Emily made her GB & NI debut at under 23 level in the European Cross Country championships held in San Giorgio su Legnano in 2006, and Phil made his at the World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa in 2007.

In hot and humid conditions Phil Wicks, representing England, was 3rd in the 19th Berliner Vattenfall City Night 10k, finishing just 4 seconds down on Kenya's Felix Limo, winner of so many big city marathons.  The tough course meant that times were kept down to 29:21 and 29:25.  The winner was Musa Roba-Kinkal in 29:06, running for Germany.

Samantha Amend saw off some speedy rivals in the Elmbridge 10k to win the women's race in 36:35, just 5 seconds slower than her best ever set only one month ago at Ham.  Will Cockerell, 5th in 33:08, spearheaded a trio of Belgrave men who at last made a substantial mark in this summer's Surrey Road League.

On a quiet weekend, three parkrun wins went to Belgravians.  Richard Ward travelled to Crystal Palace for his 16:35, Russell Dessaix-Chin clocked a 15:05 on Wimbledon Common prior to his return to Australia and up at Leeds, race walking star Alex Wright ran a highly respectable 16:15.

Belles delighted with league win

For only the second time, our women's team won the Eastern Division of the Rosenheim League, coming from behind to take the last three matches and only clinching the win over Serpentine Runners in the final league fixture.

The men also won their match and have cruised through the season unbeaten. They now face the final at Tooting on August 11th where they will come up against the best clubs from the East and West Divisions who will no doubt turn out very strong teams.

... to Pat Lewis who was awarded an M.B.E. in the Queen's Birthday Honours list for Services to Youth.

In our own circles Pat is known as the lady who always seems to have a cheese roll in her bag - "for emergencies"  - and was the only person able to control our unruly European Champion Clubs Cup team when high spirits resulted in naked wet towel fights throughout the hostel used for our accommodation in Belgium.  To the team she was a.k.a "The Rottweiler".

Well done Pat.

Two Belgravians featured in the top dozen in the NOKIA Windsor Elite Triathlon.  Richard Stannard was fastest 1500m swimmer and among the best on the 42k bike ride.  He ended up 9th overall.

After a good swim David Anderson was around three or four minutes slower on two wheels than the very best bike riders before setting third fastest 10k time to place 12th overall. 

It was David's first elite event and only his second attempt at the Olympic distances.  His transitions were much improved but he had a big problem getting his feet into his cycling shoes and while fiddling about, missed the lead bunch of around 25 riders.  In hindsight David says he should have put his head down and tried to bridge the gap (and would have no doubt been fired up for a faster 10k run) but as it was he settled into the second group of wheelers and when it came to the run he was too far down to do a lot of damage.

"It will be rectified next time," Dave tells us.  "I wore my Belgrave tri-suit, so actually had people shout 'Go on Bels' at me – quite surreal at a triathlon."

IAAF Diamond League, New York. Leading a stacked triple jump competition for a while was Philips Idowu, 1 centimetre ahead of Sweden's Christian Olsson with 17.21m. But that was before the young Frenchman Teddy Tamgho unleashed a final four jumps of 17.61, 17.60, 17.84 and 17.98 - to elevate himself to third on the World all-time list. Olsson also improved with 17.62 and although Phillips got up to 17.31m he had to be content with third place on the day.  Also third, in the high jump, was Samson Oni, who leapt a season's best of 2.27m.

At the BMC Nike Grand Prix at Watford Graeme Oudney sneaked under 1:50 in the 800m, Jonathon Blackledge took another step towards full fitness with 1:52 and bits and Nick Goolab set a personal best.  The 1500m saw another personal best from James Fairbourn - getting into very respectable territory with 3:58.95. 

Our veteran parkrunners were out in force with Mike Trees (Bushy), Knut Hegvold (Wimbledon) and Paul Freary (Heaton) all under 17 minutes, and Matthew Morgan winning at Roundshaw.  Our first man (we think) parkrunning overseas was Paul Chapman who raced at Armager Fælled in Copenhagen.

Wycombe. With just a few less gaps in the team than in the first two matches the Southern Leaguers placed second yet again, unable to pull off the win required to get into promotion territory.  Nevertheless, the Bels are up to 5th in the league.

Again the throwers were almost perfect, boosted by a 56.74m effort from hammer man John Osazuwa.  They dropped just one point and now have scored 92 points out of a possible 96 in the first three matches. Captain Pete Mayfield covered six events, winning four of them, and setting pbs in discus and javelin.

Very many thanks indeed to those who responded to our plea for officials and enabled us to fulfil our obligations.

Belgrave results | League positions

Christchurch, New Zealand. From our NZ correspondent ... A big breakthrough win came from Aussie Belgravian Erwin McRae as he took the SBS Half Marathon in 64:59.  Link

Neuss, Germany. The race was meant to be over 5k but when Phil Wicks and Simon Jones arrived they found it been changed to 6k.  Phil went out hard, leading over the first two of the four laps, which included 180° turns and cobbles. Before long he had only Kem (Poland) and Tsetserokou (Belarus) for company.  800 metres to go and the Pole managed to break away for the win in 16:59.  Phil made his move with about 400 to go but had misjudged things slightly, giving the Belarusian the chance to come back and nick 2nd spot by two seconds.  Phil was pleased with his 17:06 and although down the field a little, Simon Jones showed that he too is on his way back from injury.

The previous day two Belgrave wins came in parkruns - Richard Ward at Crystal Palace and Will Cockerell at Bushers.

Photo by Jeremy Hemming

A strong field for the BUPA London 10k, held over part of the route scheduled to be used for the 2012 Olympic Marathon, was headed at the tape by Mo Farah whose 27:44 was immediately hailed as a British record - although we note that Nick Rose ran 27:34 in New Orleans way back when. Mo outsprinted Kenyan Micah Kogo, 27:49, and Chris Thompson was 3rd in 28:17.

Phil Wicks, pictured above in the lead pack at Parliament Square, is not in top shape yet and was plagued with the "sniffles" this week. He was hoping for a sub-29 but all things considered was happy with his 5th place and a 29:08 clocking. Phil's fiancée Emily Adams was 5th woman home in 35:00 with Getenesh Tamirat 4th in 34:53

Monday 26th April saw the arrival of Alfie George Blizzard, son to Louise (nee Cooper) and Gareth Blizzard.  Alfie weighed in at 5 lbs 8oz and it may well have been Louise's attendance at the London Marathon marathon the day before that contributed to his early arrival. She wasn't running this time, we hasten to add.

Alfie has already been bought his first pair of adidas trainers!

Triathlon win for DA

Sadly we must inform you of the passing of Elizabeth, wife and constant supporter of Belgrave Past President Clive Shippen. Elizabeth had been in poor health for some time and she died peacefully on Thursday 29 April. Clive and Elizabeth were central in Belgrave affairs from the '50s right through to the '90s but emigrated to Australia to be with their sons who were also former Belgravians.

Our deepest condolences to Clive and to Martin and Mark.

In case you wondered why you hadn't seen Mark Humphrey lately - he's in Zambia.

After a period of training in Cardiff, Mark is working for a organisation which is supporting people in the community and social projects.  He's based in a place called Japarta which is 10 miles away from Malali. He tells us that he's been visiting many interesting places and hopes to get to the magnificent Victoria Falls on the Zambia/Zimbabwe border soon. The people are very friendly and have many stories to tell about their tribes and cultural traditions.

Mark has been training hard in the countryside and mountains - we look forward to seeing his new-found fitness when he returns late in the summer.

Congratulations to Rieko and Mike Trees on the safe arrival of baby Amy on 30 March. A month early, Amy lost a little weight to start with but both mother and daughter are doing fine and we look forward to seeing all three of them soon.

Milton Keynes. Knowing that we were far from full strength for the men's SEAA 12-Stage Road Relay it still seemed feasible that we might pull off a win if the opposition were in a similar state.  Not to be, however, as Newham & Essex Beagles turned out an almost maximum effort to win by miles, leading from leg 2, and relieving us of the course record.

The Bels had a battle royal for the minor placings with Aldershot, Farnham & District AC and it wasn't until stage 10 that we went clear of the Hampshire club to clinch silver medals and stretch our medal streak to twelve years. 

Phil Wicks ran an amazing 16:06 for the short stage off just three weeks running; but he was probably more delighted simply to be running pain free after several months of injury.  His was the day's second best time and the third best Belgrave short stage ever. Also second fastest, over the long stage, was Dan Mulhare. Back after a lay-off of several years David Anderson is now impressing as an elite triathlete; he also turned in a speedy short stage - as did National Junior Cross Country Champion Nick Goolab on the final stage.

The women's 6-Stage race saw the Belles finish a pleasing 11th, aided by a last leg run from Samantha Amend who had earlier in the day placed 8th in the Reading Half Marathon!

It was the first day out in 2XU kit thanks to Mike Trees' company Triathlon Consultants who have stepped in to provide technical clothing to Belgrave's top runners.

Women's race report  |  Full results

We regret to hear that one of the key men of our track and field teams of the '70s and '80s, Charlie Gillett, has died after a long illness, aged 68.

Charlie's enthusiasm rubbed off onto those all around him as he tackled relays, 200 and 400 metre races (flat and hurdles) in our Southern League teams and in our very first British League teams.

Just a few months ago he got in touch with us to talk about old times and he mentioned that his illness three years ago had wiped out his running.  He was as a result working with a 'personal trainer', which he never imagined would be his fate. But he was still regularly meeting up with a couple of his old Belgrave team mates at the café  at the Clapham Common bandstand for a lunchtime chat.

Racing for Belgrave Harriers was just one facet of Charlie's full life, of course. He was known around the world for his radio programmes and books, particularly championing 'world music'.  He was once offered, but turned down, the job of hosting the renowned Old Grey Whistle Test on TV and discovered one of the biggest rock bands of all time - Dire Straits.

In the Hague Half Marathon Samantha Amend went through 10k in 36:51 but then suffered a bad patch before rallying to finish 9th in 1:18:44. Five men went under 60 minutes in the men's race!  Nearer to home Hassan Raidi won the Wimbledon Audi 10k in 33:14.

Four Belgrave wins were chalked up in 5k parkruns. Steve Davies was fastest with a 14:49 clocking in Cardiff; other winners were Paul Freary at Heaton Park, Richard Ward in Greenwich and Lander Eguia in Reading.

At the McCain World Trials and Intercounties Championship at Cofton Park, Birmingham, Paskar Owor led home the Surrey team in 38th, followed by James Kelly 53rd.  Sarah Murphy was 58th in the women's race, also representing Surrey.

In Ireland Charlie Dickinson placed 4th in the over 60 category of the Masters Home Countries International in Belfast while Andrew Connick was 17th in the Irish Universities Cross Country Championships in Cork.

Travelling to North London in his search for a race, Paskar Owor ran away from the field to win London Heathside's 5 miler in 25:45. In second place was none other than Hassan Raidi - 26:37.

After placing 2nd in a field of 700 in an Olympic distance Triathlon last September (fastest swimmer and runner), David Anderson tackled the Clumber Classic Duathlon which doubled as the National Championships.  Now he's really raising eyebrows in the triathlon world.  He was second fastest over the initial 10k run, 31:47, rode 40k on his bike, 1:03:00, before finishing with a 16:51 5k.  ... and in 117th was Paul Freary with 33:11, 1:12:30 and 18:11 - 22nd in his age group.

Led by Blackheath & Bromley Harriers' Mike Skinner (14:46), Bushy Park's 5k course took a battering.  Richard Stannard was down to 15:54, and in the mix (but unrecorded due to a detour near the end) was Max Kiralyfi.  Will Cockerell had to "sprint" a mile to get to the start on time and then got blown away in the melee at the start, settling for turning the run into a faartlek session.

Roundhay Park, Leeds. A wonderful run came from Nick Goolab who retained his ECCA Under 20 Men's Cross Country Championship today.  He told us that he was very nervous beforehand but ended up only the sixth man in the history of the race to defend his title.  Nick came home with a 16 second advantage over arch rival James Wilkinson of Leeds.

Only Sarah Murphy was in action for the Belles but she had a cracking run to place 46th.  Winner was Aldershot's Steph Twell.

Senior Men ... pleased with 7th

Aldershot, Farnham & District AC won the senior men's race, led home by winner Andy Vernon with the Beagles' Moumin Geele 2nd. Leeds City AC were second team on their home turf with Bedford & County AC third.  Belgrave were delighted with 7th team spot, missing several leading runners. A storming run from Dan Mulhare brought him home 16th, James Kelly was 41st, Paskar Owor 89th, Mark Pollard 103rd, James Fairbourn 153rd and Will Cockerell 165th.

Full results (pdf): U20 Men  |  Senior Women  |  Senior Men

Belgrave National Cross Country stats: Teams  |  Individuals

Belgrave Cross Country Plate competition: Final positions

Dismal conditions didn't deter Samantha Amend who is making good progress towards the Virgin London Marathon.  Today she placed third over 13.1 miles at Wokingham in 79:30.

Aviva Grand Prix, Birmingham.  For the third time this winter Samson Oni cleared 2.28m in the high jump, this time taking second place behind the Russian Master Rybakov.  Running his first race since last summer David Gillick not only won the 400 metres but equalled his personal best which also happens to be the Irish Record. Coming back from prolonged injury Sweden's Christian Olssen looks as if he might be a bit of a handful for World Champ Phillips Idowu.  This was the third time he's had the better of Phillips in the last few weeks but nevertheless, the Belgravian set an indoor season's best of 17.25m so is moving in the right direction with the Indoor World Champs still three weeks off. Tim Bayley ran a personal record of 3:40.16 in the 1500m, backing up a recent 3:59.75 at the Reebok Indoor Games in Boston.

And also over in the USA the Gauson brothers have been in action over the mile.  Kris Gauson ran 4:03.68 at South Bend, Indiana, and a week later Darren Gauson ran 4:01.12 with Kris 4:07.10 in Seattle.

Full Aviva GP results  | Belgrave results

Callendar Park, Falkirk.  A famous team victory came in the Stewarts Scottish National Cross Country Championships where Inverclyde pipped Shettlestone by a single point in the senior men's 12k. Dan Mulhare led the way in 5th for Inverclyde, well involved in the battle for bronze, with Mark Pollard 19th, having slipped from 10th-15th on the second lap and struggling to get back through the pack on the third loop. Mark has twice been a winner of this event. Full results

After this race Dan and Tewoldeberhan Mengisteab (Shettleston Harriers) ended up tied on 77 points at the top of the Men's Stewarts Cross Country Grand Prix 2009/10.

The Belgrave men's team took a step closer to the county title that has eluded them since 1996, winning the silver medals at Lloyd Park.  Missing James Kelly and Phil Wicks, it was left to Paskar Owor to lead the squad home by winning the individual race.  Great running came from James Fairbourn (14th) and Lander Eguia (16th) and their runs were key in the step up from last year's third team place. Winners were Herne Hill Harriers with Hercules Wimbledon AC in third.

Sarah Murphy rarely has a bad race and it was another typically "gutsy" effort from our leading lady who placed fourth in the women's race, just one second outside the medals.

Full results  | Report |  Photos by Alan Mead.

With a dodgy ankle that had given trouble during the week, Richard Stannard eschewed the county cross country championships over a rough 12k but turned out over the more predictable Bushy Park 5k course to run second to Basingstoke's Phil Tulba in 16:13. Richard would have added even more spice to the Fairbourn, Eguia, Cockerell shootout in Lloyd Park.

In Banstead Woods Richard Ward won his 57th - yes 57th! - parkrun.  He tops the most wins list (male) by a clear 27 victories.  At Heaton Park Paul Freary headed the field with 16:35.

Missed last week

A massive pb came last weekend from Vicki Goodwin in Seville where she clocked 3:12:09 to place 20th in the marathon.  Also last weekend Sam Amend placed 3rd in the 26.2 Runners Valentine's Day 10k - 37:12.

Results

Aviva UK Indoor Champs., Sheffield. Samson Oni claimed the indoor UK high jump title after a battle with Birchfield's Tom Parsons. Both athletes cleared 2.25 metres but while Samson nailed it at first attempt, Parsons needed his full quota of jumps.  Neither could make 2.28m.

The Belles were back with a full team and 6th team place on the Common.  The final league position was also 6th. Full results | Results

Missing his first Surrey league race in years Will Cockerell was engaged in one of his other passions - a serious backgammon tournament.  But he did get a run in by turning out in the Wimbledon Common parkrun 5k where his main opposition, Crawley man Matt Furber, carried a video camera throughout the race and still managed to outkick the Cockerpillar at the death. Result 

At Newlands Corner, near Guildford, the final Men's Surrey CC League saw a win for Herne Hill Harriers from Thames Hare & Hounds but their advantage was not enough to catch the latter who take the league title again.  The Bels placed 4th on the day and ended up 3rd overall in the league - fairly satisfactory.  First Belgravian was Paskar Owor in 6th; he finished equal 1st individual with Thames' James McMullan at the end of the series.

Individuals | Teams | Belgrave results | Plate

... Link  ... Arthur Penny wins the Surrey CC Champs - 1933 ... link ... Tommy Green wins London to Brighton Walk - 1930 ... link ... EHM Williams wins the South of the Thames "Junior" 1935 ... link ... and many more - put in your own search criteria.

Irishman Dan Mulhare, at University in Edinburgh and a member of Inverclyde as well as Belgrave, took great delight in winning the Scottish 4k Cross Country Champs at Glasgow.  He fought off the challenge of Shettlestone's Eritrean contingent who filled 2nd to 4th places and in 6th spot came Mark Pollard. 

The results of the SEAA Cross Country Champs. don't make exciting reading as far as the Bels are concerned. Somehow this race proves to be difficult for us to crack and although we've hauled ourselves painfully up the result sheets and had two consecutive team placings of 4th in '08 and '09, and were the first Surrey team to get 12 home last year, we failed to complete a team this time around.

Good running from James Kelly, though, who takes the Endurance Cup as first Belgravian home in 25th place.

A wrongly placed hurdle caused mayhem for hurdler William Sharman during training last week. He tried hard to avoid the barrier as he came upon it far too soon but couldn't miss hitting it and went down in a bad fall which resulted in a multiple fracture of his wrist.  Will was taken to hospital and underwent an operation the following morning.  His indoor season and warm-weather training are now cancelled.

Ruislip. Stephen Sharp made a successful foray back to his old stamping ground to clearly win the Middlesex Cross Country title; his winning margin over the 12k course was over a minute.

The Under 20 men's race did not feature our European silver medallist Nick Goolab  but it did give a chance for Max and Dom Kiralyfi to show their paces.  Max picked up the bronze medal while twin brother Dom placed 6th.  Full results

Belgrave brothers were also prominent in the McCain UK Cross Challenge in Antrim where Michael Mulhare placed 10th and Daniel was 14th. Full results

Russell tells us that he was very disappointed. Published information before the race was that the Championship was to be the main basis for selection but it seems that a lack of supporting performances let him down.  A bit tough when he'd actually been injured, came back from that to place 6th and it's six to make up a team.  More.

 Belinda's baby

Arien Caser Howard made his appearance on 14 January at 12:48pm, weighing in at 7lbs 1oz and a son to our hammer throwing Belinda Heil.

 Kev's band on air

 Up & Running offer

This Dulwich based running shop are offering a £40 jacket for free if you buy a pair of running shoes from them.  See more and mention that you found out about this via the Belgrave website.

 Just 100 days to go

Jackie Bye has been struggling with illness but is still determined to complete the Virgin London Marathon, running for charity. Her son Graeme is 9 and suffers from a neurological problem known as Charcot Marie Tooth. Jackie is determined to raise as much as she can to aid him and others like him. Donations

Sat. 16 January. SEAA Indoor Champs. The indoor season moved up a gear at the Lee Valley Athletics Centre this weekend and Samson Oni displayed good form to take the high jump title with 2.25m, equalling his own Championship Best Performance.

Belgrave results | Full results

Sat. 16 January. Pole vaulting for the first time since last June, Joe Ive cleared 5.18m to win his competition at Vault Manchester.

Sun. 17 January. The Scottish Inter-Regional Championships saw Mark Pollard win the A string 1500m in 3:59.09.

Snowy, icy and freezing conditions caused many county Championships to be postponed or cancelled altogether.

The Surrey County Cross Country Champs. have been rescheduled for Saturday 20 February at Lloyd Park, near Croydon, and the race programme will be as originally planned for 9 January.

It's easy to say that we always used to go ahead with the championships in the old days, but one has to remember that the programme then only consisted of three races - Senior and Junior men, and Youths. Women's events were held on a different day.  Nowadays the event includes races for all age groups from Under 13 upwards - for both male and female - more than three times the number of races once held.  Officials are not getting any younger and their duties at the County Champs are now spread over about six hours.

Nonsuch Relay to be renamed in memory of Dave Davies

Held early in July each year in Nonsuch Park this Dave Denton organised event has been renamed in memory of our own late Dave Davies who frequented this race and just about every other within a fifteen mile radius of Epsom.

As reported on the Running with David website the race: " ... always attracts around 60 teams and has been renamed as a memorial to a lovely man who ran for both Belgrave Harriers and Epsom Oddballs.  The event has categories for men, women, V40  & V50 men and V40 women as well as a corporate category and prizes are awarded to the winners of each category. The relay starts at 7pm."

We'd best make sure we enter a team then, eh?  It'll be held on July 1st in 2010.

Charles Henn 1931-2009

It is with very great sadness that we report the death of Charles Henn early on Christmas Eve in Kingston Hospital.  He had been fighting illness for some time but was still a regular among the "Saturday Crowd" until recent weeks.

Charlie had been a member since 1950 enjoying regular runs from our clubhouse from that date to the present day and was an ever-present competitor when it came to club races - particularly over the longer distances. He stepped in to become our General Hon. Secretary in the mid-90s through to the millennium and beyond, and brought a meticulousness to the job which was almost unparalleled.  He was elected a Life Member of Belgrave Harriers during this period but, a quiet and modest man who preferred not to appear in the limelight, he firmly shunned any greater recognition.