SEAA 12-Stage Road Relay, Rushmoor Arena

Southern Comfort

As the tent party got to work with snow still drifting down on a bitter breeze and Rushmoor Arena under a three inch white blanket, they wished for something to warm them as they worked. Six hours later, their wish was granted – a generous measure of “Southern Comfort” as the Bels took the South of England 12-Stage title for the sixth time in seven years. We’ve not been out of the medals now in the last decade; but it was far from being a one sided race as Aldershot, Farnham & District AC excelled, leading for six stages and at one point enjoying a lead of one and a half minutes. Other old rivals Bedford & County and Newham & Essex Beagles were badly hit by illness, injury and alternative events.

Belgrave Hall, circa 1957!

Approaching race-time, with most of the runners now arrived, a heady” fug” had built up inside the tent. The smell of “winter green”, still being persevered with in modern times by some old veteran, and the warmth built up by about fifteen sheltering bodies, reminded one of Belgrave Hall, circa 1957!

The race had been switched to Rushmoor Arena from its normal home at Milton Keynes due to a clash of events at the Open University’s Campus and AFD’s race organisers had stepped in to keep the race going. Next year it will be back at MK.

So we had a slightly different arrangement of alternate long and short laps that make up a “twelve-stage” with the long stage men running two laps and the short stage men going once around the same circuit. It seemed to work ok though, although it was very difficult to work out the race positions beyond the leading two or three.

“Sp8y” was also quick

The starter’s pistol sent 48 teams on their way at noon. The roads had been cleared of snow by now but it was still wet underfoot. Neil Speaight has his sights set upon some fast 1500m times in the near future but once more flirted with a longer distance as he set out for the Bels. Thames Valley’s Robert Russell was in no mood for a friendly first lap and only Neil was able to keep him company, for a while, as he churned out what ended up as the day’s fastest long stage time. “Sp8y” was also quick, although 30 seconds behind, and then came the Beagles, leading the pack, a further half minute or so in arrears.

Our youngest team member had been drafted in for stage two and he didn’t disappoint. Eighteen year-old Nick Goolab soon made inroads into the Valley’s lead and before long had gone ahead and had opened up a considerable break by the time he sent Paul Freary away. “You’ll p--- it,” declared AW reporter Martin Duff, upset about the lower than normal standard of competition, but he had reckoned without the fight that AFD were about to put up – and perhaps we had too. Paul ran steadily on his first lap, somewhere in the mid-13s, but found himself fading on the second as Aldershot and the Valley both came past. He ended up a little disappointed and wishing that he’d been able to run a short stage.

Were we going to win this?

New man Shaun Moralee was now into action. He only took up athletics at age 17 and ran to 1:55 for 800 in his first season. Now 22 Shaun is looking to expand his running horizons and he confidently bounced along, soon moving into second place; but he could gain only three seconds on the men from Hampshire and the gap remained at around 50 seconds as the event became a two horse race. Will Cockerell was next up, a week off his return to the marathon and running an excellent 27:53 to shade Paul’s time – but his opposition was one-time Belgravian Kevin Quinn, himself in fine form. Over the first circuit the gap went up to over a minute and a half but Will dug deep and by the end of his stint it was 1:28. Quizzical eyes were now being cast in the team manager’s direction: were we going to win this?

Whammo! Steve Davies took off like one of the army jets that burst occasionally into view above the tree line at Rushmoor. What a stormer! One could see the gap closing as he returned from the first section of the course, round the bottom loop, and then off into the woods and out of sight. A few minutes later, as the leaders dropped down the final hill back into the view of the spectators at the finish, it seemed that he might even take the lead. His scintillating 12:34 had scorched any remaining moisture off the road and took us to within 8 seconds of AFD.

Another damaging short stage

Now we felt more comfortable. But our own James Kelly was up against Ben Moreau and try as he might, with a time 15th best on the day, James could not stop Moreau prising the gap open again to 45 seconds as the AFD man ran the day’s third best. It was Sharpy’s turn now to show what he could do. It’s amazing what damage can be done on short stages and with Steve D’s time his target the Belgrave man churned out a 12:37 that took the Bels into the lead as the AFD team manager Mike Boucher ran 13:40 and earned big respect from his Belgrave counterpart! Mike went so far as to offer his hand and say, “You’ve got it now.” But it seemed a bit too premature for our liking.

Mark Pollard had gladly offered his services for a long stage after missing out on the Scottish Relays the previous day. He'd had a demanding week leading up to the World CC Champs., looking after the Kenyan team, and was pleased to be getting back to normality. When he’d done his job we were back to a 43 second advantage but we needed that gap because it was veteran Knut Hegvold’s turn to face yet another Aldershot attack. Known for his coolness under pressure Knut kept his head while being run down and with just two stages to go there were a mere eleven seconds in it!

“Have I dropped him yet?”

“Jonesy” was taking on Elliott Robinson, a redoubtable performer, but our man has raised his game exponentially in the last two years and he wasn’t about to let his reputation slip. Looking smooth and pacey as he toured the first circuit in 13:06 Simon enquired of a Belgrave supporter in his lilting Welsh accent, “Have I dropped him yet?” Well, you don’t exactly “drop” a man who’s running a top-15 time but we were back into a 45 second lead and with another master blaster to come in the shape of Blackledge, J., we were looking for the fat lady to make her entrance. Much was the delight of Simon when it was later confirmed that he’d run a second faster than “Sp8y”.

Jonathan took off as if the opposition were right on his shoulder – in fact he had a rather uncomfortable middle section where he realized that he’d overdone it a bit – but he recovered and stopped the Belgrave team time on 4:00:01 and was third best short-stager of the day. A minute and 24 seconds later AFD crossed the line and the bare results made it appear fairly comfortable. It wasn’t!

A word about the Bs.

The team wasn't as strong as we'd have liked - but there were some good performances - especially from younger short stagers Joe van der Toorn and Alex Bodin - worthy of a place in the A team. Many thanks to Phil Burkart for switching legs with barely enough time to warm up to cover for a delayed Alex; he was another to go under 14 minutes. Good, too, to see Pete Willis on the comeback trail and Mike Trees in action again.

1 Belgrave H 4:00:01; 2 Aldershot F&D AC 4:01:25; 3 Woodford Green wEL 4:04:23; 4 Newham & Essex Beagles 4:06:48; 5 Thames H&H 4:14:40; 6 Harrow AC 4:14:06; … 26 Belgrave H ‘B’ 4:37:10; … 48 teams started; 37 teams finished.

A – N Speaight (team position 2, ranking on stage 2) 26:14; N Goolab U20 (1, 3) 13:03; P Freary M40 (3, 9) 27:56; S Moralee (2, 2) 13:06; W Cockerell (2, 9) 27:53; S Davies (2, 1) 12:34; J Kelly 26:47 (2, 2) 26:47; S Sharp (1, 1) 12:37; M Pollard (1, 4) 26:58; K Hegvold M45 (1, 5) 14:01; S Jones (1, 2) 26:13; J Blackledge (1, 1) 12:39.

B – T Weeks (33, 30) 29:46; P Burkart (22, 6) 13:52; P Willis (21, 18) 28:43; J van der Toorn (18, 9) 13:47; M Whiting (24, 28) 30:51; A Bodin U20 (19, 5) 13:43; Pete Marsh M55 (29, 35) 35:31; R Norville (28, 22) 15:34; M Trees M45 (24, 13) 29:12; J Webb (23, 12) 14:39; M Law (28, 35) 35:40; E Smith (27, 24) 15:52.

C – D McMillan M60 (48, 48) 40:35; T O’Neill M50 (46, 42) 16:11.

Fastest short stages 4.2k: 1 S Davies (Belgrave) 12:34; 2 S Sharp (Belgrave) 12:37; 3 J Blackledge 12:39; … 8 N Goolab U20 13:03; =9 S Moralee 13:06.

Fastest long stages 8.4k: 1 R Russell (Thames Valley H) 25:44; 2 D Wardle (Woodford Green wEL) 26:09; 3 B Moreau (Aldershot F&D) 26:10; … 5 S Jones 26:13; 6 N Speaight 26:14; 15 J Kelly 26:47.

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