SEAA 12-Stage Road Relay, Milton Keynes

A cracking race - and now it's four wins in a row

With the team feeling a little vulnerable in the face of a predicted onslaught from the Beagles and Bedford, things weren’t made any more comfortable when AW reporter Martin Duff announced that he’d already written the first two paragraphs of his report – describing a double win from Bedford & County. A challenge from Aldershot seemed less probable as, like us, they had athletes on duty for their universities in the Oxford/Cambridge vs Harvard/Yale match in the USA.

Stage 1

Skipper set the Belgrave ball rolling but found his hoped for time and position beyond him on this occasion as he finished vomiting and disappointed. As it turned out, nearly all our times were a little slower than expected. Some startling action from the front-runners meant that we just over two minutes off the front but Bedford hadn’t started as well as they’d have liked and Newham & Essex Beagles were half a minute behind us in 23rd.

Lee Greatorex, back after a calf problem, found that troublesome muscle tightening badly as he limped home for the Bs.

1 Woodford GwEL 23:36; 2 Reigate P 23:38; 3 Harrow 24:19; 16 Belgrave A 25:38; 32 Belgrave C 26:32; 45 Belgrave B 27:45; 61 teams started.

Fastest: F Lombard (Woodford GwEL) 23:36; 2 A Moses (Reigate P) 23:38; 3 G Blackman (Harrow) 24:19; 16 W Cockerell (Belgrave A) 25:38; 32 T Weeks (C-gst) 26:32; 45 L Greatorex (B) 27:55.

Stage 2

A good indoor season by Chris Moss had been followed by a foot problem requiring a few weeks off training; but no worries here as he blasted through the field to pick up 13 places and claim a slice of “National” action. Bedford followed in “Mossy’s” wake and moved to fourth but the boys from Essex made no advance at all.

Two days earlier an email from Paul Freary, still in Tokyo, had announced that he was “flying back to run for the B team” and, arriving at Heathrow the previous day, he was as good as his word. Coming off the longest lay-off in his athletic career due to a trapped nerve in his neck since last November, he’d had only had a handful of runs since starting again in February. It wasn’t one of his quickest relay runs – but it was probably one of his most painful!

1 Woodford GwEL (0) 40:10; 2 Blackheath &B (+4) 41:28; 3 Belgrave A (+13) 42:08; 33 Belgrave C (-1) 45:32; 38 Belgrave B (+7) 46:11.

Fastest: 1 C Moss (Belgrave A) 16:30; 2 E Malloch (Woodford GwEL) 16:34; 3 L Bowron (Ealing S&M) 16:51; 16 P Freary (B) 18:16; 30 J Van-Der-Toorn (C) 19:00.

Stage 3

Highgate’s Keith Cullen made most long stage runners feel totally inadequate as he stormed out to the lake and back in 23:16. It was the day’s fastest and a new course record, lifting his team 30 places. Dave Mitchinson also made great inroads to bring the Beagles up into the top half dozen while up ahead Blackheath sagged and Hassan Raidi, ready for a break from racing but gamely turning out for us, moved up a place to second. The passing years seem to have little effect on veteran marathoner Junior Galley – yet another run in the 26s and a few more miles under his belt as he approaches London.

1 Woodford GwEL (0) 1:06:05; 2 Belgrave A (+1) 1:07:37; 3 Basildon (+8) 1:07:50; 33 Belgrave B (+5) 1:13:04; 39 Belgrave C (-6) 1:14:15.

Fastest: 1 K Cullen (Highgate) 23:16; 2 D Mitchinson (Newham &EB) 23:55; 3 N Wetheridge (Basildon) 24:14; 6 H Raidi (Belgrave A) 25:29; 24 J Galley M40 (B) 26:53; 43 M Whiting (C) 28:43.

Stage 4

One of the rotten jobs as a team manager is telling a man that he’s reserve or maybe not in the team at all. But there are good things too and none better than phoning a young improving runner to tell him he’s in the squad. Hard work has brought John Charles on a bundle and first leg for the C team in 2004 has been converted in a mere 12 months to a place in the A team as he lined up with Woodford’s international Matt Shone and Newham’s Steve Hepples. Ignoring these two, John did all that was asked of him. Hepples came past on his way to the day’s fastest short stage and Basildon crept by as well but 4th place at this stage of the race was more than we could have dreamed of.

It was all Essex in front as Woodford Green were two minutes clear of Newham, then a further 40 seconds back to Basildon followed by the Bels., but Woodford had front loaded their stars and even the more economical Beagles had laid two of their aces down on the table.

1 Woodford GwEL (0) 1:22:38; 2 Newham &EB (+4) 1:24:37; 3 Basildon (0) 1:25:16; 4 Belgrave A (-2) 1:25:22; 28 B Belgrave B (+5) 1:32:02; 36 Belgrave C (+3) 1:33:21.

Fastest: 1 S Hepples (Newham &EB) 16:16; 2 M Shone (Woodford GwEL) 16:33; 3 J Atkinson (Blackheath &B) 17:15; 6 J Charles (Belgrave A) 17:45; 23 B Barton (B) 18:58; 26 T Elsey (C-gst) 19:06.

Stage 5

It was concertina time. Woodford still led but Stu Major closed up for the Beagles until they were only half a minute down. Moving even faster was our own Tim Watson who blasted the first half of his lap, overtook Basildon to move into third, and then paid for it as Thames Hare & Hounds came past and into the reckoning for the first time. Bedford had so far seemed subdued but were now in 5th and only a minute and three-quarters covered the top six.

Tenth fastest on the stage was our B team man Eliot Lyne, one of a trio of marathoners, all in heavy mileage mode but providing a huge boost to our second dozen who were now pushing minutes clear of the nearest B team opposition.

1 Woodford GwEL (0) 1:49:20; 2 Newham &EB (0) 1:49:53; 3 Thames H&H (+3) 1:50:04; 4 Belgrave A 1:50:23; 24 Belgrave B (+4) 1:58:25; 46 Belgrave C (-10) 2:07:25.

Fastest: 1 J McFarlane (Thames H&H) 24:01; 2 A Vernon (Aldershot F&D) 24:58; 3 T Watson (Belgrave A) 25:01; 10 E Lyne (B) 26:23; 56 H Corbett (C) 34:04.

Stage 6

As is often the case at Milton Keynes, it was turning decidedly breezy as the afternoon wore on; and it wasn’t just the weather that was changing. For the first time a new team headed the field. Woodford began the slide that was to eventually take them back to 15th and Newham, too, faltered, as Tom Ellacott passed them both and began to reel in the Thames man who had taken over at the front. As the gap came down it seemed that Tom might even go ahead but he’d put in a lot of graft over the first 4k of his lap and this tough Charlie Dickinson trained 1500m runner had to dig deep for the remainder of the circuit. And just in case this wasn’t enough to get the supporters going, Chris Axe was running 7th fastest for the Bs to take them into an extraordinary 15th place – four minutes clear of Aldershot's B team.

1 Thames H&H (+2) 2:07:42; 2 Belgrave A (+2) 2:07:50; 3 Newham &EB (-1) 2:08:07; 15 Belgrave B (+9) 2:16:39; 48 Belgrave C (-2) 2:29:23.

Fastest: =1 T Ellacott (Belgrave A) and D Shane (Basildon) 17:27; 3 T Stanley (Bedford &C) 17:37; 7 C Axe (B) 18:14; 50 Don Anderson M45 (C) 21:58.

Stage 7

Halfway. Our first six men had been given the task of getting the team to within a minute or so of the leaders, from which position the next three could pull us into the lead and, perhaps, give the last three a 1 minute cushion. In fact the early runners had done so much more than was asked of them and as Phil Wicks set off down the slope he had a mere 8 seconds to pull back on Thames before it was open road. This he duly did, giving Belgrave a first taster of the lead, but Bob Smith’s Beagles were far from done. As Phil drew away from Thames, on his way to our day’s fastest long stage, so too was he hunted down by Mark Warmby. This was some race! It was inevitable that the Beagles would go ahead by the end of the leg but Phil’s claret and gold debut was a cracker and he is surely a cert. now for our National twelve.

1 Newham &EB (+2) 2:32:03; 2 Belgrave A (0) 2:32:11; 3 Thames H&H (-2) 2:33:39; 17 Belgrave B (-2) 2:44:31; 51 Belgrave C (-3) 3:03:52.

Fastest: 1 M Warmby (Newham &EB) 23:56; 2 P Wicks (Belgrave A) 24:21; 3 (Medway &M) 24:52; 25 W Lynch (B) 27:52; 52 S Baxendale (C) 34:29.

Stage 8

Now it was "Sharpy" pressing home the attack and, without so much opposition, it was decisive. The 8-second gap was immediately obliterated and as he pushed on ahead the lead grew. Radio contact with our spotters out on the course relayed through the details: “It’s 34 seconds.” “He’s 50 seconds clear.” And finally the watches of those at the takeover showed that Stephen had opened up a full minute’s advantage as the “heavies” were wheeled out for leg 9 …

1 Belgrave A (+1) 2:48:32; 2 Newham &EB (-1) 2:49:34; 3 Bedford &C (+2) 2:51:15; 20 Belgrave B (-3) 3:03:59.

Fastest: 1 S Sharp (Belgrave A) 16:21; 2 L Cadman (Bedford &C) 16:41; 3 J Mills (Blackheath &B) 17:06; 21 C Dickinson M50 19:28.

Stage 9

… And among those “heavies”, David Anderson was the third prong in our sustained assault for a winning margin. Still some way from peak fitness after a year or more of Achilles tendon troubles, Dave is learning to manage his problem and after little more than two months of training his 24:34 in the in the increasingly windy conditions was just what we needed. He took another 38 seconds out of Newham to push the lead up to 1:40 and although Bedford’s Huw Lobb was 28 seconds faster, his team were over two minutes behind. Surely now we were safe.

1 Belgrave A (0) 3:13:06; 2 Newham &EB (0) 3:14:46; 3 Bedford &C (0) 3:15:21; 22 Belgrave B (-2) 3:32:43.

Fastest: 1 H Lobb (Bedford &C) 24:06; 2 David Anderson (Belgrave A) 24:34; 3 O Laws (Newham &EB) 25:12; 29 T St Leger M40 28:44.

Stage 10

As the tenth stage runners prepared to go out, Charlie Herrington shook hands with his Newham & Essex oppo. But it was the man in the blue and white of Bedford & County who proved to be fastest and as Newham went back a little and Bedford closed overall, the net result was that our lead fractionally went up to 1:44.

1 Belgrave A (0) 3:30:40; 2 Bedford &C (+1) 3:32:24; 3 Newham &EB (-1) 3:32:46; 20 Belgrave B (+2) 3:51:51.

Fastest: 1 J Fewtrell (Bedford &C) 17:03; 2 C Herrington (Belgrave A) 17:34; 3 A Donaldson (Newham &EB) 18:00; 11 J Webb (B) 19:08.

Stage 11

Now it was down to "Nasher" to face up to Newham’s final attack. Andy Robinson brought his club back into silver medal position yet again but this game of leapfrog between our rivals was actually doing us a favour. On each of stages 9 to 11 our runner ended up second fastest and on each occasion our lead increased. The wind was probably now at its worst but Kevin’s 24:47 set the seal on the race.

1 Belgrave A (0) 3:55:27; 2 Newham &EB (+1) 3:57:18; 3 Bedford &C (-1) 3:58:08; 24 Belgrave B (-4) 4:20:37.

Fastest: 1 A Robinson (Newham &EB) 24:32; 2 K Nash (Belgrave A) 24:47; 3 N Miller (Bedford &C) 25:44; 28 F Ward (Belgrave B) 28:46.

Stage 12

It was all over. Well, of course Knut Hegvold might have injured himself on the last stage – or gone off course – but he was put on 12 where we knew his experience and racing brain could be used to the full if we could only give him a 30 second advantage. In fact he had nearly four times that margin – and what did he do? He increased it.

Both the Bedford and Newham team managers admitted that they'd felt they had the beating of us on this occasion – but things just didn’t go their way. A fourth successive victory was ours – and Martin Duff had to rewrite his report!

Almost overlooked at this point was the extraordinary success of our B team. Fabien Bernard-Gaudin brought us home in 21st – and first B team – well inside the 25 limit for National qualification. But of course we can only send one team to the National championship. And when our Bs were taken out of the equation, 26th placed City of Portsmouth (who also won the spot prize for the day) slipped into 25th; our President’s “other” team will also go to Sutton Coldfield.

1 Belgrave A (0) 4:13:09; 2 Newham &EB (0) 4:15:45; 3 Bedford &C (0) 4:16:04; 4 Thames H&H 4:20:44; 5 Aldershot F&D 4:24:58; 6 Medway &M 4:28:27; 21 Belgrave B (+3) 4:39:34; 50 teams finished.

Fastest: 1 R Vint (Aldershot F&D) 16:22; 2 C Blackburn (Serpentine R) 17:08; 3 K Hegvold M40 17:42; 12 F Bernard-Gaudin 18:57.

Fastest Overall

Long stage (7.978 km): 1 K Cullen (Highgate) 23:16; 2 F Lombard (Woodford GwEL) 23:36; 3 A Moses (Reigate P) 23:38; 4 D Mitchinson (Newham &EB) 23:55; 5 M Warmby (Newham &EB) 23:56; 6 J McFarlane (Thames H&H) 24:01; 10 P Wicks 24:21; 14 David Anderson 24:34; 17 K Nash 24:47; 23 T Watson 25:01; 35 H Raidi 25:29; 41 W Cockerell 25:38.

Short stage (5.506 km): 1 S Hepples (Newham &EB) 16:16; 2 S Sharp (Belgrave) 16:21; 3 R Vint (Aldershot F&D) 16:22; 4 C Moss (Belgrave) 16:30; 5 M Shone (Woodford GwEL) 16:31; 6 E Malloch (Woodford GwEL) 16:34; 20 T Ellacott 17:27; 23 C Herrington 17:34; 27 K Hegvold M40 17:42; 28 J Charles 17:45; =47 C Axe 18:14.

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