Aldershot Road Relays inc. SEAA Men's 6-Stage Road Relay

Left: Dan Mulhare leads Ben Whitby (Windsor SE&H), our own Neil Speaight and Highgate's David Bruce. A group of three had gained a temporary advantage but would soon be hauled back. More pictures

Solid - but it's silver only in "Southern 6"

So, how would Château Belgrave 2009 measure up to expectations? When the starter popped the cork at 2:30pm sharp there was an immediate heady bouquet as Sp8y and Dan Mulhare rushed along near the head of the field but thereafter our brew became "vin ordinaire" before a final fruity flourish. We were only six seconds slower than our winning mark of 2008 - not bad considering the warm conditions. Aldershot, on the other hand, knew that this was going to be their day and ran within ten seconds of our best ever - in fact they have never run faster - so well done to them!

Neil Speaight had a cracking run. Now residing in Switzerland, his training includes rather more hill sessions than he’s been used to – and it seems to suit him. Only Ben Whitby of Windsor had the beating of our man on stage one as they ran what turned out to be the fourth and fifth fastest times of the day. But Neil was headed for some time by our own B-man Dan. A further ten days off training at the end of an illness and injury-wracked summer, meant that he’d requested a spot on our second team. Maybe we shouldn’t have been so accommodating. There was plenty of excitement still in store for Sp8y as he headed off to the car park for a quick getaway and an attempt to reach Gatwick Airport before his flight check-in closed just an hour and 27 minutes after his run was completed. We next heard from him as the race was drawing to a close - he'd made it by five minutes.

Step up James Kelly who, like others, had been looking forward to the relays for weeks. Jim made swift inroads into Windsor’s lead and entered the arena at the head of the field; but there was an ominous figure clad in red, green and white not far behind and as the lap was completed Ben Lindsay took Aldershot to the front, up from 4th. No other man slipped past on the second circuit but we ended up 19 seconds down. Pbs have come on the track this summer but on this occasion our man was unable to translate that into road form and admitted to disappointment with his run. Will Cockerell had a somewhat torrid time for the “bambinos” as nine rivals floated past. "New babies at home weaken legs," was an excuse he peddled after.

What could the “Sharpman” do about rival Paul Rogers – in truth not a lot! It was a solid “ok” run and he appeared to making ground but the watch doesn’t lie and AFD’s advantage actually stretched by three seconds; and we had far from cracked the Beagles who were occupying third place just eleven seconds behind. It was brilliant to see John Charles racing for us again, back from university with a 72:56 half marathon under his belt and promising to become a regular in Surrey League races this winter.

Nick Goolab received a big build-up from the announcer who reminded onlookers that here we had the National and Inter-County Junior Champion in action. Nick gave us an 18:12 overture in his first appearance on this circuit twelve months earlier. A clocking like that would have seen the Bels in the lead – but it just wouldn’t come and he had to be satisfied with scaling back the AFD advantage to 13 seconds. There were a few worried faces when the Beagles’ Sam Farah closed Nick right down, but our guy was running a very even stage while poor Sam lost all he had gained and more after a mega positive split. Another blast from the past was evident for the Bs as Paskar Owor, a veteran of both the Sydney and Athens Olympic Games for his native Uganda came up six places to run sixth fastest on the stage. Paskar ran British League for us a few years back but is now set on a life in the British Army.

Another man not satisfied with his recent form was Simon Jones. Barely a month ago he’d gone under 30 minutes for 10k on the track but athletics is a capricious sport and here he had to face a confident Ben Moreau. As Moreau took time out of Simon, so did Si take time out of Newham’s Kairn Stone and with 50 seconds odd now between each team, the effect of each outfit having saved their fastest until last meant – no change. Phil Wicks scorched along like a good’un. He was a mere 4 seconds down on his best for the course and third best of the day. But as we said – no change – because ahead of him AFD’s Andy Vernon was second fastest and behind him the Beagles’ Moumin Geele produced the day’s best.

Eagerly grasping the chance of helping out the Bs, rear-gunners Ben Hurley and Matt Whiting manfully spent 42 minutes fighting off attacks and the team came home in 18th - three seconds faster than 2008 and up three places. Thanks to them, yet again we can take two teams to the National.

Silver medals were a new experience for the Bels, only having garnered gold, bronze or nothing in the Southern 6-Stage before, but perhaps the most important thing we took away from the race was the reminder that we are going to have to raise our game to make an impact at Sutton Park.

1 Aldershot F&D AC 1:49:28; 2 Belgrave H 1:50:30; 3 Newham & Essex Beagles 1:50:54; 4 Bedford & County AC 1:52:25; 5 Blackheath & Bromley H 1:53:58; 6 Thames Valley H 1:54:02; ... 18 Belgrave H ‘B’ 1:59:23; … 92 teams started; 78 finished.

A – N Speaight (team position 2, ranking on stage 2, halfway split 8:52) 18:03; J Kelly (2, 7, 9:14) 18:51; S Sharp (2, 4, 9:00) 18:29; N Goolab U20 (2, 3, 9:12) 18:35; S Jones (2, 2, 9:19) 18:47; P Wicks (2, 3, 8:42) 17:45.

B – D Mulhare 18:27 (6, 6) W Cockerell (15, 23) 19:45; John Charles (17, 29) 20:28; P Owor (11, 6) 18:53; B Hurley (14, 33) 20:40; M Whiting (18, 40) 21:10.

Fastest: 1 M Geele (Newham & Essex Beagles) 17:23; 2 A Vernon (Aldershot, Farnham & Dist AC 17:36; 3 P Wicks (Belgrave H) 17:45; … =5 N Speaight 18:03; … 20 D Mulhare 18:27.

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