Aldershot Road Relays inc. SEAA Men's 6-Stage Road Relay
What a race - but SEAA title stays with the Bels
The race was all but over and as Phil Wicks cruised down the last Rushmoor slope with that characteristic long loping stride, before turning at the bottom and then tackling the last drag up to the finish, one couldn’t help imagining that his every other step seemed to be matched by a little jabbing punch of the air with a clenched right fist. It had been a terrific race and for Belgrave the result was perfect – a sixth win in seven years – but there had been plenty of drama. Aldershot had made a major bid for victory through Andy Vernon on stage four and with the Bels back in 7th at the beginning of that leg many onlookers must have thought that the Hampshire club were lining themselves up to regain the “Ian Logan Cup” that had last been in their hands after the race of ’99.
A pretty safe bet for a winning Belgrave relay team were elsewhere – “Jonesy” and “Polly” training at altitude in Morocco, “Sp8y” in the USA, Jim Kelly also over the water for a family wedding, Steve Davies taking a break, and then, two days before the race, Jon Blackledge pulling out with a calf problem. It seemed that the chance of retaining our title had probably gone but medals were still a possibility and we certainly had the boys who would fight hard for a “placing”. Of course every hit on the A team shuddered down to the Bs where more bad luck decreed that poor old “Wardy” should pick up a bug or something. After jogging round the block on race morning he had to make a decision to pull out. The odds were now against us getting a second team in the top 25 and thus qualifying a B squad for the Nationals – a bit of a disaster with so many of those absent Belgravians hoping to return for the big one at Sutton Park.
But let’s get to the start line where in the warm late September sunshine ninety men were jostling for a position on the front rank with our own eighteen year-old Nick Goolab and super-vet Knut Hegvold setting their shoulders square against the best of them …
Some very swift men
Both men were steadily away and after a minute or so of running, Nick was around 20th, looking comfortable. Newly installed at Birmingham University our mathematics student had gone easy in “freshers” week and his calculations as to race pace were spot on, for when the runners next appeared in the arena at the end of the first loop, covered in exactly nine minutes, a group of three had broken away including a blue Bedford vest, the red and black of Medway … and Nick’s claret and gold. Hall of Bedford eventually prevailed as Nick, in his own words, “hit a wall halfway round the second lap”, but he held on well to give the Bels an unexpectedly high placing after one stage – 3rd – ahead of a fast finishing Matt Shone (Woodford Green). A fantastic run from the youngest member of our teams. Knut gave the Bs just the start they needed, placing 28th.
Third place and right in the firing line of some very swift men was possibly not a position that sat comfortably with Shaun Moralee. He was almost instantly up into second, gunning down the Medway man, but had the Beagles’ Keith Gerrard, Harrow’s Adam Bowden, Blackheath’s Andy Rayner and Mitch Goose of the CoNAC Boyz homing in on him. Shaun was 9:15 at halfway but faded on the second lap to slip to 9th place and was not at all happy with himself afterwards; and to rub salt into the wound, just a minute behind, the Cockerpillar climbed seven places for the Baby Bs with a time ten seconds faster. Up front the Beagles were now in charge.
An exceptional début
Last man into the A team after Jonathan Blackledge’s injury was Graeme Hyett. This man tells us that the longer and harder and muddier it is, the more he likes it. Roll on the National Cross at Parliament Hill then! But on a benign Rushmoor course fractionally under 6k Graeme was fine, pushing hard over his second lap to gain two places and ducking under 19 minutes. Good work. Yet another change up the front saw Basingstoke move ahead through Steve Rees-Jones. The Bs continued to make good progress thanks to Hassan Raidi, back in Belgrave racing strip after a long injury absence. Hassan claimed five more bodies and our second team was 16th.
So what would new man Dan Mulhare do? With an 8:04 3000m on his CV (set during the Cork City Sports this summer) and 8th place in the BUSA Cross Country Champs. just ahead of James Kelly, our hopes were high. What followed was extraordinary and set the race up for a grandstand finish. Aldershot’s Andy Vernon set out in 6th with the Bels in 7th just three seconds down and Kent’s Jermaine Mays in 8th a further four seconds back. As Vernon tore through the field, Dan followed in his wake … and Jermaine tried desperately to catch the Belgrave man. Lapped runners and the five teams at the head of the race were equally rocked by the turbulence as the AFD man burst into the lead and Dan ran himself almost into oblivion to claim second place with an exceptional 17:58 début. The Beagles clung on to third with the redoubtable Jermaine right on their heels before he walked away shaking his head in disbelief that he'd actually lost ground to the courageous and "unknown" Dan, now lying on the tarmac gasping for air.
Not to be denied
Over to The Skipper for stage five, nursing an oncoming cold but determined, as captain, not to let the team down. Beagler Dan Pettit made up ground on “Sharpy” and the two were locked together for much of the stage, working off each other as they slowly pulled back Aldershot’s colours, carried by Eliot Robinson. No change in the order then but the medals had been sorted as Stephen judged his effort to perfection, moving away from Pettit on the second lap and making inroads into AFD’s advantage. “Come on ‘Sharpy’, give me a little bit more,” muttered our anchor man Phil Wicks as he made his way to the take-over area.
Keeping hopes alive for the Bs, Mal Byansi and Pete Willis both ran well on stages four and five. We were 21st and needed our last man, a far-from-his-best Mark Humphrey, to run out of his socks. The stage was set for excitement for both our teams.
No mean runner, Ben Moreau for Aldershot, set out with 11 seconds in hand over Phil who is still not training at anything like full intensity due to his knee niggles; but our man was not to be denied. The gap came down, the inevitable happened, and the Bels went clear on the first circuit. It was over, barring accidents, and by the time photographer Mark Shearman clicked his shutter for the winning photo, jauntily addressing our TM with the words, “So the Bels are not dead and buried then”, the 11 second deficit had been reversed. Well done Phil – third fastest on the day and up to second on our all-time list for the course, sandwiched neatly between Mark Miles and Marty Dent.
What a fabulous race, with the Aldershot and Belgrave men fighting to the end. And then came the icing on the cake – Mark Humphrey had yielded just one place in his two lap struggle and the Bs were into the National.
1 Belgrave H 1:50:24; 2 Aldershot F&D AC 1:50:35; 3 Newham & Essex Beagles 1:52:03; 4 Winchester & D AC 1:52:41; 5 Kent AC 1:53:25; 6 Woodford Green wEL 1:53:38; ... 22 Belgrave H 'B' 1:59:26; ... 90 teams started; 74 finished plus 1 more disqualified.
A – N Goolab (team position 3, ranking on stage 3)18:12; S Moralee (9, 18) 19:17; G Hyett (7, 9) 18:58; D Mulhare (2, 2) 17:58; S Sharp (2, 5) 18:18; P Wicks (1, 1) 17:41.
B – K Hegvold M45 (28, 28) 19:34; W Cockerell (21, 14) 19:07; H Raidi (16, 13) 19:13; M Byansi (20, 34) 20:36; P Willis (21, 16) 19:42; M Humphrey (22, 45) 21:14.
Fastest: 1 S Overall (Blackheath & B H) 17:26; 2 A Vernon (Aldershot F&D AC) 17:36; 3 P Wicks (Belgrave H) 17:41; 4 D Mulhare (Belgrave H) 17:58; 5 N Hall (Bedford &C AC) 18:00; 6 K Gerrard (Newham & Essex Beagles) 18:01; ... 14 N Goolab 18:12.
Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.