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Newsdesk 2003

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 RANELAGH HARRIERS E-NEWS # 93           12 MARCH 2003
 Web site: www.ranelagh-harriers.com  
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 THIS SATURDAY...
 March 15th. The Clutton Cup 10 miles handicap in Richmond Park. The longest
 of our cross-country handicaps and usually the one with the smallest field.
 So if you fancy getting your hands on some of the club silverware, here is
 your best chance! Start will be in the usual place by Sidmouth Wood, with
 the first runner away at about 2.30pm. The time might be flexible as our
 annual schools race for the Ranelagh Cup will be set off first at 2.15pm.  

 SOUTH OF THE THAMES CHAMPIONSHIP  Saturday March 8th at Coulsdon
 Medals were Captain Bicks's target for the day, plus an outside shot at the
 Coleman Cup 12-to-score competition. He probably reckoned with Herne Hill as
 likely rivals but probably reckoned without Crawley. Between them these two
 fairly dominated the race around SLH's course on Farthing Downs which was in
 a marginally more docile mood than it usually appears for our mob visit. 
 Of the first 11 home, no less than 10 sported either the black and red of
 Herne Hill or Crawley's black and yellow. The one blue vest interrupting the
 stream happily contained our Peter Haarer in 8th place. Darryl was not so
 far behind in 12th spot and then we packed the rest of our scorers for the
 six-a-side competition between 20th and 26th, including another good run
 from Grant Lemke in 25th. This was easily sufficient to secure team bronzes:
 target number one bites the dust.
 Simon Lawrence in 66th place closed in our 12 before any other club and gave
 us brief hope that we might also dispose of target number two. But a 12th
 Crawley runner finally straggled home to secure them the cup.      
 The race was quite poorly supported, it must be said, and may not survive
 too much longer if numbers fail to pick up. But it was a good exercise for
 us to put out 15 runners and provided a successful conclusion to the
 cross-country championship season.


 READING HALF MARATHON  Sunday March 9th
 Not to be outdone, our women secured second team in the Reading Half
 Marathon, headed by PBs from Sarah and Clare. The race utilised the same
 chip technology as the London Marathon, and the results therefore show both
 the "official" time (from the gun) and the "actual" time (from crossing the
 starting line). For the tail-enders of the 7000-odd starters the difference
 was some 20 minutes! In our results below, actual times are shown in
 brackets. No prizes for identifying the thrusting go-getters lining up at
 the front and the shy retiring types back in the pack... 

 1 C Warren (Birch) 66.33
 30 C Mutwa (Ken - 1st W) 76.42
 184 Sarah Seal (12th W) 86.20  (86.10)
 561 Clare Nicholson  94.58  (93.07)
 573 John Keep 95.13  (95.06)
 758 Clive Naish 98.17  (98.06)
 919 Anna McLaughlin 100.15  (97.13)
 1774 Simon Burrell 109.44 (104.02)
 2094 Rodney Oliver 112.37 (110.16)
 2190 Laurie de Wet 113.27 (107.44)
 2732 Jacqui Reid 117.45 (117.40)
 3610 Joanne Turner 124.43 (115.36)
 4781 David Rowntree 134.42 (129.56) 

 Women's Teams (4 to score)
 1 Reading RR 801
 2 Ranelagh 4396 

 Julian Smith reports that Allison O'Neill ran 37.37 in the Beziers 10k at
 the weekend despite "dying horribly". 

 Bridget Cuthbert finished 15th in the hilly Petersfield Half Marathon on
 March 9th in 96.30. Jay Rowden was also there, a minute or two over 90
 minutes.

 Preferring the shorter stuff, Allan Lang was 3rd over 60 home in the Team
 Solent 5km in Southampton in 19.44.  
 
 In the recent Canadian Masters indoor track championships, our supercharged
 septuagenarian member Ed Whitlock hacked no less than 13 seconds off the
 over-70s world best for the 1500 metres with a time of 5.14.  

 THE BAKER CUP ANNUAL SUPPER AND PRIZE-GIVING
 ...takes place on Saturday April 5th The afternoon race is a 3 miles road
 handicap and the evening bash will be at the Hawker Centre in Ham. All are
 welcome at both events! Plenty of tickets still available, but don't leave
 it too late. Do try to make it, especially if you're a prize winner. Tickets
 are £16. Book with Carol Barnshaw on 020 8898 9285 (home), 020 8547 6600
 (work) or c_barnshaw@yahoo.com. 

 GREEN BELT RELAY
 May 10th/11th. Take a look at the race web site at www.greenbeltrelay.org.uk
 and after you've decided that you can't possibly miss it, please drop me a line  (mailto:srowland@calor.co.uk ). 

 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 March 15th Ranelagh Cup schools race in Richmond Park starting
 at 2.15pm followed by 
 the Clutton Cup 10 miles handicap.

 Sunday March 23rd Worthing 20 miles road race incl Spendlove Cup club
 20 miles championship

 Sunday March 30th Thames Towpath 10 miles road race at Chiswick. Race
 1 in the Ranelagh Grand Prix series 2003. Entry forms in the clubhouse or
 send your details to the race organiser at Flat 3, 15 Grosvenor Road,
 Chiswick, London W4 4EQ. Entry fee is £7 payable to West 4 Harriers. Entry
 on the day is £10.  

 FINALLY
 The cream of Ranelagh's intellectual elite is sitting in a Wimbledon pub.
 It's quiz night. A correct answer to a simple question in the last round
 will give them the victory they've been striving for for months. The
 question comes: "Is there really a man in the moon?".
 "Yes," they answer...

 Steve Rowland
 e-mail: srowland@calor.co.uk
 Tel: 01926 318734
 Fax: 0870 4006901