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

Par for the course

The boys, missing a few regulars for various reasons, hoped that a top ten spot might be possible if everything went extremely well. 'He of the clipboard' was a little more cautious, predicting that it could be 12th or 14th, and that if it was then we should not be disappointed because the overall standard of this race is rising year on year. And that’s exactly the way it panned out, the first eleven teams home all clocked times that have picked up medals since the current course was measured and permanently marked in 2001.

A timely visit to Birmingham for a conference meant that James Kelly was on hand for the first stage and he stopped the watch at a nifty 17:44, his best ever, before disappearing back to the forum. Great work Jim. His 21st place put us in the thick of the chasers with plenty of scope for Steve Davies to do what he likes best – running down the opposition on leg two. And run ‘em down he did, picking up 13 places but giving way to Salford who were on an even bigger rise. The Bels were up to 9th. Johnny Mellor had put Liverpool at the head of the pack from New Marske who had led on stage 1.

Now, could the middle order hold things together before we set Paskar off? Wardy, whose name has been coupled in AW recently with such diverse adjectives as “impetuous” and “relaxed,” has certainly been enjoying his running of late. Here he immediately felt the blast of Zak Kihara taking Birchfield’s black vest through to the lead, while Shettlestone, Altrincham and Tipton also squeezed by; but he held up well to send Mark Pollard off in 13th. Polly had had a torrid time at Rushmoor Arena three weeks earlier but he was stronger here and although four more teams slipped past we now felt pretty confident about gaining a respectable place. The menacing figure of Andy Vernon had now put AFD out front from Birchfield and the Beagles; the podium places had been established.

Paskar was … well … Paskar. He’s in a purple patch right now and clocked our fastest time of the day – 17:29. We were back to 13th with one stage to go. The expectation was that the gaps would have opened up by now and things would be pretty stable for the ‘Pillar’s tour of the Park. Maybe not quite as stable as we expected as he had a three second duel with Morpeth’s Ian Hudspith before giving best to the man from the North East. O’Dowd also got Nott’s noses ahead of ours but our man overtook first stage leaders New Marske and our final slot of 14th with a team a little way off its strongest was quite acceptable. A very enjoyable and competitive race with Aldershot looking the team of the moment as they took the men's title to add to the women's one.

1 Aldershot F&D 1:44:51; 2 Birchfield H 1:45:22; 3 Newham & EB 1:45:30; 4 Leeds City 1:45:33; 5 Swansea H 1:46:15; 6 Bristol &W 1:46:48; … 14 Belgrave H 1:48:57; 83 teams started, 76 teams finished.

Belgrave: J Kelly (21) 17:44; S Davies (9) 17:38; R Ward (13) 18:17; M Pollard (17) 18:48; P Owor (13) 17:29; W Cockerell (14) 19:01.

Fastest: J Wilkinson (Leeds C) 16:38; A Vernon (Aldershot F&D) 16:58; J Mellor (Liverpool) 16:59; Z Kihara (Birchfield) 17:02; R Stevenson (New Marske) 17:06; K Gerrard (Newham &EB) 17:07.

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