South of Thames CC Assoc. Champs., Nork Park, Banstead
After a quiet couple of weeks nursing a calf problem, Phil Wicks fancied a tester and made a late decision to turn out at Nork Park - a four lap course with a 500m lead in and finish alongside the football pitches. Sadly we'd lost half a dozen men in the week before the race and were therefore not going to be quite as competitive as we'd have liked.
It was as if "Wicksy" had been fired from a cannon as the runners set out. Any other pretenders to the title gave up their claim immediately as he'd stolen a 40 metre lead by the time the length of two football pitches had been travelled. Paul Rogers of Crawley and our own James Kelly led the rest of the charge and when the first lap had been completed these two were still locked together with Phil now 40 seconds ahead.
Herne Hill were already in command of the team race, unable to match the Belgrave fire power at the front of the race but packing their scoring six into the top twenty with spare men backing up close behind. James Fairbourn had made a bold start while Mal Byansi, Knut Hegvold and Tim Weeks completed our six.
Two laps gone and Phil was lapping the tail-enders. Rogers had moved away from James K but James F was holding on to a place inside the top dozen and both Knut and Tim were moving through well - and a lap later it was a similar story except that a slightly uncomfortable looking James Kelly had now been overtaken by Connor of Kent AC.
And so to the finish where Phil's final winning margin was 70 seconds. It's relatively rare for a man to defend his title in this event, the last man to do so being Horsham Blue Star's Rowland in 1982-3. James Kelly had found some of the downhill stretches unpleasant as the ghost of an old Achilles tendon injury visited him but, cock-a-hoop with his best ever run, was James Fairbourn - still fighting for places as he entered the finish funnel.
Looking completely composed, Tim Weeks was closing down on Knut and Malachi who had themselves come through the field in the latter stages. And a special word for Richard Merrick: under the impression that he was our twelfth man (in fact we only started ten) a flat car battery failed to deter him, and travelling by bike and train to the venue (leaping the barrier at Clapham to save time), he warmed up by pedalling furiously on the three mile climb from Ewell to Banstead.
7.5 miles. Men. 1 P Wicks 32:54; 2 P Rogers (Crawley) 34:05; 3 J Connor (Kent) 34:37; 4 J Kelly 34:51; 12 J Fairbourn 36:22; 25 K Hegvold M40 37:21; 27 M Byansi 37:43; 29 T Weeks 38:09; 65 S Zealey M40 41:35; 80 C Hobbs 43:24; 85 R Merrick 44:20.
Teams: 1 Herne Hill H 65; 2 Belgrave H 98; 3 Brighton & Hove City 110; 11 teams closed in.
12 to score: 1 Herne Hill H 373; 2 Brighton & Hove City 406.
Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.