ERRA Men's National 6-Stage Road Relay, Sutton Park

Above: James Kelly, Phil Wicks, Stephen Sharp, Mark Miles, Jonathan Blackledge and Simon Jones enjoy another magic moment in the Belgrave road running story. It was the Club's sixth six-stage win in seven years.

Belgrave back on top at Sutton Park

What a race! The conditions were great, fast times were turned in right down the line and no team dominated, even though the final gap between first and second seemed decisive.

Favourites Newham & Essex Beagles had a couple of guys wiped out at the last minute by illness and the rumoured appearance of Mo Farah proved to be no more than a myth. As expected, Leeds City were powerful – and their B team made front page of the results sheet as well, the first B team to break into our National 6-Stage stats – but all along, in the week before the race and during the event itself, the Belgrave camp were quietly confident. David Anderson ruled himself out of the squad, his Achilles tendon problems flaring up yet again, but James Kelly eagerly grasped the opportunity to go into the six and we still had Mark Pollard lined up should some other setback arise.

We felt that we could, possibly, take the Beagles to the wire even if they were at their very best and planned to put Phil Wicks out on the road with 30-40 seconds lead over Farah – now wouldn’t that have been a sight. Thus, there was a slight feeling of disappointment when the Beagles’ bad news became common knowledge.

Stephen Sharp was a happy man on stage one and when the huge leading pack faced the hill together, our man was comfortably in the first half dozen. So heavy was the traffic at the jostling front end that the spotters out on the course had difficulty relaying meaningful information back to the announcer who simply resorted to proclaiming that, “the lead pack is over 20 strong.” Always busy in the front rank it was Elswick’s Ryan McLeod who eventually proved strongest and he prised open a four second gap before the next half dozen poured through the takeover zone within five seconds. Unfortunately for McLeod he had no second man to send away. Stephen had given us a great start in 4th and after seven runs in this race set a personal record of 17:18. With the exception of Bedford & County, 5th, and Bristol & West in 8th, the main players were some way off the pace in the late twenties – where Mark Pollard was setting up our B team.

The second stage saw some huge risers. As the teams ahead of us fell back, Altrincham shot up 17 places to claim 2nd thanks to Matt Barnes, Birchfield’s Ndayisenga took 23 scalps to bring the Stags into 3rd and was chased by Wells City’s Ben Tickner who moved up 26 spots. In the midst of this turmoil James Kelly, in his first national relay, calmly kept the Bels a stable 5th with “front-loaded” Severn AC 10 seconds clear in the lead. Leeds City were still 42 seconds down the field in 14th and the Beagles were 21st.

What could Jonathan Blackledge do for us? It was our hope that he’d take the Bels into the lead and sure enough our supporters on the course fed back the information that he had indeed gone ahead, clearing the front-runners before the hill was reached. But there were big moves going on behind. Steve Hepples had the Beagles baying as he overtook 16 men to move into 5th and more significantly the blue and yellow colours of Leeds were coming forward ... coming forward ... until Dave Webb and JB were slugging it out shoulder to shoulder. Webb eventually gained the advantage. There were only three seconds in it but the Northern Champions were now feeling confident that by the end of the day they’d be able to take home the 6-Stage cup and put it on the shelf along with the 12-stage "pot".

As the Leeds and Belgrave fourth stagers went out with little between them, any thoughts that this might now be a two horse race were quickly dispelled as Well’s City’s Frank Tickner was seen limbering up. While our own Simon Jones and Leeds' James Walsh were locked together for the whole lap, Tickner’s progress was relentless; but against all expectations, he didn’t quite catch the lead pair who were knocking spots off each other in their effort to establish a break. It was another cracker of a run from Sim who never seems to give us a dud. He just lost out on the final sprint having spent seventeen and a half minutes gaining – 1 second! And then, thundering across the line a pace behind, came Tickner.

The redoubtable Simon Deakin shot away for Leeds and was soon pulling away from our own Mark Miles. Deakin’s advantage grew as the hill was climbed and back at the takeover area we were informed that Leeds had broken clear; the gap became as much as 40 metres at one point but Mark knew exactly what he was doing. "I was playing it careful," he later told us. On the run out to the far end of the lap the break was closed down again. Coming back towards the Jamboree Stone the Belgravian and the Leeds City man were side by side and, urged on by our supporters, Mark pushed his foot to the floor and daylight opened up between them at an ever-increasing rate. The decisive blow had been struck.

With the strains of Queen's "We Will Rock You" belting out over the loudspeakers, Phil Wicks was brought out onto the start line a full 28 seconds ahead of his last leg rival Darran Bilton – and there was going to be no slip up now. Later admitting to feeling far more nervous than normal, Phil nevertheless looked totally relaxed as he powered around the last lap to reduce his best time by over 40 seconds. And, barring accidents, with the title back in Belgrave hands, there was still a target – the possibility of beating our own course record. That mark was set in 2002 by a six that included battle hardened “veterans” Spencer Barden, Allen Graffin – and, yes, Mark Miles and Stephen Sharp, the latter two still in the team today. This time the record was missed by just six seconds but with four of today’s team being aged 23 and 24 the odds are that they’ll improve that mark in the next few years.

So, gold and silver were sorted, but the battle for the bronze was far from over. Just a few heartbeats had separated Wells City, Notts, Bristol & West and the Beagles as that last stage was begun. Billy Farquharson was on a storming 17:10 run in his quest to get his blue and green Notts colours into the frame. But those Beagles had unleashed Moumin Geele who ran the day's third best to get his team into the medals at the last gasp. With a makeshift team they'd made the podium - and the pundits had got the first three correct (albeit in the wrong order).

Times have changed. We're running as fast as ever with a team that seems to have a lower average age each season but can no longer ever count ourselves as out and out favourites. Some eight or nine clubs now have an excellent chance of medalling - just as it should be.

A word too about our 'B' team men. It was the first time we've actually managed to finish a 'B' squad and highly satisfying it was too. Taking over from Mark Pollard, who was gamely attending as our 'A' team reserve, was our Skipper Will Cockerell - who couldn't have kept away from watching the titanic 'A' battle if he'd tried. Neil Speaight has a long way to go to get back to top form but to see such a high level competitor fitting into the Bs and making himself an integral part of the overall squad was terrific. James Fairbourn was rewarded for his upsurge in form with a place on the Sutton Park roadway while Mal Byansi was pleading with the TM to let him into the six. Dave Mason didn't get the call until late in the week but was as eager as anyone to make sure that we finished a second team. Well done to you all - and to see both teams out on the course after their runs, supporting each and every man, made one feel proud to be a Belgravian.

1 Belgrave H 1:44:30; 2 Leeds City AC 1:45:20; 3 Newham & Essex Beagles 1:45:55; 4 Notts AC 1:45:58; 5 Bristol & West AC 1:46:14; 6 Tipton H 1:47:08; … 38 Belgrave H ‘B’ 1:55:14; 83 teams started and 79 teams finished.

A – S Sharp (team position 4, ranking on stage 4) 17:18; J Kelly (5, 14) 17:46; J Blackledge (2, 6) 17:30; S Jones (2, 6) 17:33; M Miles ( 1, 1) 17:14; P Wicks (1, 2) 17:09.

B – M Pollard (28, 28) 17:56; W Cockerell (35, 40) 18:44; N Speaight (36, 41) 19:09; J Fairbourn (39, 47) 19:31; M Byansi (39, 44) 19:49; D Mason (38, 44) 20:05.

Fastest: 1 C Davies (Telford AC) 16:42; 2 F Tickner (Wells City) 16:59; 3 M Geele (Newham &EB) 17:03; =4 P Nicholls (Tipton H), D Webb (Leeds City), J Ndayisenga (Birchfield) 17:04; ... 9 P Wicks 17:09; 15 M Miles 17:14

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