definitely was
cracking under the strain), so once the fryup or Korean beans on toast
(depending on your taste) had vanished, we set off for down the M4. Rumour
has it the Alpha Guesthouse will be feature in the Kabul round of a well
known DIY show - the one where Fred Dibnah designs improvements.
It took a few days to find our missing harriers, but until Saturday a week
later to truly understand why Andy looked so stressed - he and Lana became
engaged that weekend. Best wishes!"
Sue Ashley (now running for SLH) adds:
"I had a pretty good view of the latter stage of the race between Margaret
& Sarah. Sarah, I think had lost heart in the cold conditions, and was
going backwards - until some upstart of an SLH runner managed to overtake
her. That spurred her on & she nipped past me at 100mph in the finishing
straight - but left it a bit too late to get Margaret (who I suspect
didn't know she was there)".
GORDON WHITSON reports from Athens:
"Your readership may be interested to learn that I successfully defended
my 45-49 age group Greek veterans (or should I now say "Masters") indoors
title in the 3,000 metres last Sunday, 24 February. I recorded a time of
9mins 53.4 secs".
LIZ KIPLING
won the national Tetrathlon championship (that's the Modern Pentathlon
minus the horse riding) last month in Wolverhampton, and last weekend
competed in the year's first major Modern Pentathlon competition, the
national championship at Bath. Olympic gold medallist Steph Cook is now
retired, but the other three team gold medallists from last year's world
championships were all present and filled the first three places headed by
Georgina Harland on 5616 points. Liz was disappointed with her shooting
and running but still finished 5th on 5200 points, only 88 behind
third-placed Kate Allenby.
RANELAGH HALF MARATHON
It has been decided to experiment this year with starting our Richmond
Half Marathon on May 19th at 8am. Yes, you heard, 8am. As anyone who has
run it or helped with the marshalling recently will confirm, traffic has
been making parts of the course very dangerous and the early start may be
one way of alleviating this. It will probably have an effect on the size
of the entry but we'll have to wait and see. In the meantime, running or
helping, gear yourselves up for an early start!
PARKING
The manager of the Dysart has been complaining again recently about
parking, so our clubhouse manager Alan Craig would like to remind people
NOT to use the pub car park other than on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
nights and then only the section along the left-hand wall. The grass area
in front of the clubhouse can always be used - this is our property.
NEXT...
More details of all the following from Andy Bickerstaff (07966 552302 /
mailto:norris.hobs@ndirect.co.uk) or Sarah Seal (020 8995 2380 /
mailto:sarahs@walker.co.uk).
Saturday March 9th Clutton Cup 10 miles handicap in Richmond Park.
3.00pm start for the last cross-country handicap of the season, preceded
at 2pm by the Ranelagh Cup schools race.
Saturday March 23rd Baker Cup 3 miles road handicap in Richmond Park.
3pm start for the shortest handicap race of the year. In the evening will
be the club supper and prize-giving. See above for details.
Andy Bickerstaff adds:
"Every year Dave Wright lauds the merits of the 10 mile multi-terrain
Roman Trail race near Cirencester, and I never get round to doing it
...this year is different.. I have entered. It would be good to get a team
(3 score ) out at least. I have entry forms. Sunday 7th April 10:30am".
ON THE ROAD
Our club 20 miles championship will be held with the Worthing 20 on March
24th: a good training spin for London Marathoners. The Thames Towpath 10
miles at Chiswick on March 17th will again be the first event in this
year's Ranelagh road Grand Prix. Entry forms in the clubhouse.
Another reminder that our Dysart Dash 10km is on June 30th and not as
stated in our fixture card. Unfortunately, so is the Harry Hawkes 8 which
has unaccountably and annoyingly moved from its traditional first Sunday
in July date.
After I mentioned in passing last week the Hardley Runners, Jo Shearsmith
tells me that she was formerly a member of the delightful club. Glad I
wasn't more rude then! Jo adds:
"Date for the diary - Hardley Runners have a half marathon on October 13th
which is set in the New Forest - a place called Blackfield. It is a
lovely road run which takes in some great scenery including Lepe beach
which looks out over the Isle of Wight. My dad is chief organiser so I
will be putting out application forms later in the year but just thought I
would take this opportunity to let you know! By the way it's called
'Hardley a Half'!!!"
FINALLY
The playwright Freddie Bradnum, who died on Christmas Day aged 81, was a
prolific writer and dramatist, mainly working for BBC radio. He was also a
Ranelagh Harrier for some years and was probably the only professional
writer to edit our club Gazette, which he did for thee years from 1956.
The obituary in 'The Guardian' says that "he daily ran, swam and exercised
up until the last year of his life," but it may be using some literary
licence in describing him as "a former champion long-distance runner" -
though he did win our Coad Cup handicap in 1956....
Steve Rowland
Telephone: 01926 318734
Fax: 0870 4006901
e-mail: srowland@calorgas.co.uk