Surrey County Road Relays, Wimbledon Park

Surrey medals

A car smash at Tibbett’s Corner resulted in road closures and in spite of a delayed start many clubs were shuffling their running order to cope with late arrivals. Our senior men had a title to hold on to but it was going to be hard work as we were a bit short of Surrey men this time round.

It was great to welcome back James Fairbourn, though, and his very useful opening 5th place set Wardy up for what he likes best – chasing. Expecting 14:50-odd Richard was very happy to clock a 14:33 which ended up second only to Paskar Owor on the day and took the Bels through to a 13 second lead. Our next three were not as fit as they’d like and we moved back to 2nd and then 4th although Mal Byansi, after some heavy persuasion to run, went a little faster than expected. Had we left too much for Paskar to do? Well, he stormed the hill past the All-England Tennis Courts and picked up Herne Hill’s ‘A’ team; but once he realised that Hercules Wimbledon and Thames were just too far away, settled for the ‘bronzes’.

Our M50s – actually into their 60s, some ‘em – did well for their 6th place, 4th if the non-scoring teams were ignored.

Senior Men. 1 Hercules Wimbledon AC 1:32:20; 2 Thames H&H 1:32:58; 3 Belgrave H 1:33:18; 20 teams started, 16 finished.

A – J Fairbourn (5) 15:30; R Ward (1) 14:33; D Mason (2) 16:11; W Cockerell (2) 15:56; M Byansi (4) 16:41; P Owor (3) 14:27.

B – W Ireson 18:11 (16); W Lynch (15) 17:04; J Fairbourn (14) 16:02; R Ward (13) 17:35; A Lang (12) 19:14; no 6th runner.

Fastest: 1 P Owor (Belgrave H) 14:27; 2 R Ward (Belgrave) 14:33; 3 A Robinson (Herc. Wimb) 14:41; 17 J Fairbourn 15:30.

M50. 1 South London H 1:07:22; 1 South London H B (n/s) 1:13:28; 3 Ranelagh H 1:16:13; 6 Belgrave H 1:18:50; 13 teams started, 11 finished.

T.O’Neill (5) 17:56; C Dickinson (3) 18:17; H Corbett (4) 21:28; D McMillan (6) 21:09.

Fastest: 1 A Tindall (South London H A) 15:54; 2 G Quarton (South London H A) 16:45; 3 M Gregory (South London H A) 17:06.

Belles Feature Fresh Faces

After some late arm-twisting, writes Will Cockerell, the Belles featured well in the open race here to kick off their 2011-12 campaign in spritely fashion, with a return some five minutes and nine places better than last year. We couldn't quite meet the Surrey qualification (Surrey Hills, Australia?) but of most importance was to blood a couple of promising débutantes and get the girls racing.

We opened by renewing our noted links with Down Under, as Nelleke Quispell cruised to the day’s 8th fastest before haring off to the Emirates Stadium and Arsenal-Swansea where she was entertaining clients. Club stalwart Tilly was as reliable as ever, with a clocking six seconds up on last year; and then we welcomed another newbie, Hester Barsham-Rolfe, who managed to get round ably after her birthday celebrations had progressed into the small hours. And finally, the Knight! So called because for the 3rd time at road-relays in under a year, Rieko Trees was our knight in shining armour, riding to the rescue at the 11th hour, just when it looked we’d be short of a team. It was Rieko’s second race of the day after a morning Parkrun.

Senior Women. 1 Epsom & Ewell H 1:12:06; 2 South London H 1:13:32; 3 Woking AC 1:15:23; 4 Belgrave H (n/s) 1:19:20; 19 teams started, 16 finished.

N Quispell (4) 18:05; T Heaton (4) 19:46; H Barsham-Rolfe (4) 20:27; R Trees (4) 21:02.

Fastest: G Bland (Dorking&MV) 16:44; R Nicholson (Woking) 17:09; I Brinsden (Epsom&E) 17:12; 7 N Quispell 18:05.

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