Aldershot Road Relays - SEAA 6 Stage Championship, Rushmoor Arena

Bels rampant at Rushmoor

We’ve had some thrills around the circuit at Rushmoor Arena in the past few years but this race was anticipated with more than the normal frisson of excitement.

First of all, only two of last year’s winning team were in the ‘A’ six – Jonathan Blackledge and Stephen Sharp. A run of colds, varying degrees of Achilles tendon problems, a holiday in Mexico and an alternate race had taken out a famous five that might have made the cut – Kevin Nash, Adam Zawadski, Mark Miles, David Anderson and Hassan Raidi. For sixth man much thought was given to the choice between Paul Freary (an amazing run of times around Rushmoor and fit again after a year out with various injuries) and Al Stewart (another with a long period out but now running well and with an ok run at Bishop Auckland under his belt). Just 40 hours before the race Al got the nod but both were to run on the opening leg. Throw in the fact that 19-year old super-talent Shukri Omar was going to start the ‘C’s and we had a first stage battle to savour.

Then there was the possibility that a Belgrave win could set an outright record for consecutive victories – Southampton City won three times ’93-’95 with our own hat trick being ’02-’04; but that victory was by no means assured as our own camp felt that Newham & Essex Beagles might have the edge. Wells City Harriers are also on the rise while Harrow were rumoured to have a strong outfit.

Finally, ‘B’ teams would be eligible for the National race for the first time ever – if they could place in the top 20 here on the Army training grounds.

Stage 1

The starter’s gun sent eighty-seven bodies on their way on the stroke of 2:30pm. Each stage of 6k is made up of two laps and as the first circuit was completed Hennessy of Wells City Harriers and Chinanhua of Poole had gained about 30 metres on the pack where sparks were flying as Al Stewart marginally led from Paul Freary with Shukri almost alongside – we had three men in the leading seven tearing lumps out of each other. Al imperceptibly began to move away going into the second lap with “Shugs” – not cleared to run in our scoring teams until 1st November – hanging on to him. Al Stewart was a revelation. He’d been picked on the basis of certainly being able to give us an 18:30 but as the second lap unwound he went from strength to strength. He caught the Poole runner near the gravel slope and by 500 metres to go was very close to the lead. Simons of Cornwall AC had been tracking our man, however, and sprinted past near the end to narrowly take the stage while Al caught the Wells City man to go into second. Paul Freary suffered on that second lap but has now made a huge stride back to fitness while Shukri gave the ‘C’s an awesome start. ‘A’s 2nd, ‘C’s 6th and ‘B’s 13th!

Stage 2

It wasn’t supposed to be like this! A nice 10th place would have given Phil Wicks some men to chase in his quest for something around an 18:15 clocking; but here he was taking over just a second down on leaders Cornwall AC with Wells City a further second behind him. A quick shuffle and it was Wells from Belgrave as the Cornish team slipped back (Dave Buzza had already led his veterans’ team to silver medals) and Morris of Wells City took up the pace. Young Phil was biding his time though and soon eased ahead and away. Gradually stretching the gap he ended up well inside his target time and our lead was just under half a minute. Seventeen year-old Kris Gauson picked off several men for the ‘B’s to move into 10th – but they were still behind the non-scoring ‘C’s, holding on to 7th through Andrew Swearman.

Stage 3

Spare a thought here for Tim Weeks in the ‘C’s – two weeks without running due to illness and here he was right near the front end of the field. An elite triathlete until a bad crash in Australia while training on his bike left him with a shattered leg, Tim has set himself the task of working his way into our top teams. Seven men including the Skipper came past and our team order was made sensible – ‘B’s 9th, ‘C’s 14th and ‘A’s 1st and storming away thanks to Tim Watson. Our lead was now 45 seconds over Wells City with Kent AC up to 3rd through Jermain Mays.

Stage 4

Mo’ Farah was wheeled out now for Newham & Essex Beagles and soon he was rocketing through the field on his way to a 17:23 – the day’s fastest but some way behind the incredible course record of 17:07 by Brighton’s Andy Bristow from 1989. The Beagles came up ten places but there was no change at the front as our own Spencer Barden equalled his best ever time for the circuit – 17:54. Twenty-three year old Peter Willis made his first appearance in a Belgrave team – the ‘C’s – and exactly equalled the time set by Knut Hegvold in the ‘B’s; more young blood for the cross-country season ahead.

Stage 5

Jonathan Blackledge was a little disappointed with his time on stage five but with the race coming earlier this year he was only just out of his end-of-season break. Nevertheless our lead now reached its maximum – we had gone away on every stage and now were 1:28 to the good. Once again our ‘B’ and ‘C’ runners clocked identical times – Lee Greatorex and Joachim Wolf ensuring now that we were going to achieve all that we had set out to do.

Stage 6

... And so to the finish, with a team time half a minute better than our best from 2003. Stephen Sharp had been itching for another sub-18 run but with no one to chase he had to do no more than go through the motions. Rumour has it that he is now employing Securicor to look after his home as he has 16 SEAA and AAA team “golds” plus 2 “silvers” in his trophy cabinet!

Also on the last leg, John Clarke had handed his mobile phone to the team manager with the words, “my wife’s about to give birth in 8 minutes time – could you answer any calls while I'm out there.” As he cruised through the first of his laps we were able to let our ‘B’ anchor man know that there was no news from the maternity ward – dedicated men these Belgravians. Tenth place for the ‘B’s gave us great pleasure as we now had two teams qualified for Sutton Coldfield – and when Jason Webb closed in the ‘C’s, also inside the top 20 and only 17 seconds slower than our fastest previous ‘B’ team, we completed what Paul Freary later called, “an epic day”.

1 Belgrave H ‘A’ 1:49:18; 2 Wells City H 1:50:34; 3 Aldershot F&D AC 1:51:26; 4 Bedford & County AC 1:51:44; 5 Harrow AC 1:52:41; 6 Newham & Essex Beagles 1:52:47; … 10 Belgrave H ‘B’ 1:55:48; 16 Belgrave H ‘C’ 1:57:31; 87 teams started, 69 finished.

A – A Stewart (2) 18:09; P Wicks (1) 18:09; T Watson (1) 18:24; S Barden (1) 17:54; J Blackledge (1) 18:27; S Sharp (1) 18:15.

B – P Freary (13) 18:35*; K Gauson (10) 19:06*; W Cockerell (9) 19:00; K Hegvold (10) 19:34; L Greatorex (11) 19:48; J Clarke (10) 19:45. * These are the official times – but two independent unofficial timekeepers had 18:42 and 18:59 and Paul Freary's own watch had 18:40 – so for statistical purposes we'll take the unofficial times.

C – S Omar (6) 18:25; A Swearman (7) 19:03; T Weeks (14) 20:10; P Willis (16) 19:34; J Wolf (14) 19:48; J Webb (16) 20:31.

Fastest: 1 M Farah (Newham &EB) 17:23; 2 K Cullen (Highgate) 17:42; 3 A Bowden (Harrow) 17:49; 4 S Barden (Belgrave) 17:54; 5 F Tickner (Wells City) 17:58; 6 P Tulba (Basingstoke &MH) 18:02; =12 A Stewart (Belgrave) and P Wicks (Belgrave) 18:09; 17 S Sharp (Belgrave) 18:15. A MacLean (Team Southampton) 17:35 and D Simons (Cornwall) 18:08 but in incomplete teams.

M40 Race. R Alsop 19:43.

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