Newsletter – December 2000

 
Meeting closed 9.30 p.m.
Date of next meeting 15/1/2001
HANTS. CROSS-COUNTRY LEAGUE: GOODWOOD. 2nd DECEMBER. From Franny

 
  
A breezy afternoon on top of Goodwood down was a pleasant location for the third race of the season. Fortunately, the rain held off and the course, whilst slippery in places was quite dry which made the undulating course a bit faster than many expected.Several clubs seem to have put out their strongest men’s teams of the season for this fixture, notably Basingstoke who finished 2nd and Reading AC who took 4th. Fortunately Winchester decided to have a worse day than us, so our 6th on the day only resulted in us dropping one place in the overall table. With Mike’s absence it was important to get a good start and this was achieved with Chris Try having possibly his best run in an Overton vest to lead us home. Ian took 3rd in the vets to maintain his challenge in that category whilst Mark put in another solid effort. Paul had a fine run to finish 7th vet. and turned the tables on Keith who closed the scoring for the A team.
Martin Crawshaw had a great run and was only 20 seconds behind Keith. He closed the vets team who took a convincing victory and, with Portsmouth only finishing 6th on the day another vets team title is looking imminent. Gavin showed an improvement and had almost a minute on Bob Taylor. Nick felt that he had a good run so Eric’s storming run must have been a fine effort as he closed the B team in 5th place.
I was up for this one but turned an ankle in the woods and lost a lot of time but it was a nice feeling to pass so many runners on the final lap. Mick showed a big improvement on his previous form while for Geoff, it was the first time he had finished outside the 200 mark after finishing 199th in both the previous races. JT closed the club interest and was another to have a good run and managed to win the club handicap title. Mick’s fine run took the silver by one second ahead of Eric, who took bronze.
Cath found problems with her spikes on the hard surfaces but did well in 7th spot. She leads the vets. table and is equal 4th overall. Nicky had a great run in 40th place while Liz got closer to a top 50 placing as she anchored home the team. Helen has been working hard all season and thanks to her efforts we once again took 3rd in the vets team. They currently lie 3rd overall. Nicky took the handicap title with Liz edging Cath by a second for the minor medals.
In the juniors, John finished farther down the field than normal in the U17’s. In the U13 boys Aaron had another splendid run to lead home Scott who is showing signs of improvement. Chris is putting a lot of effort in and is doing very well. The team finished 11th on the day and stand 9th overall. Lets hope they can continue to finish a team at the end of the season. Unfortunately with their no show on the day, the U15 team dropped a place in the table.

Tadley Cross Country 10^th December from Ian Ford
Blissey’s course record was never in doubt thanks to the water on the ground, water in the air and the mud! Don’t think I have ever run through so much water with most of the tracks resembling lakes and rivers, while the ploughed field section left you sinking halfway up your shins. So all told a very enjoyable race.
Basing stoke and Newbury were there in force, ended up with three of us up front, two Newbury plus myself. Dropped one of them, but lost contact with the eventual winner, Newbury Vet whose name escapes me, who was 17 seconds ahead of me.
Actually felt much better than the previous week’s disaster at Goodwood, and if I hadn’t gone out for 1 hour 30 minutes on the bike beforehand, supposedly for a warm up, although I got frozen and drenched in the process, might have done better than second.
VILLAGE HANDICAP. 14th DECEMBER. From Franny

 
 
A perfect night for running resulted in a rash of PBS with six runners setting new marks and John Ruffell equaling his. Also with five debutees on the night, 41 runners have taken part in this years series. Winner on the night (and running off a very old mark) was Dave Henery who overhauled Dave Bright’s big PB (1m 37sec) in the closing stages. 3rd spot went to Madeline who was making her course debut. PBS from Nicky (27sec) and Matt (29sec) came next ahead of an inform Eric. Keith (9sec), Jamie Jones (1sec) and young Jamie Tyas (19sec) were the other improvers. Mark Simcox passed me on the final turn and claimed the extra yards wasted going round me cost him a PB.
Fastest once again was Jamie with Mark second (despite the extra yardage) and Keith third. Carl made his debut for fourth fastest whilst John was impressive for fifth. The league tables are now taking shape with Keith leading the handicap table ahead of Matthew. John Ruffell and Nicky are equal third though anyone of a dozen runners is still in contention. With Blissy missing his second race there will be a new champion this year. Mark currently leads Keith by 2 points with young John tied with Paul in third. Gavin, Cath and Nick are still in the medal hunt. FULL TABLES ARE POSTED ON THE NOTICE BOARD.
Finally thanks to Paul and his team for doing the recording on the night and also to Dave and Ian for marshalling at the Stute.

 
CYCLISTS RACE 17th December from Geoff
Typical wet and windy conditions gave us all a good work-out, but times were in general slower than two year’s ago. (Last year we had to shorten the course because of the icy conditions)
Best run of the day came from 13 year old Matt Bright, who battled hard to beat Gavin, Dave Henery, and me, and just couldn’t quite catch one of the Cyclists. At his current rate of progress Matt could easily run a minute faster next year and be one of the team counters.
Commiserations must go to the Overton Harriers team who managed to lose the prestigious Cyclists Trophy for the first time since the race was conceived nearly a quarter of a century ago.
Better luck next time.

 

THANKS TO JOHN HOARE FOR ORGANISING SUCH A GREAT EVENT
CHRISTMAS 2000 CHALLENGE 21st December from Geoff
A new venture for us which proved to be extremely popular.
The course was one lap of Foxdown and entrants were asked to predict their finishing time.
Several ran round as hard as they could and none more so than 12 year old Aaron Harris who completed the course only four seconds adrift.
The results are noted here for posterity and reveal some disturbing traits in the psychological profile of some of our club colleagues. I leave you to judge their relevance.

 

 
BIONIC
Our winner this month has got to be
Ian Ford.Anyone who can win the Vets Category in the aptly named Ball Buster and then wax eloquently about the race has to be a hero or completely mad.

I hope you all enjoyed the seasons’ festivities and wish you all well for the coming year. As usual it’s that time to reflect on the highs and lows of the previous year so here is how the club and its members performed in the first year of the new millenium.
JANUARY.
A good month for John Ruffell as he won his third consecutive handicap race, he also picked up 2nd in a cross-country at Fleet and 24th in the county schools. The big event was the Hants. League at Rotten Hill, the ladies took 2nd spot to open a 3-point gap at the top with Cath 4th, Ruth 8th and Audra 12th. A cracker from Blissy in 4th place led the men’s team to a super 4th place on the day while the vets continued to dominate. The men also took first team prize in the Romsey rip-off 5 where Cath won some rather nice socks.
FEBRUARY.
Surprise, young Ruffell won the handicap again. Trophies galore at Bournemouth in the final Hants. League. Cath and Ruth, 3rd and 4th senior ladies, Cath 2nd Vet, Mike and Ian took a 1-2 in the vets with the vet’s team completing a hat trick of wins. The senior men’s team finished 4th, probably our best result ever while the senior ladies went better and won the league in style. Steve McNair organised another fantastic training weekend amongst the “local people”. Ian took 2nd Vet at the Bramley 10 while Paul and Ruth took the club half marathon titles at Wokingham. John Hodge competed in the National Vets indoor Championships.
MARCH.
Dave Mills, Nick and Franny take third team at the Compton Down 20 but don’t get a prize; Blissy and Cath take the club 10k titles at Eastleigh with Mike winning the open Vets event and Cath finishing 3rd Vet. Liz also took 3rd in her age group. For once John Ruffell did not win the handicap but he did take the league title ahead of Audra and Franny, Mike took the time league ahead of Keith and Nick. Geoff took a party of juniors to an open meeting at Bracknell and the Gibbet race was, once again, a great success.
APRIL.
A very thin month. The Dennisons cleaned up the major prizes at the club dinner; Mark was voted club person of the year with Audra taking the prize for most improved athlete. Bowel problems a plenty in the London marathon. A fine run from Nick and a PB from Jill who won a large nappy? For Dave and Franny there’s always next time. Eric took 3rd O/55 at the Totton 10k.
MAY.
Cath took 3rd in the county 1500 meters. A super afternoon was spent at Down Grange for the Club Pentathlon, Rob, Blissy and Cath took the titles. Audra was 2nd lady at Netley, ET and JT took prizes as well. Ian won the Vets prize at Ropley with JT again making the prize list. A convincing win over Basingstoke in the first mob match that saw 33 members taking part with young Aaron winning the handicap. The Southern league started with a 4th place at Salisibury. 10 people clocked PBS at the Andover 9.4k road race.
JUNE.
Another big mob match victory at Down Grange saw us retain the trophy. Blissy put pen to paper and set a club record for insulting his club mates. Jamie’s debut motivates the track team to 2nd place in London but another 4th place at Basingstoke leaves us in the bottom half of the table. Mike takes 3rd place at the Bourton 15 miler and Geoff reports on some good results at the County schools.
JULY.
Jamie and Mike finish 2nd and 3rd at the Kintbury 5 with Nicky taking the 2nd ladies prize. The following day Mike won the Carnival 10k at Basingstoke. Cath made it a winning double as the club interest was much less than in previous years. Voss won the handicap after most of the juniors got lost and Jamie broke 18 minutes for the course. Ian won the Tadley 10k with Jill winning the vets. A 3rd place at Kingston consolidated our Southern league placing but a “stuffing” at New River Stadium drops us back into the drop zone. Paddy makes a welcome contribution to the newsletter and Ian, Jill and JT win prizes at Bushy Park and Mark Simcox takes 3rd in the Winchester 5k.
AUGUST.
Cath wins the final summer handicap; Voss takes the title and Jamie the time league. A great performance by the track boys sees them in contention until the last few events at Andover. 3rd place is more than enough to keep us up.  
SEPTEMBER.
The Festival of Running is a huge success with Cath taking 3rd place. Keith Clark leads home the squad at a very warm New Forest half marathon. The men’s old gits squad travel to Swindon during the petrol strike to take first place, the B team are 3rd…and last.
 
OCTOBER.
Ian Ford competes in the World Duathlon Championships in Calais. More international activities with the annual trip to the Czech Republic, only Cath and Blissy actually make an effort in the race to win prizes. A good start to the cross-country season at Farley Mount sees lots of juniors and fine performances from both Cath and Mike. Cath backs it up the following day to take bronze in the Southern 10k at the Klix. Ian takes 3rd vet and ET finishes 2nd O/55. Victories to the A and B teams in the Newbury relays with a first time finish for a junior team. Aaron wins the opening handicap.
NOVEMBER.
Another big turnout in the Hants. League sees the men take 4th place. Keith takes the club 10-mile title at Lordshill with Paul having navigation problems. Only four members travel to Bournemouth for easy consistency points. Mark Simcox wins the Tilford cross-country in monsoon conditions. John Ruffell returns to winning ways in the Foxdown handicap. Ruth and Rob announce the birth of their son Charles.
DECEMBER.
Following the Hants. League at Goodwood the men’s vets have one hand on the title again with Mike, Ian and Paul all in contention for individual honours. Cath is in the hunt in both sections with the women’s vets. Team currently 3rd. Ian and Cath win the club cross-country titles. Dave Henery storms to victory in the Village handicap but can’t stop the cyclists inflicting a first time defeat around the Harrow Way.
Quite an eventful year with a very successful result in last seasons Hants. League and numerous prizes won on the road, International vests for Ian and Cath and a serious increase in the number of runners competing for the club in handicaps, mob matches and the cross country league. Possibly the best thing to have appeared this year is our very promising junior squad who have competed with distinction for the club in both the Cross country and track and field leagues. Congratulations must go to Geoff, who organises the Tuesday night sessions with the assistance of Gavin and Mick.
The coming year will bring new challenges and will kick off with our home cross-country fixture…. Any help you can offer will be gratefully received. The club spirit is high and we can all look forward to another successful year.