Newsletter – June 2001

 NEWSLETTER – JUNE 2001 ISSUE 287
EVENTS DIARY:

PLEASE CHECK NOTICE BOARD OR RUNNING MAGAZINES FOR FURTHER INFO.
Another very successful month for the club with some good placings in several of the local road races. The track & field team had a great day at Battersea, after their second place at Andover they won a close fought battle in the second match of the season and now stand a magnificent third in the table. Thanks to Jamie for preparing the report on this fixture. There were some mutterings about promotion after the second fixture and, as I type this I hear that we finished equal third in a very tight fixture at High Wycombe….. Full details in the next newsletter.
The return mob match was held at Down Grange and saw another win; though this time the result was much closer. Many thanks to the Basingstoke club for their hospitality and for providing a super course. It was really pleasing to note that we managed to get 26 runners out for this popular event.
A FINAL REMINDER THAT THE NEXT SUMMER HANDICAP IS ON JULY 12^th OVER THE NUTLEY BOTTOM (MOB MATCH) COURSE.
 
 Southern Men’s Track and Field League at Battersea – 2^nd June 2001-06-14 from Jamie
What a fantastic day! It was nip and tuck all afternoon but the team pulled out all the stops to record a well earned victory by just 2 points over Southampton City with Serpentine, Kidlington and Queens Park left trailing badly.
The blustery warm weather didn’t help with recording fast times but made for an enjoyable time for athletes and spectators who enjoyed some of the better facilities that the league has to offer.
On the track Dave Bush and Keith Vallis got us off to a great start with 2 2^nd places in the 400m hurdles but it was Jeremy Reynolds inspirational run of 12.1 in the B100m that seemed to kick start the team into winning mode. Chris Jones battled to 3^rd in the 800m but his best came later when stepping in at the last minute to win the 3k steeplechase with Keith Vallis also earning maximum points. Tim Stagg made a welcome return to competition winning the 110m hurdles and Mike Bliss won the B 5k after just a week of running. Hopefully the old git can get rid of his aches and pains and get back to the form we all know he is capable of. Keith ‘the loafer’ Clark had a double win in the 800m and 1500m looking ridiculously easy in the shorter event. Alan Cornell had another busy day winning the B 110m hurdles although he had a disaster in the Pole Vault with no height registered and therefore no points. While Jeremy Reynolds recorded a narrow victory by just 7cm in the triple jump Dave Bush turned his ankle which everybody prays will be alright for the next fixture as he earns so many points for the team.
Simon Morgan and Darren Cuff had a successful day out on the field collecting sun tans and points. It was the final event of the day though that they showed they can perform under pressure as the whole arena awaited the Discus result. A 2^nd place in the 4 x 400m relay to Southampton meant we trailed by just 1 point. But Darren won the B string and Simon was 2^nd in the A bringing the victory home to Overton. By the way Eric and JT reacted you may have thought we had just qualified for Europe!
This leaves us in an unprecedented 3^rd place in the division.
The only downer of the day apart from Bushey’s ankle was missing Anne Widdicombe in the pub on the way home. (Apparently there was some sort of Tory rally going on). I am sure we could have managed to persuade her to turn out in the Shot Put at the next fixture on 23^rd June at High Wycombe.
Jamie Jones
RESULTS FOR SOUTHERN Lge. At BATTERSEA:

 

 
 
Many thanks to JT for supplying the following three reports.
NETLEY 10km.
On rather a warm day, six members of the club lined up to take on quite a large field of 316 finishers over a course which always seems harder than the terrain warrants. Paul led us home in a time that he described as a personal worse, but never the less finished in 20^th place amongst a number of fellow over 40 veterans. Next came Dave Mills who could have been pleased with his time followed by newcomer to the club, Andy Hartley on one of his first outings for the club though not in a club vest because he had yet to obtain his extra-large size !
Eric was second over 50 (no prize this time) in a good time to easily take the scalp of Dave Henery who was involved in his firm’s annual championship, but no one is allowed to beat him on pain of being made redundant!! JT completed the club interest with an average run but was pleased with his 4^th over 60 placing.
20^th MAY.

316 Finished.
ROPLEY 10km.

 
  27^th MAY.This year only Keith, Eric and JT were seen battling it out on the hills of Ropley and considering the severity of the course their results were very commendable and compare favourably with those returned on much easier terrain recently. Keith had an excellent run to finish in 13^th place with a performance that demonstrates that he is in fine form and likely to improve his 10k time by leaps and bounds. Eric was very pleased to finish in under 40 minutes making him 5^th over 50 whilst JT enjoyed his race to finish in 46:43.

334 Finished.
BRAISHFIELD 5 miles.

 
  17^th JuneThis was yet another road race won by Andy Morgan-Lee who seems to be dominating local events this year. Three times in his last four road races JT has been the last runner lapped by Andy, this time in the last 50 yards from the entrance to the playing field used for the finish. As usual he was a way in front of the rest of the field. Meanwhile, JT plodded on to finish 76^th in a low attended field which was affected by the Lordshill 10k which was held on the same day.

174 Finishers.

MOB MATCH: DOWN GRANGE.
A large turnout helped us to win the return leg of the mob match by 518 points to 563. The score was a lot closer than last time but we were missing a few runners whilst others were sensibly taking it easy prior to forthcoming Championship events. It was quite a warm evening and the light drizzle that fell before the start made the grassy surface quite slippery and prompted some runners to wear spikes despite the hard ground. Basingstoke had the first man home, despite him taking a wrong turn early on, and it was down to Mike to lead home the Overton contingent as we filled the next seven places. There was a battle royal for the honour with Mike narrowly getting the glory ahead of Mark and Ian. Andy Hoiles made a welcome outing in club colours as did Andy Hartley and John Hodge. Keith was unfortunate to turn an ankle early on and did well to finish while the two Dave’s, Mills and Bright put in good runs, as did Mick Woods.
Audra showed that she is getting back into training with a solid run and other good efforts came from Liz, Gwynetth and Madeline. Aaron was first junior home while a fast starting Matt was almost caught by Scott who had possibly his best run ever for the club to out sprint Jamie Jones. Laura, Angela and Chris completed the field with good efforts on a very warm evening.  
<sup>Eds Note:
 
HANDICAP RESULT FOR MOB MATCH at DOWN GRANGE.
14th JUNE 2001 

I notice that Mark got the better of Ian. Is this the shape of things to come?</sup>
 The second summer handicap of the season that was run in conjunction with this race was won by Scott who had ten seconds in hand over runner up Audra. Mark’s improvement on the opening mob match was good enough to take third ahead of Liz. Full handicap tables are now on the notice board.
14^th JUNE.

5K Fun Run Overton June 17^th from Liz
I decided at the last moment to compete in this Fun Run in aid of Dr Lorge’s trip to Nepal, which started and finished at the Surgery on Station Road.
I collected £35 towards his target of £13,000. Thank you all for sponsoring me.
Result: 1^st Liz Sandal-Ball 20.58 24 ran
Committee Meeting 11/6/01
Present: G. Cloke, P. Wheeler, M. Dennison, C. Wheeler, R. Francis, G. Mclaughlin.
Matters Arising: