Oh! Boy - Skip's got his anorak on!

So the eighth Surrey League series of the millennium is over, and although Herne Hill have roared to the title again, at least their excellent streak of seven consecutive race wins is finally at an end. It was great to be back on Ranelagh’s magnificent home course for the fifth time this century, but for the first time in three years. As a celebration of this, I have put together an illuminating table of the 20 most regular performers at Petersham from 2000-2007, to seek out the most consistent and successful performers. The list comprises of seven men who have run all five races and another six who have done four. The selection of runners with three appearances is slightly more subjective and opts for the most well known, consistent or classy in that band.

The consistency mark is calculated by dividing the runner’s highest finishing position by his lowest. This is a fairly accurate marker, although Stuart Major is somewhat a victim of his own success, but cashes in big time elsewhere. Marcus Gohar is an anomaly since he is the sixth most consistent runner…but the fifth most unpredictable.

Only two Belgravians feature in the list, but a special mention should go to Stephen Sharp and Mal Byansi (two races each), who, if included in the list would wreak havoc with the stats… Sharpy’s two finishes are 1 and 1; whereas maniac Mal’s are 74th and, er, 6th. The other race winners (Sam Haughian, Dave Taylor and David Anderson) all appeared once each.

Of the 80 positions listed, a mere fifteen are top 10 finishes – four belonging to Major and two each to Lockett, Prickett and Moses; and just four are top 5. It shows how difficult it is to finish in the top ten of the Surrey League, and how, the faster a runner is, the more rarely sighted he becomes.

One has to love the mind-numbing monomania that is “Weiro”. 13th in 2000, and then 2790 days later in 2007, 13th again. And his average finish in the meantime, rounded up? 13th. What an interesting guy.

Most featured Surrey League Division 1 runners at Richmond Park, Petersham

2000-2007

Runners bracketed (alphabetically) into number of runs

Name

Name

Club

Runs

2000

2001

2003

2004

2007

avge pos/consistency

Andy Bickerstaff

RAN

5

76

82

63

77

65

72.6 / 1.30

Will Cockerell

BEL

5

25

20

10

15

19

17.8 / 2.50

Marcus Gohar

RAN

5

56

50

40

38

70

50.8 / 1.84

Tony Harran

HHH

5

65

39

39

32

42

43.4 / 2.03

Knut Hegvold

BEL

5

29

21

34

25

31

28.0 / 1.62

Iain Lockett

HHH

5

55

61

9

11

10

29.2 / 6.77

Dave Symons

THH

5

54

111

22

24

28

47.8 / 5.04

Paul Doyle

RAN

4

-

68

44

30

27

42.25 / 2.51

Stuart Major

SLH

4

6

9

3

7

-

6.25 / 3.00

Ali Moses

RPR

4

-

3

13

8

18

10.50 / 6.00

Keith Newton

HHH

4

24

22

7

-

26

19.75 / 3.71

Andy Weir

THH

4

13

-

16

9

13

12.75 / 1.77

Simon Wurr

THH

4

-

10

15

17

21

15.75 / 2.10

Nick Altmann

THH

3

17

14

5

-

-

12.0 / 3.4

Mickey Boyle

HHH

3

33

12

-

12

-

19.0 / 2.75

Pete Haarer

RAN

3

-

-

20

19

33

22.66 / 1.73

Robbie James

SLH

3

19

11

-

14

-

14.66 / 1.72

Hugh Jones

RAN

3

12

-

27

-

38

25.66 / 3.16

Ed Prickett

RPR

3

-

17

2

10

-

9.66 / 8.50

Dave Robinson

HHH

3

22

16

12

-

-

16.66 / 1.83

Best average finishes:

Major 6th

Prickett 9th

Moses 10th

Altmann 12th

Weir 12.75th

James 14th

Wurr 15th

Robinson 16th

Cockerell 17th

Boyle 19th

Most consistent (Highest finishing pos divided by lowest):

Bickerstaff 1.3

Hegvold 1.6

James 1.72

Haarer 1.73

Weir 1.77

Robinson 1.83

Gohar 1.84

Harran 2.0

Wurr 2.1

Cockerell 2.5

Most flamboyant (Highest finishing pos divided by lowest):

Prickett 8.5

Lockett 6.7

Moses 6.0

Symons 5.0

Newton 3.7

Most predictable (range of finishing positions):

Major 6

Weir 7

James 8

Robinson 10

Wurr 11

Least predictable:

Symons 89

Lockett 52

Doyle 41

Harran 33

Gohar 32

Smallest disparity between 2000 performance and 2007

Weir 0

Hegvold -2

Newton -2

Cockerell +6

Bickerstaff +11

Most improved 2007 runner compared to 2000 performance

Lockett +45

Symons +26

Harran +23

Best represented clubs:

Herne Hill 5

Ranelagh 5

Thames 4

Belgrave 2

Reigate 2

South London 2

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