ERRA Men’s National 6-Stage Road Relay, Sutton Coldfield

“ ‘Ere, we could get medals ... ”

… Thus spake the ‘Sharpster’ as stage four drew to a close. Leeds were only 17 seconds down on the leaders while a mere 20 seconds further back, five more clubs including the Bels thundered through the take-over zone with less than half a minute between them. You’d have though that with a haul of 32 area and national road relay gongs stuffed in his cupboard at home some of the excitement would have worn off by now – but not a bit of it! And of course Stephen Sharp was dead right. The team came away well pleased with their effort. On this occasion there was no way that they were going to hold on to a full strength Newham outfit but the Bels had done all the team manager had asked of them: they’d run inside 1:45 – a time which has never before, on the current course, resulted in less than gold medals.

The mad scramble heralded by the starter’s gun raised an initial worry that lead-off man Sharpy had lost a shoe he appeared to stumble but it was all part of the rough and tumble expected when around ninety runners are fighting for a four metre wide strip of road. Stephen was giving as good as he got though while Steve Davies, kick starting the Bs, had decided on a spot of cross-country in his initial dash. Soon they were sorting themselves out and before long it was Forrester of St Helens leading the field home.

Carnage

There was carnage at that first take-over. Only seven seconds covered the leading six and after that, nineteen teams went through within sixteen seconds. Runners couldn’t fight their way out of the holding pen quick enough and in the ruckus Sharpy went through in 17:28 while next runner Nick Goolab couldn’t get onto the road for a further six seconds. As a result, Nick’s official time is six seconds longer than it need have been. Just nine seconds behind Stephen but twelve places in arrears was Steve Davies – a great start for the Bs – sending Mark Pollard on his way. Nick moved up several places on his way out to and past the Jubilee Stone but as the lap closed he was under attack and had to be satisfied with a net gain of three spots and 8th place; but we were only seventeen seconds off the lead being scrambled over by the Beagles and Derby with Bedford making an early bid just a tick behind.

Purposeful

Simon Jones had not seen the best of his form in the last month or so and having initially not been named in the A squad suddenly found himself drafted back into the first team when Mark Miles went down with a cold and sore throat. Si grasped his chance and seemed so much more purposeful than of late as he overtook Sunderland … Altrincham … Sale … Bedford … and Derby. Claret & Gold entered the top three and our man was still working hard when he ran out of lap.

Neither Mark Pollard or James Kelly were satisfied with their B runs on stages 2 and 3 but their efforts saw our second squad into the top twenty, Jim moving up eight spots, and more was to come as Paskar Owor kept the forward momentum going … to sixteenth … a superb position for a B team. Up ahead, Dan Mulhare found himself under pressure and as the field came together, with Leeds making inroads into the Beagles’ advantage and Bedford and Altrincham both coming past Dan. Aldershot and Tipton were both breathing down his neck as well. The race was living up to its promise to be a ‘cracker’ and, oh my word, AFD ace Chris Thompson was being wheeled out for the Hampshire club on stage 5 while Mo’ Farah would surely put things beyond doubt for the Beagles.

Our own ace

But we had our own ace in Phil Wicks who set out in 5th and was soon in overtaking mode. Thompson, too, intended taking no prisoners and as they tackled the hill he was up and alongside our man. But that was as much leeway as Phil intended granting. Our spotters out on the course relayed the info that Phil was moving clear again while ‘Thommo’ was not looking comfortable. Back at the take-over the announcer informed … “and it’s B..e..lgrave, moving into 2nd,” his voice laden with the threat that the champions were moving forward. But of course Mo’ was in a class apart and our race was now for the silverware.

Captain's role

We needed a Captain’s role now and Sp8y was on hand to deliver. Pre-race comments included, “if they come up to me then I’ll not fight them all the way round. I’ll let the field close up … and wait … and wait.” It didn’t happen that way. Belgrave and Aldershot took off eleven seconds apart and finished with precisely that gap; our SEAA defeat had been avenged. Meanwhile, Newham & Essex Beagles, with an in-form Moumin Geele providing the finishing flourish, had demolished our course record by a whopping minute and ten seconds. Hugely tantalizing for Bedford & County was the fact that they were within eight seconds of a set of medals – tough to take home nothing when you’ve run a time that very often would have won.

And we still had another team on the road. John Charles savoured his first race in a Belgrave Road Relay team and enjoyed the experience immensely. Preceded by Will Cockerell they had to face an onslaught from opposition A teams and the unofficial B team contest ended up:- 1st AFD, 2nd the Beagles, 3rd Belgrave.

A great race. Plenty of “ifs” and “buts” followed but the Bels had done a great job. We’d knocked out the fastest ever non-winning time and couldn’t really have done anything better. We’ve dominated in the past decade but it’s obvious that with the rivalries now in place, particularly among the clubs based in the South, road relay running is on an upward trend.

1 Newham & Essex Beagles 1:43:14; 2 Belgrave H 1:44:54; 3 Aldershot, Farnham & Dist. 1:45:05; 4 Bedford & County AC 1:45:13; 5 Leeds City AC 1:45:43; 6 Shettlestone H 1:46:09; … 29 Belgrave H ‘B’ 1:51:10; 87 teams started, 80 teams finished.

Belgrave ‘A’ Team: S Sharp (11) 17:28, N Goolab (8) 17:35, S Jones (3) 17:43, D Mulhare (5) 17:37, P Wicks (2) 17:09, N Speaight (2) 17:22.

Belgrave ‘B’ Team: S Davies (23) 17:37, M Pollard (26) 18:20, J Kelly (18) 18:05, P Owor (16) 18:14, W Cockerell (20) 19:20, J Charles (29) 19:34.

Fastest: 1 M Farah (Newham & Essex Beagles) 16:33; 2 C Davies (Telford) 16:42; 3 J Miles (Phoenix) 16:49; … 8 P Wicks 17:09.

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