AAA Men's 6-Stage Road Relay, Sutton Park, Full result
Road Relay Glory
A fifth consecutive title – could it be done? Our team was not as strong as it might have been and Morpeth Harriers, our conquerors at the recent AAA 10k and last autumn’s cross country relay, looked very threatening having convincingly won the Northern 6-Stage title. From the Midlands, Notts AC have been steadily rising through the ranks and Birchfield Harriers can never be discounted. Our own Southern rivals Newham & Essex Beagles, Aldershot and Wells City might have been behind us at Rushmoor Arena but could so easily surprise us if we had any problems.
Having settled on a team that was minus some of the stalwarts of the past few seasons but included the in-form Kassa Tadesse, we then lost Jonathan Blackledge to a cold – and it was time to dip into the reserves at the expense of the B team. And then at the morning’s team meeting it was announced that the team manager had left the 6-Stage Cup at home – we just had to win now to save his embarrassment!
Stage 1
Welcome back Paul! Twelve months without Freary in the squad has been a long time. He pulled a muscle a week before this event in 2004 and we brought in a reserve – this time it was Paul’s turn to be received back into the 'six' on the Friday afternoon before the race.
In mild and still conditions the field swept down the dip and around the early loop with Paul handily placed in the main bunch. Returning past the Jamboree Stone the top ten were announced, with Belgrave occupying ninth spot. Paul was holding up well – and when the appearance of the lead motorbike heralded the end of the first stage, Paul was right in the bunch with 12th spot. Leicester had grabbed a clear lead but then it was Leeds, Wells City, Notts and Birchfield in quick succession with our expected main rivals Morpeth in 23rd, 19 seconds behind, and Newham & Essex Beagles back in 33rd and over half a minute in arrears.
1 Leicester Coritanian 17:17; 2 Leeds City 17:30; 3 Wells City 17:32; 4 Notts AC 17:39; 5 Birchfield H 17:43; 6 Altrincham &D 17:43; 12 Belgrave H A 17:52; 41 Belgrave H B 18:34; 82 teams started.
Fastest: 1 M Geele (Leicester Coritanian) 17:17; 2 D Webb (Leeds City) 17:30; 3 A Hennessy (Wells City) 17:32; 4 C Warburton) (Notts) 17:39; … 12 P Freary (Belgrave H A) 17:52; 41 W Cockerell (Belgrave H B) 18:34.
Stage 2
Recently selected as an England representative for the Commonwealth Games marathon, Kassa has been in great form and we expected good things from him with men neatly lined up ahead to be chased. We were not disappointed.
Expecting, at some stage, Morpeth’s Nick McCormick to throw in a lap some 40 seconds faster than anything we could offer, each of our team had all been asked to contribute something 10 or 12 seconds faster than the rest of our North Eastern rivals with the aim of building up a lead of approaching one minute. All that went out of the window now as Morpeth’s second runner dropped back 11 places and Kassa swept through the field, overtaking ten men. We already had a gap of two minutes. It was looking good for us and our most likely rivals now appeared to be Birchfield although the Beagles had risen 21 places thanks to Steve Hepples. Leicester’s time at the front had been short lived as their man dropped like a stone through 60 places.
1 Harrow AC (+6) 34:56; 2 Belgrave H (+10) 35:12; 3 Derby AC (+14) 35:13; 4 Birchfield (+1) 35:14; 5 Altrincham &D (+1) 35:17; 6 Wells City (-3) 35:22; … 23 Belgrave H B (+18) 36:36.
Fastest: 1 A Bowden (Harrow) 17:13; 2 A MacLean (Team Southampton) 17:15; 3 L Gunn (Derby) 17:16; 4 K Tadesse (Belgrave) 17:20; … 20 K Nash (Belgrave B) 18:02.
Stage 3
Hopefully Alaster Stewart would now take us into the lead. In fact Al gained nine seconds on stage two leaders Harrow as the fancied Notts AC team came up four places behind him, Birchfield sagged to 16th and the Beagles advanced to 8th. A superb run in the Southern race had us expecting something even more spectacular on Al’s favourite course – but solid though he was, it didn’t happen and, in spite of what appeared to be good conditions, a trend of slower than normal times was being set.
Oh! And the yellow-vested Altrincham runner Jason Ward forged through to gain a 38 second lead. ‘Alty’ had been lurking at the back end of the first half dozen and pre-race predictions had boasted that they would hit the front at some stage – but this was looking like a determined attack.
1 Altrincham &D (+4) 52:25; 2 Harrow AC (-1) 53:03; 3 Belgrave H (-1) 53:10; 4 Notts AC (+4) 53:12; 5 Owls AC (+2) 53:28; 6 Wells City (0) 53:39; … 29 Belgrave H B (-6) 55:35.
Fastest: 1 C Davies (Telford) 17:06; 2 J Ward (Altrincham) 17:08; 3 K Cullen (Highgate) 17:22; 4 N Pollock (Kent) 17:23; … 7 A Stewart (Belgrave A) 17:58; 36 P Willis (Belgrave B) 18:59.
Stage 4
Ok. So Al couldn’t get to the front. Maybe Phil Wicks could do some damage. Surely 17:30 was on the cards and so impressed are we by his attitude that we felt comfortable that he could handle some of the big guns on this stage who were, admittedly, some way behind him. But all was not well. At the top of the first hill Phil was struck by a stitch that wouldn’t leave him for the rest of his race. It’s a testament to his courage that he held himself together as well as he did. Regular rival Jermain Mays of Kent AC ran 17:29 but Phil was restricted to something 50 seconds outside his target.
Harrow fell away but Wells City made a big play through Ben Tickner. Mo Farah took the Beagles ahead of us, Birchfield’s colours were promoted through Wilf Taragon while Notts AC were now placed just behind. And while all this was going on, Andy Norman, for Altrincham, was charging away at the front. Morpeth played Nick McCormick who ran to the day’s fastest by a long way – but it was all too late for them as they were still 46 seconds adrift of the Bels and surely could look for no more than a podium place.
1 Altrincham (0) 1:09:59; 2 Wells City (+4) 1:11:03; 3 Newham &EB (+5) 1:11:06; 4 Birchfield H (+12) 1:11:23; 5 Belgrave H (-2) 1:11:29; 6 Notts AC (-2) 1:11:48; ... 34 Belgrave H B (-5) 1:15:26.
Fastest: 1 N McCormick (Morpeth) 16:41; 2 W Taragon (Birchfield) 17:01; 3 M Farah (Newham) 17:11; 4 B Tickner (Wells City) 17:24; … 14 P Wicks (Belgrave A) 18:19; 51 L Greatorex (Belgrave B) 19:51.
Stage 5
With two stages to go the leaders had over a minute on anyone else and a further half-minute to Belgrave. Heads were shaking now. “It doesn’t look as if you’re going to do this one boy,” it was suggested to our team manager. But the TM was keeping faith with his men. “Stephen, you’ll be taking the lead on this lap,” he predicted with outward confidence. Admittedly it seemed crazy, even though we all knew that ‘Alty’ were front loaded, but he had the additional comfort of having just taken a call from Altrincham/Belgravian Simon Marwood – due to run 5th stage for them but currently languishing at home with a cold! They were out of front-runners and Birchfield and Newham & Essex now seemed the biggest threat – if they had enough firepower left.
Stephen took up the challenge and in no time we heard over the tannoy that Altrincham’s lead had been halved. By the far end of the lap Beagler Stuart Major had taken the lead with a fine run but Stephen was closing him down and on the journey back sat in behind for a while before unleashing his final effort.
A quarter of a mile from the finish an excited Gordon Biscoe was shouting over his two-way radio to those at the finish that the leader had just passed him and it was Stephen Sharp just ahead of another runner. “Yes, but Stephen Sharp from whom?” he was quizzed. “Stephen Sharp from Belgrave of course!”
1 Belgrave H (+4) 1:29:05; 2 Newham & EB 1:29:09; 3 Altrincham &D (-2) 1:29:58; 4 Morpeth H&AC (+6) 1:30:08; 5 Wells City (-3) 1:30:09; 6 Birchfield H (-2) 1:30:23; ... 37 Belgrave H B (-3) 1:35:38.
Fastest: 1 S Sharp (Belgrave) 17:36; 2 N Wilkinson (Morpeth) 17:53; 3 B Moreau (Aldershot) 17:55; 4 S Major (Newham) 18:03; ... =52 M Humphrey 20:12.
Stage 6
All was calm at the take-over. Possibly the most experienced man in the race was ready to set out with just a few seconds gap over Bob Smith’s Newham boys. “I’m not going for a time,” said Spencer Barden. “This is going to be a run for the team. I’m going to make sure that we can’t lose it.” And make sure he did. Spen may have run faster around this course, being one of the five in the squad who had won our very first National Road Relay title of this era on this very course, but his 17:25 was still equal fastest on the stage as the Belgrave lead shot up to well over a minute, totally belying the drama we had witnessed.
And as predicted, it was indeed Morpeth, Notts, Newham & Essex and Birchfield who were our nearest rivals; and apart from the last stage they were a lot closer than they have been of late. Every one of them can point to missing men (as indeed can we) so there are exciting times ahead.
Unfortunately, pinching Paul Freary for the 'A's meant that in spite of our best endeavours the 'B's were incomplete and ran out of men at the end of stage five. Very many thanks to those that did run. There's no doubt that at our best, if we really went for it, we could field a 'B' squad to place in the top dozen but convincing people to do that is easier said than done.
So it's a record five consecutive victories. We set out some ten years ago to attempt to emulate the great road running teams – Tipton, Bingley, Birchfield, Gateshead. This race was a beauty and although not wishing to show any signs of resting on our laurels, we can surely say: “We are now up there with the best of them.”
Now for the cross-country season!
1 Belgrave H (0) 1:46:30; 2 Morpeth H&AC (+2) 1:47:48; 3 Notts AC (+4) 1:47:54; 4 Newham &EB (-2) 1:48:33; 5 Birchfield H (+1) 1:48:48; 6 Altrincham &D (-3) 1:48:58; 76 teams finished.
Fastest: =1 S Barden (Belgrave) & N Talbot (Notts) 17:25; 3 I Hudspith (Morpeth) 17:40; 4 M Janes (Bedford &C) 18:10.
Fastest overall:
1 N McCormick (Morpeth) 16:41; 2 W Taragon (Birchfield) 17:01; 3 C Davies (Telford) 17:06; 4 J Ward (Altrincham) 17:08; 5 M Farah (Newham &EB) 17:11; 6 A Bowden (Harrow) 17:13; 10 K Tadesse (Belgrave) 17:20.
Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.