Surrey Road Relays, Wimbledon Park
Electrifying Curtain-Raiser
Will Cockerell reports.
What a super race this was, easily the finest of the 13 editions since the Surrey relays came to this testing loop around Wimbledon Park, which could have been man-made to ferret out the strengths and weaknesses of a runner. Yes, there have been some fine duels over the years, notably 1999 with Dave Taylor being let off the leash 31 seconds down on Roger Alsop, or Junior Galley and Simon Stevens going out within 40 yards of each other in 2002, or 2007 when Stuart Major valiantly tried to gun down Knut Hegvold. But those were battles waged between breakaway leaders; on this occasion no fewer than four clubs were all in the melting pot, neatly lined up, as the last stage arrived.
With 343 times being chalked up, a 7% increase on last year, this race is becoming a firm favourite in the county calendar. The gun went and 78 teams fired off, bound for the long climb that awaited five minutes hence. Herne Hill Harriers were noted to have friskily played one of their 'aces' via Chris Busailah, who was chased home hard by Ranelagh's Phil Killingley and a guesting Shaftesbury's Tom Bedford. A minute back, a strong Dave Mason defied Knut Hegvold for 96% of the run before the Trondheim Stallion passed him on the track. We also had a brave Tilly Heaton off for the Belles who managed to get stung by the corner of her eye, just before the off. It takes more than that to fell this great club servant though, who reliably dipped under 20 minutes.
Worlds ... were going to collide
Stage 2 and Mal Byansi was tidy as ever with a solid 15:09 to keep us in the hunt and nibbling us three spots up the leaderboard to 5th, but the gap had widened to HHH as they played another 'ace' with Alan Barnes. They were front-loading, we were back-loading ... sooner or later these two worlds, separated by 91 seconds, were going to collide.
Up next was wizard of the 'chase Matthew Morgan who while narrowly unable to match Mal's fireworks, still had an outing that oozed positive equity. The charge against Herne Hill was on, 14 seconds had been reclaimed, and another spot advanced. Now what could your correspondent do, who for most of the day had been scurrying around like Coco the Clown sorting out orders, filling out forms, refilling out forms, and generally doing everything but mentally preparing to run 2.88 miles at speeds rarely to be found in nature. 4th place at the beginning of the Cockerpillar's tour became ... 5th. What! This wasn’t in the script; this was a bad dream.
It had now become some race though, as a closer inspection of the gaps showed that Belgrave, whilst having been impotent in their advance up the list, could at least see the gaps coming down. At the start of the stage 92 seconds separated Herne Hill, Thames, Belgrave and Hercules, and now only 34 seconds was the difference between best and worst. Outside that equation, in the "lead" were our stripey friends from north of the Thames, but they'd already shredded the rule book by running Bedford twice, and were about to implode to a final placing of fifth.
Now, what could Wardy do, with his new, shiny, lightweight chassis? (He is under some bamboozling impression that he runs quicker when carrying less weight.) Rich had a double mission on his hands, to chase the other teams but also beat Will’s time in their annual duel for piquing the selectors' attentions for bigger battles to come. Well, Rich took one look at Will's time and gobbled it up with some Fava beans and a nice Chianti, and also grabbed the scalps of SBH, and then Thames right at the death. The squeeze was on even more, as there were now just 28 seconds between the top four clubs, with Hercules now leading thanks to Alex Robinson's 14:38 which was a spot-on match for his predecessor, the up-and-coming Liam White.
Richard Xerri has been rattling around the Surrey scene for some 20 years now, and part of him would have relished the challenge of taking off in the lead on anchor with a 15 second cushion over HHH’s Dave Mulvee. Seven seconds back was the small matter of Paskar Owor, and he was followed five ticks later by former 13:55 man Stuart Major. Poor Richard – he was about to experience relay-running's equivalent of being hung, drawn and quartered. Down to fourth then for Hercules, but a fine effort from them, as they missed out on a medal by under 30 seconds. Up front, no-one was stopping Paskar who ripped out a 13:58 to catch Mulvee and place a 41 second buffer in the way. Major ran well but was unable to advance to silver. What a remarkable race then, with the final stage seeing 1st go to 4th, 4th to 3rd and 3rd to 1st, with 2nd holding firm in the turbulence all around. Belgrave’s record in the 13 years at Wimbledon now reads: DNF, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 7, 1.
A win for the M40s
In other club news, we also picked up the win for the M40s, as, in an exact replica of three years ago, anchor-man Knut left it till the final 200 metres to finally us into take the lead (albeit over a non-scoring Stragglers). Congrats to the other M40 Belgrave stalwarts, Steve Zealey, Gerry Adams and Warren Lynch. We were happy to welcome new members Alistair Lang and Will Ireson in the B’s, the former still feeling last weekend’s Cologne Ironman in his legs. And the last word to the Belles who placed a battling 13th, with Sarah Murphy now running for two, Tilly Heaton who went round twice in tribute, and new member Anoushka Johnson who has returned to competition after 10 years away from the sport. Welcome back.
May I put Belgrave’s thanks on record to all the volunteers who put this day on. In particular, the marshalling was vocal and ubiquitous and the results service outstanding. Welcome to the 2010-11 season – more fare like this and we’re in for a treat.
Senior Men. 1 Belgrave 1:30:02; 2 Herne Hill 1:30:43; 3 Thames H&H 1:31:00; 4 Hercules Wimbledon 1:31:29.
A – K Hegvold M45 (8) 15:44; M Byansi (5) 15:09; M Morgan (4) 15:17; W Cockerell (5) 15:04; R Ward (3) 14:50; P Owor (1) 13:58.
B – D Mason (10) 15:51; R Norville (13) 16:54; A Lang (21) 19:23; W Ireson (23) 18:27.
C – P Chapman (38) 17:42; D McMillan (44) 21:03; R Harding (47) 20:41.
Fastest: P Owor 13:58; P Rodgers (Reigate) 14:12; J McMullan (Thames H&H) 14:15.
M40. 1 Belgrave 1:07:42; 2 South London 1:08:16; 3 Thames H and H 1:08:24.
S Zealey (9) 17:46; G Adams (3) 17:12; W Lynch (2) 16:48; K Hegvold (1) 15:56.
Fastest: A Robinson (Thames) 15:48; K Hegvold (Belgrave) 15:56; J Burdett (South London) 15:57.
Senior Women. 1 South London 1:13:15; 2 Ranelagh 1:13:43; 3 Thames 1:14:00; 13 Belgrave 1:24:42.
M
Fastest: G Bruivels (South London) 16:31; E Damant (Ranelagh) 16:47; K Ellison (Herne Hill) 17:27.
Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.