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Newsdesk 2002
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RANELAGH HARRIERS E-NEWS # 78 17 OCTOBER 2002
Web site: www.ranelagh-harriers.com
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SURREY LEAGUE DIVISION 1 12 October 2002 Women at Epsom Downs, men at
Brockwell Park
Clare Nicholson reports from Tattenham Corner:
"I did a mental calculation of who I thought would be turning up for our
opening Surrey League fixture this last Saturday at Epsom Downs and came up
with a magical figure of 12. I was a factor of 1/3 out ... 18 women started
the first cross country of the Surrey League season in the senior women's
race on Saturday wearing Ranelagh vests - 18. I have to keep saying it
because I can hardly believe it myself - "18 women started the first cross
country of the Surrey League season".....
Boiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnngggg.....
To say we swamped them is a huge understatement ... Our first scoring team
comprised our Captain "Big Ted" Sarah Seal in 13th, Ms Cuthbert + Semple
19th and 20th with a second between them (that must have been a battle in
the closing stages), Kathy Mallet 30th in cracking form and Sue Healey whose
Sunday mileage and speedwork are clearly paying off in 32nd. Margaret
Auerback headed up the 'B' scoring team of Sophie, Jenni, Eliete and Anna.
Sonia, Julie, Louise, Corinne and Teresa were our 'C' team then Jo Pike and
Lynn Buist for our 'D' girls....
What initially looked like a 4th placing (excellent for the first match of
the season) from our 'A' team was later promoted to a 3rd place as a Thames
non-scorer was discounted. This would not have been quite so possible but
for the depth of our ladies team which put the 5th Thames 'A' team scorer at
74th (we'd already cleared 2 1/2 teams by that point).
An absolutely outstanding performance by all concerned, I can't wait for the
next one ..."
No less pleasing were the performances of the juniors: Anair Beverly set off
in the combined U17 and U20 event as if she meant to continue where she left
off last season - in front! In the end she had to settle for 2nd but with
Estelle and Jessie not far behind and Hannah and Laura backing up it was an
easy team win.
The U13s almost emulated this: Alex, with a great 3rd place, Emily and
Natalie technically finished 2nd team but on the same number of points as
the winners.
Marcus Gohar was at Brockwell Park:
"Ranelagh of late seems to have become a club of extremes. The other week
our V60s surged to silver medal glory in the Southern Road Relays, and this
week the under 13s held the flag high in the Surrey League. Hang on in there
boys...
As for those in between, well we had quite a good squad on the line, who
charged up the hill with Hugh Jones towards the rear of the thin blue and
yellow line. By the time we were going up the hill on the second lap most of
the field had shown due deference to his pedigree by stopping to wait for
him, only a dozen remaining in front when he ran out of course.
Unfortunately most of them didn't wait for me and I missed my Surrey League
PB by one place. Everyone ran well, fastest senior (not vet or junior) in
the Page Cup Paul Graham being the tenth man home. Julian increased his
mileage for the last six months to something just under 100, and still
finished well in the top half of the team. Kevin failed to repeat the
victory he had had the last time he raced in Brockwell Park. I had being
hoping to beat Herne Hill rival Tony Harran, and when he never appeared at
the finish I thought he'd given up. As it happened he was so far ahead of me
I couldn't even see him.
I don't know the team results but I think we are safely in mid table.
Meanwhile, what is it about Brockwell Park which makes such an easy looking
course so hard?"
As Marcus mentions, our three new Under 13s all ran well for second place in
their team event and Dan Jermy was third Under 15 home in the combined Under
17 / Under 15 race.
Under 17
1 D Seddon (Belgrave) 13.06
5 Dan Jermy 14.32
Teams (5 to score)
1 Belgrave 30
5 Ranelagh 125
Under 13
1 P Humphrey (SLH) 13.57
6 Ben Gateley 15.24
10 Matt Hirschler 16.14
16 Zach Foy 18.09
Teams (5 to score)
1 South London 19
2 Ranelagh 90
FARAWAY PLACES...
Besides Jenni Kruse whom we mentioned last week, two more Ranelagh Harriers
were in Berlin for the marathon on September 29th: Grant Lemke finished
1139th in 2.57.47 and Marina Quayle was number 21240 across the line in
4.40.05, some fifteen minutes behind her husband Simon: "We had a great
weekend, and would recommend the Berlin Marathon - nice and flat and lots of
atmosphere (and beer)".
Sophie Timms ran the Geat North Run Half Marathon in 1.52.27 and the
Daventry 6 last Sunday in 46.23.
Jo Shearsmith ran the "Hardley a Half" Half Marathon near Southampton in
1.45.11.
And closer to home, in Sunday's Kingston running festival, Adam Tapley
completed the Marathon in 3.12.27 and Bridget Cuthbert the 16 miler in
1.54.55. Probably there were others at Kingston - more details when I get
them.
Chris Spink gave the London to Brighton race a miss this year but helped
marshal the route in Brixton before going on to the Nike road races held in
Battersea Park: "A very low key, friendly run in Battersea Park: there was a
3, 5 & 8 miler running concurrently and I was placing 2nd until the bloke in
front of me finished at the 3 miles point. I ran hard and finished the 5 in
28.17, but I certainly don't think it's worth a mention!"
LYONS
Brian Chard writes:
"Mandy & John Newton are inviting interested runners/partners to take part
in an interesting run in Lyons on 17th November. The event is called "le
Jogg'iles" and there is a choice of events (from 5 to 30 k). There are a
number of social events planned (by the city) for the weekend but I am sure
good Ranelites will find additional watering holes.
I am trying to put together a group to go. The intention would be to fly out
from Heathrow on the 15th (am flight) and return on the 17th (evening
flight) or on the 18th. Mandy & John will arrange accommodation at a hotel
near where they live. So far I've got about 12 interested. Mandy thought
that they could arrange accommodation for about 20/25 quite easily without
having to be very far from them.
Cost is estimated as follows, flight £90 return, accommodation £20 per
night, race entry £8. Interested? Contact me at
bac@cheval-properties.co.uk".
SOUTHERN CHAMPIONSHIPS
David Wright has been burrowing into some venerable club Gazettes:
"In reply to Marcus Gohar's question in e-news #76 concerning THE FIRST
SOUTHERN MEDALS SINCE ... I think that the answer is 31 January 1976, nearly
27 years ago when our current over 60s team were presumably in their prime.
The occasion was the Southern Counties Junior Championship over six miles at
Parliament Hill where the team of Hugh Jones (7th), Tim Woods (35th), Kevin
Harrison (60th) and yours truly (63rd) claimed bronze medals. What was
particularly remarkable about that day was that we should have put out a
much stronger team. Malcolm East whom coincidentally you mention in this
e-news and who a few years later ran 2:11 in the Boston Marathon, was
injured and Anthony 'Ants' Orr was stricken with 'flu. As Surrey Junior
champion Ants could have been expected to be somewhere in the top 20 and
Malcolm was of a similar standard at that age to Hugh. Kevin and I were
extremely lucky to make the scoring team and we only just beat yet another
teammate, Steve Ewington of whom I have not heard in many years. The Lotinga
Cup club Junior Championship in those days was very competitive!
Ranelagh's senior team that day, in finishing order, was made up of the
following hardy souls, some of whom are still competitive, including the
first man who almost ran last week: Bill Harvey, Guy de Boursac, Dave
Daniels, Gordon Whitson, John Pratt, Jim Forrest, John Hanscomb, John Kirk,
Dave Dunn and Allen Horne.
The Gazette reported that a Cheese and Wine party was held at the Dysart
that evening - I vaguely remember it as being more wine (& Directors Bitter)
than cheese. To keep the continuity with the current e-news I can report
that Gordon Seconde, who sadly died last week, would almost certainly have
been at the party thoroughly enjoying another convivial Ranelagh evening.
Congratulations to the O60s team and let us hope that it is not another 27
years before Southern medals are collected".
In fact David has overlooked another success for the old-timers: our over
50s team won Southern gold medals in February 1981 at Lloyd Park - a mere 21
years ago! John Disley led the team in 6th place with Ken Powley 11th and
Don Martin 16th. Backing them up in 40th place was Chris Brasher. Don Martin
had also been a member of the over 50s team that had won National silver
medals at Parliament Hill in 1976, just three weeks after the junior success
described by David. Don's team mates on that occasion were our present-day
regular pioneers Bob Maslin and Colin Bishop.
BUGBEAR
Bob Beatson sends some further information about the Bugbear virus:
"It's very easy to get caught out by the Bugbear virus, and the consequences
can be very nasty, particularly for those with their own PCs at home. By
wrapping itself in an email extracted from an infected machine, Bugbear
disguises itself very well. The 69K size, mentioned by Ken, can be a give
away, but I've heard that infected emails of other sizes have been seen. The
apparent sender's name may or may not be familiar to the recipient, and is
not the true source. The virus can be activated by simply opening or
previewing the main body of the email, without doing anything directly with
the virus attachment. If you use Outlook or Outlook Express with the preview
pane enabled, just selecting the email to delete it can activate the virus.
Versions of Outlook and Outlook Express with certain security updates don't
have this weakness, but, if you're in any doubt about the version you use,
DON'T USE PREVIEW. Even if you have anti-virus software on your machine,
it's unlikely to prevent the virus getting in unless it's been updated very
recently to cover Bugbear. Once in, the virus attempts to terminate a range
of different anti-virus tools that might be running on the machine. It also
makes the machine vulnerable to tampering by hackers via the internet when
online, and starts collecting keyboard input, presumably with a view to
capturing things like credit card numbers and passwords. All in all, Bugbear
is a very nasty piece of work. Symantec have provided a free self-contained
tool that checks for and if necessary removes the virus. To download it, see
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/vinfodb.html and search for "bugbear".
If you have any reason to suspect that your machine has been infected, it's
best to stay offline, and to try to get someone else to download the removal
tool for you".
CONGRATULATIONS
to Janet and Manuel Turnes on yet another "Best Garden" award for their pub,
the Wych Elm in Kingston.
NEXT...
More details of 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 October 19th Surrey Veterans Cross-Country Championships at
Richmond Park. 2.30pm start.
Sunday October 20th Cabbage Patch 10 miles road race at Twickenham,
incorporating our Callis Cup 10 miles road championship. 10 am start.
Entries £9 (payable to The Cabbage Patch Run) to 29 Stourton Avenue,
Hanworth, Middlesex TW13 6LA. Entry forms can be downloaded from
www.stragglers.org . Entry on the day £12.
Saturday October 26th Mob Match v Orion Harriers 7.5 miles at Chingford.
2.30pm start.
Saturday November 2nd Priory Relays at Reigate
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"My feeling is that any day I am too busy to run is a day that I am too
busy". John Bryant.
Steve Rowland
e-mail: srowland@calorgas.co.uk
Tel: 01926 318734
Fax: 0870 4006901