SEAA Cross Country Championships, Holkham Hall, Norfolk
Wicks the Wizard takes SEAA title
Going into the men’s 15,000 metres race with a good winning streak behind him, Phil Wicks was being talked up by the pundits but he’s still only 22 and there were others equally determined to win with more experience of the nine mile slog that is the Southern Cross under their belts and sharing the mantle of “favourite”. The young man was certainly going to give it a go though and planned to take up the running even though he knew that it was unlikely that he’d be able to drop his main rivals. The course was deceptively tough – three laps of firm grassland across Holkham Hall’s deer park, a few wooded paths and long, long open slopes to test all but the fittest.
It was Aldershot’s Matt Ashton who reached the top of the first climb with a clear 10 metres advantage, Phil heading the rest; but with a mile gone all the favourites were gathered together in the top ten as the field set out on the main loop over Howe Hill to the distant tower of St Withburga’s Church. By the time they returned, the pattern of the race had been set with Huw Lobb (Bedford) pushing on at the front, Phil a pace or two behind and then Dominic Bannister (Shaftesbury Barnet) another two steps in arrears. Already they had built up a huge advantage over the rest.
As the second lap unreeled, the elastic attaching Bannister to the leaders snapped, unable to withstand Lobb’s surging running style. The Belgrave man also appeared to be drifting back a pace or two occasionally but on the other hand, he looked comfortable enough and always closed up immediately. The pair were far ahead now and onlookers gasped at the sheer pace of these two: “How can they possibly run that fast for 15k?”
Going out to the church for the third time Lobb put in a monster effort and the gap went up to 10 metres. Was this it? Then up the climb near the church at the furthest point Phil just had the feeling that maybe Huw was beginning to weaken. He drew up alongside, moved ahead and then, approaching a sharp little rise, pushed again. The Bedford man was a few metres adrift now but all that was left was the long climb to the top of the course and the drop back down to the finish – perhaps half a mile in all.
The duo had been lapping runners constantly throughout their last circuit and as they began the final long rise Phil went past Sam Baxendale, his own journey far from complete but happy to expend valuable energy on an encouraging shout. Phil tore up that long slope, removing any chance of a come back by Huw Lobb, turned, and then allowed momentum to give wings to his raking stride. The winning margin at the end was 80 metres.
“A classic race,” AW correspondent Martin Duff exclaimed at the end. Indeed it was; and all credit to Huw Lobb who had done everything in his power but nevertheless had to accept a fourth defeat from Phil this winter.
It was only the fifth time that a Belgravian had won the event: Bert Footer in 1933, Tom Carter in 1946, Len Herbert in 1947 and Gerry North in 1967.
As a team we placed a respectable 6th. Malachi Byansi is piling in the miles in preparation for the London Marathon and impressed here with 52nd. The Skipper had his sights on Mal and Pete Willis some 30 places ahead of him for most of the race and got the better of Pete as the finish neared only to have to give way again: “I made him hurt though!” Also pleased with his run was Dave Mason; his 122nd was considerably higher than he had ever achieved before.
Of our women's team only Sarah Murphy and Catherine Bryson made the trip to northernmost Norfolk for the 2007 SEAA Cross Country Championships but both ran extremely well, contesting very high places in the early stages of the race. Normally racing over shorter distances, Sarah has plenty to offer at the longer events and is planning to run “London” in April. Catherine’s versatility is becoming legendary. In the last few weeks she’s enjoyed a Surrey League win followed by a gold medal winning scamper in the SEAA 3000 metres Indoor Championships. Here her run was particularly courageous as she picked up a stone in her shoe at the beginning of the race – an unfortunate and painful incident that made a mess of her foot over the ensuing 8k.
Men 15k. 1 P Wicks (Belgrave) 45:55; 2 H Lobb (Bedford &C) 46:11; 3 D Bannister (Shaftesbury B) 46:46; … 52 M Byansi 50:52; 84 P Willis 52:38; 85 W Cockerell 52:39; 118 J Kimaiyo 54:34; 122 D Mason 54:49; 159 M Whiting 56:36; 459 S Baxendale 1:10:22; 507 E Taylor 1:14:20; 553 finished.
Teams. 1 Bedford &C 68; 2 Newham & Essex B 92; 3 Shaftesbury B 134; 4 Herne Hill H 232; 5 City of Norwich 448; 6 Belgrave 462; 38 teams closed in.
Women 8k. 1 L Damen (Poole) 28:19; 2 S Bush (Aldershot F&D) 28:53; 3 V Webster (Shaftesbury B) 29:04; … 17 C Bryson 31:09; 25 S Murphy 31:40; 203 finished.
Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.