AAA Men’s 12-Stage Road Relay, Sutton Park, Sutton Coldfield

They've done it again! National 12-Stage title retained

With five new faces in the team an outsider might have been forgiven for thinking that the Bels were vulnerable. But as we’ve said before, our strength is in our tremendous depth and when one analyses the times it can be seen that the result is not down to outstanding performances by a few men – it’s out and out solid running right the way through the squad with less than a minute covering the short stage men and not much more covering all the long ‘uns. Those five new guys took their chances and did us proud.

It was the first time in a decade that a club had returned to Sutton Park to successfully defend their title – and when you think how tight it was in 2001 (we lost by six seconds) we were oh! so close to pulling off a hat trick. Now when was the last time a club managed that … In fact Tipton had four in a row 1989-92 and they had a treble before that; and then back in the ‘50s and ‘60s South London H, Derby and Coventry Godiva had some huge sequences.

But seriously, let’s take it as it comes, enjoy the present and remember how lucky we are that all this has come together during “our time”.

Below: Al Stewart - only a lapped runner in sight and bearing Belgrave's colours towards the last takeover. Photo by Patricia Mead

Stage 1

Following our recent custom, the previous year’s last stage man was moved onto stage one and Paul Freary enjoyed the company around him to bring us home just 46 seconds off the lead, getting pipped on the line by Salford to give us 10th. Birchfield had opened up strongly with Mike Openshaw and no less than five of the top ten long stage times were set on this initial leg. Newham & Essex had a disaster as Ian Grime obviously had a big problem and could manage no more than 52nd place.

1 Birchfield 26:01; 2 Liverpool 26:03; 3 Chester-le-Street 26:06; 4 Holmfirth 26:07; 5 Notts 26:17; 6 Sale HM 26:22; 10 Belgrave 26:47.

Fastest: 1 M.Openshaw (Birchfield) 26:01; 2 A.O’Connor (Liverpool) 26:03; 3 M.Scaife (Chester-le-Street) 26:06; 4 N.Goodliffe (Holmfirth) 26:07; 5 N.Talbot (Notts) 26:17; 6 S.Bailey (Sale HM) 26:22; 10 P.Freary (Belgrave) 26:47.

Stage 2

Now for some fireworks! Maria Sharp had no sooner finished her opening stage for our women’s team than she was tearing back down the course to urge on her Stephen. Stephen Sharp has been in cracking form and we expected him to move us very close to the lead. He did all that was expected – a fine run – but funnily enough was 3 seconds slower than 2002 and we would have put money on him breaking 14 minutes. As the afternoon wore on Stephen’s time looked better and better, for only three men managed that elusive sub-14 standard, two of them down the field on this stage. We were now just 14 seconds adrift of Birchfield while Tipton and Morpeth were half a minute or so behind but inside the top ten.

1 Birchfield (0) 40:44; 2 Belgrave (+8) 40:58; 3 Sale HM (+3) 41:08; 4 Liverpool (-2) 41:23; 5 Tipton (+2) 41:33; 6 Chester-le-Street (-3) 41:34.

Fastest: 1 C.Davies (Telford) 13:50; 2 C.Livesey (Preston) 13:52; 3 S.Sharp 14:11; 4 M.Whitehouse (Birchfield) 14:43; 5 G.Cuddy (Sale HM) 14:46; =6 D.Duke (Cheltenham), D.Dalmedo (Hillingdon), I.Hollingsworth (Morpeth) 14:58.

Stage 3

Last year Kevin Nash had to pull out of the team with a knee problem. No such bad luck this time as Kevin confirmed his fine run in the Southern event and moved the Bels a couple of seconds closer to Birchfield. Behind it was all-change as Stewy Bell moved Chester-le-Street into the frame. Warmby brought Newham up 18 places but the biggest rise of the day came from fastest man on the stage, Farrow, who brought Derby up 23 places to 28th. It was Nasher’s best run on this course in our colours – but again, strangely, 30 seconds down on what we might have expected.

1 Birchfield (0) 1:07:46; 2 Belgrave (0) 1:07:58; 3 Chester-le-Street (+3) 1:08:51; 4 Sunderland (+8) 1:08:56; 5 Notts (+2) 1:08:59; 6 Coventry G (+4) 1:09:01.

Fastest: 1 K.Farrow (Derby) 26:13; 2 M.Warmby (Newham &EB) 26:22; 3 M.Skinner (Blackheath) 26:46; 4 D.Bannister (Shaftesbury B) 26:49; =5 J.Ward (Hallamshire) & M.Hood (Sunderland) 26:53; 7 K.Nash (Belgrave) 27:00.

Stage 4

The animal was let loose on stage four and by the time the hill had been reached he was snapping and snarling at the heels of the “Stag” ahead of him. David Anderson had told us he would be very disappointed with anything outside of 13:50 and he certainly went off at a pace that promised to deliver such a time. Soon he was opening up a Belgrave lead that was never to be lost but as he ran out through the finishing funnel he was kicking himself and muttering – “I went off too fast”. More importantly, he’d turned a 12 second deficit into an advantage of over a minute.

1 Belgrave (+1) 1:22:15; 2 Birchfield (-1) 1:23:20; 3 Notts (+2) 1:23:44; 4 Chester-le-Street (-1) 1:24:15; 5 Sunderland (-1) 1:24:18; 6 Tipton (+6) 1:24:24.

Fastest: 1 D.Anderson (Belgrave) 14:17; 2 J.Rogers (Sale HM) 14:41; 3 S.Burton (Notts) 14:45; 4 P.Nicholls (Tipton) 14:47; 5 T.Lancashire (Bolton) 14:48; 6 D.Webb (Leeds) 14:54.

Stage 5

There was only one point in the race that had us worrying a little and with stage five we’d reached that point. Allen Graffin’s knee problem is now behind him and recent sessions suggested that he was well on his way back. But fearful of letting the team down Allen did feel that it was prudent to have another man warming up for stage five and we’d make a decision as to who would step out onto the road ten minutes beforehand. Reserve Roger Alsop duly went through his pre-race ritual but when it came to it, Allen was fine. He certainly admitted to feeling his lack of fitness at the end of his stage and was a minute down on his 2002 fastest of the day – but was still our second fastest man. Newham were working their way back from the brink, now in 14th, but Mark Morgan had moved Tipton into a medal position and Birchfield were still going great guns in second.

1 Belgrave (0) 1:48:59; 2 Birchfield (0) 1:49:47; 3 Tipton (+3) 1:51:12; 4 Morpeth (+3) 1:52:07; 5 Notts (-2) 1:52:08; 6 Sale HM (+2) 1:52:26.

Fastest: 1 J.Moorhouse (Birchfield) 26:27; 2 Allen Graffin (Belgrave) 26:44; 3 M.Morgan (Tipton) 26:48; 4 O.Laws (Newham &EB) 27:20; 5 J.Downes (London I) 27:23; 6 D.Leggate (Harrow) 27:30.

Stage 6

A few weeks ago we weighed up whether Jonathan Blackledge should be an ‘A’ runner at Milton Keynes. He grasped that opportunity and showed that he should be considered for the big one at Sutton Park. He got his wish and by golly didn’t he run well to take us to the halfway point. Can you really believe that just one year ago this young man was running in the mini marathon on London Marathon day – and here he was at the AAA Senior Men’s 12-Stage Road Relay, taking over in the lead from Allen Graffin, spending a mere 14:40 out on the road with only the lead motorbike to chase and increasing our advantage by a minute to hand on to Aussie international Martin Dent. Jonathan’s time stood up as 8th fastest of the day and surely showed UKA (if they noticed) that they should have selected him for the Junior World Cross.

1 Belgrave (0) 2:03:39; 2 Birchfield (0) 2:05:25; 3 Tipton (0) 2:06:32; 4 Morpeth (0) 2:06:59; 5 Notts (0) 2:07:03; 6 Sunderland (+1) 2:08:09.

Fastest: 1 C.Thompson (Aldershot F&D) 13:47; 2 J.Blackledge (Belgrave) 14:40; 3 A.Fulford (Swindon) 14:48; 4 A.Toward (Morpeth) 14:52; 5 B.Raeside (Notts) 14:55; 6 J.Jackson (Salford) 15:04.

Stage 7

Our lead stretched out to 2 mins 34 secs as Martin Dent ran in his first AAA Championship and took 48 seconds out of Birchfield’s Rob Birchall. It had been a busy week for Martin as he only arrived back in London from Paris at 5:30pm the previous evening. He was our fastest long stage of the day and now sets his sights on a forward placing at Balmoral in a couple of weeks time. McCarthy of London Irish set the fastest long stage time of the day – the only man to go under 26 minutes – and the first of the Hudspith brothers began Morpeth’s big push. But it was Tipton who made the most impact as Danny Robinson closed to within seven seconds of the silver medals.

1 Belgrave (0) 2:29:58; 2 Birchfield (0) 2:32:32; 3 Tipton (0) 2:32:39; 4 Morpeth (0) 2:33:27; 5 Salford (+2) 2:34:34; 6 Notts (-1) 2:34:41.

Fastest: 1 M.McCarthy (London I) 25:48; 2 D.Robinson (Tipton) 26:07; 3 W.Burns (Salford) 26:18; 4 M.Dent (Belgrave) 26:19; 5 I.Hudspith (Morpeth) 26:28; 6 R.Birchall (Birchfield) 27:07.

Stage 8

Usually enjoying an earlier leg, this time it was Richard Ward’s turn to move back down the order. He clocked fastest for the stage and our lead reached its maximum of 2 mins 45 secs but again, it was one of those stages where we would have all thought he’d be half a minute quicker. Maybe those three races in three days the previous weekend – including a fell race – had something to do with it! Birchfield were still hanging in there with an 18 second margin over the green and white clad Tipton men.

1 Belgrave (0) 2:44:46; 2 Birchfield (0) 2:47:31; 3 Tipton (0) 2:47:49; 4 Morpeth 2:48:47; 5 Salford (0) 2:49:49; 6 Notts (0) 2:50:30.

Fastest: 1 R.Ward (Belgrave) 14:48; 2 R.Russell (Thames V) 14:58; 3 R.Green (Birchfield) 14:59; 4 J.Mills (Blackheath) 15:01; 5 M.Hobbs (Swansea) 15:05; 6 J.Gilby (Derby) 15:09.

Stage 9

As always Paul Evans received a huge reception as stepped out onto the road. Our double Olympian and Chicago Marathon winner enjoys a great deal of respect from the road running fraternity. Paul had not been at his fittest in recent months, putting in time to study to become a personal trainer, but a time trial over 5 miles the previous weekend earned him his place in our dozen. Tipton were now coming on strong with Nick Jones taking them to within four seconds of Birchfield while Mark Hudspith ran fastest on the lap for Morpeth, still in fourth.

1 Belgrave (0) 3:12:25; 2 Birchfield (0) 3:14:31; 3 Tipton (0) 3:14:35; 4 Morpeth (0) 3:15:18; 5 Salford (0) 3:16:43; 6 Sale HM (+1) 3:19:04.

Fastest: 1 M.Hudspith (Morpeth) 26:31; 2 G.Raven (Sale HM) 26:40; 3 N.Jones (Tipton) 26:46; 4 N.Wilkinson (Salford) 26:54; 5 J.Brooks (London I) 26:56; 6 P.Hinch (Birchfield) 27:00; 9 P.Evans (Belgrave) 27:39.

Stage 10

Will Cockerell has been reserve for us at Sutton Park on several occasions and this time, in spite of having run London two weeks earlier, he made the cut and fully justified his selection by running second fastest on the lap. Flogging himself up that final stretch his legs were “gone” and there wasn’t an ounce of effort left in him as he lay panting on his back having sent Al Stewart on his way. The Tipton surge was on! They’d gone into second place through Cotton who ran fastest on the stage and they had two very good men to come – but they had 1 min 55 secs to make up.

1 Belgrave (0) 3:27:30; 2 Tipton (+1) 3:29:25; 3 Birchfield (-1) 3:30:13; 4 Morpeth (0) 3:30:46; 5 Salford (0) 3:32:16; 6 Sale HM (0) 3:34:30.

Fastest: 1 S.Cotton (Tipton) 14:50; 2 W.Cockerell (Belgrave) 15:05; 3 S.Dudley (Notts) 15:23; 4 R.Goodwin (Sale HM) 15:26; 5 R.Holladay (Morpeth) 15:28; 6 D.Milliken (Salford) 15:33.

Stage 11

Al Stewart tells us that he has run more times around the Sutton Park course than the rest of the team put together. He certainly loves the route which is kinder to the stronger runners as opposed to the speed merchants. Tipton must have been hopeful of narrowing the gap and maybe even doing a “2001” on us on the last stage as they now turned out Stuart Hall, a sub 50 ten miler, and still had Nigel Stirk to come. But Al chose his 21st run in the Park to clock a personal best and far from losing ground ran fastest on the lap to open the gap to two minutes and more.

1 Belgrave (0) 3:54:23; 2 Tipton (0) 3:56:29; 3 Birchfield (0) 3:57:38; 4 Morpeth (0) 3:58:43; 5 Salford 3:59:36; 6 Sale HM (0) 4:02:29.

Fastest: 1 A.Stewart 26:53; 2 S.Hall (Tipton) 27:04; 3 A.Morgan-Lee (Salford) 27:20; 4 C.Warren (Birchfield) 27:25; 5 M.Brown (Morpeth) 27:57; 6 S.North (Sale HM) 27:59.

Stage 12

… And we still had Adam Zawadski revved up and raring to go! Better known as an 800/1500 runner in the 1:50/3:42 region, Adam obviously has a lot of talent to show us at the longer distances as well. Another who had to run a time trial to work his way into the team when illness kept him out of the Milton Keynes line-up, Adam squeezed one more second away from the Tipton boys for another fastest stage and 6th fastest of the day. The last three stages had seen Belgrave and Tipton topping the fastest circuit lists.

And so the race was ours and the season closed on another high. Again, many thanks to all those who supported us here at Sutton Park and at the many events throughout the winter stretching right back to the Bradford 10k last Autumn. You – and we – all know who you are and we love you for it. As for the Team Manager – well, he tells us that there couldn’t possibly be a finer bunch of guys to work with.

1 Belgrave (0) 4:08:55; 2 Tipton (0) 4:11:02; 3 Birchfield (0) 4:12:49; 4 Morpeth 4:13:32; 5 Salford (0) 4:15:05; 6 Sale HM (0) 4:18:05; 64 teams started; 57 teams finished.

Fastest: 1 A.Zawadski (Belgrave) 14:32; 2 N.Stirk (Tipton) 14:33; 3 D.Swinburne (Morpeth) 14:59; 4 A.Renfree (Shaftesbury B) 15:03; 5 M.Boulstridge (Birchfield) 15:11; 6 D.Mason (Salford) 15:29.

Fastest legs of the day

Short stage (2.995 miles): 1 C.Thompson (Aldershot F&D) 13:47; 2 C.Davies (Telford) 13:50; 3 C.Livesey (Preston) 13:52; 4 S.Sharp (Belgrave) 14:11; 5 D.Anderson (Belgrave) 14:17; 6 A.Zawadski (Belgrave) 14:32; 8 J.Blackledge 14:40; =14 R.Ward 14:48; =34 W.Cockerell 15:05.

Long stage (5.380 miles): 1 M.McCarthy (London I) 25:48; 2 M.Openshaw (Birchfield) 26:01; 3 A.O’Connor (Liverpool) 26:03; 4 M.Scaife (Chester-le-Street) 26:06; =5 N.Goodliffe (Holmfirth) & D.Robinson (Tipton) 26:07; 10 M.Dent 26:19; 19 Allen Graffin 26:44; =22 P.Freary 26:47; =28 A.Stewart 26:53; 35 K.Nash 27:00; 68 P.Evans 27:39.

Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.