Newsletter – October 2001

NEWSLETTER

 

 

 

OCTOBER 2001 ISSUE 291

Overton 5 Accounts

Good news everybody, John Hoare our Race Director is delighted to announce a surplus of £2200 from the proceeds of this event. Special thanks to all concerned who helped to make this a very lucrative venture.

 

 

 

EVENTS DIARY:

NOV. 3rd	HANTS. XC League at READING
4th	SALISBURY half-marathon & LORDSHILL 10 miles
10th	BATH Road Races at VICTORIA PARK
22nd	VILLAGE HANDICAP
25th	HAYLING 10 miles
DEC. 1st	HANTS. XC League at GOODWOOD
2nd	VICTORY 5 miles at PORTSMOUTH
9th	CHRISTCHURCH 10 km
20th	FOXDOWN HANDICAP

 

 

PLEASE CHECK NOTICE BOARD OR RUNNING MAGAZINES FOR FURTHER INFO.

FRANNY’S BITS!!

September ended with a running boom with the final weekend hosting the Southern relays, the Highclere 10k and a couple of marathons. The cross-country now begins and the opening fixture saw some good results especially from the veterans. For the first time our new second claim runners from Team Kennet joined us and though at this moment I am lacking first names I would like to welcome them to the fold.

Last months deliberate mistake come from Geoff who re-used an old road safety report…. Just to make it clear the bridge at Station Road is not closed so there is no excuse for missing out Station hill on your training runs. Despite last months item however there are still some people still running in dark kit, plus I have already witnessed one of our juniors trying to get himself wiped out when crossing at the Church. So please remember: always try to wear something white and if possible add to it by using reflective kit such as armbands or bibs. Keep to the pavements as much as possible and always try to keep to the right along Station Road. Do not cross-over at the bottom of Dellands until it is safe to do so, there have been one or two near misses there in the past. Finally, and I know it is hard for some of you, please show some common sense. A few seconds lost is better than a spell in hospital.

As well as Jamie’s fine performance at Nottingham another ex-club member has recorded a good result over the marathon distance. In her second attempt at the distance Bev Hartigan ran 2hr 36min 2sec to finish 6^th in the Berlin marathon. This, of course, was the race that saw Japan’s Nakao Takahashi run the first sub 2:20 female marathon.

The county cross-country championships will be held at DIBDEN INCLOSURE on 5^th January. Please note that start times are earlier than the normal league races and race distances may be slightly longer. As you may recall…last year all the club wusses went into hiding for this slightly muddy event so lets hope they are feeling braver this year so that we have a better turnout this time. Both senior teams could win County medals if we can only get the runners out.

HEADINGTON 5 MILES ROAD RACE – 26.8.01 BY JT

Only two of us ventured into Oxfordshire this year – in past years there have invariably been more for this popular race.

Eric carried on his impressive form which has been aimed at attaining a gold standard for all his usual events. This time he missed out by a mere 30 seconds.

JT had rather a lack lustre run and for some reason did not get going in any part of the race.

RESULTS

64 E Tilbury 32 – 47

124 T Thomas 37 – 04 (4^th O/60)

 

CLARENDON WAY MARATHON. 30^th SEPTEMBER.

With training going well and a couple of decent races under the belt I was hoping to rectify last years disastrous performance in this race. The weather forecasters predicted heavy rain and strong winds but when did they ever get a forecast right? As it turned out the forecast was accurate and I spent most of the race trying to remain upright, especially over the second half of the course which had been ripped up by a couple of hundred half-marathoners in front of me.

Strong winds blew some of the marker signs away and this, combined with some suspect marshalling, led to quite a few runners going off-course. The ambulance service was kept busy with the treacherous conditions causing numerous dnf’s and as I descended the final descent into Salisbury I passed a woman who had broken her leg and because of her isolated position needed the air ambulance to transfer her to hospital.

After making an unplanned detour of my own I was happy to get to the finish with just a sore foot. My time would have been at least 30 minutes faster with the right shoes and without my diversion but listening to some of the tales of unplanned detours I was fairly lucky. Hefin Richards got lost three times and still finished 8^th.

66^th R.FRANCIS 4hrs. 20min. 44sec.

 

 

THANKS TO JT FOR THE FOLLOWING REPORT.

  

HIGHCLERE 10km 30^th SEPTEMBER.

 In a letter sent to all those who requested a result list the organiser of this event accepted responsibility and apologised for the doubtful distance of 10km. By some 700 metres and the other things which did not come up to scratch. If the race takes place again then, no doubt, he will have learned from his mistakes and correct them.

Having said that, the course was an interesting one run on smooth roads around the grounds of the estate with plenty of hills so one did not get bored. Andy Hartley was our leading runner home about a minute ahead of Eric, who continues his excellent form over the summer months. Some way behind was JT who confessed to a little confusion over where he was running on the course particularly where he was lapping runners on the second lap of one of the loops.

Gwyneth was next to finish exactly a minute behind JT despite her notion expressed to Eric that she was endevouring to take his scalp. Newcomers to the club, Dorothy and Ed Wicke, were having another go at a road race following their good runs in the Overton 5. Completing Overton’s interest in the event was Moira who does not seem to be showing the form in races that she does in training sessions!

 

 

 

281 Finished.

British Vets Cross Country Championships Singleton Park Swansea 6 October, 2001, from Geoff

Cath Wheeler made the long trip to compete in this popular top quality event, over a very testing grassland course made soft and heavy by recent torrential rain. The course was billed as 5Km but was clearly over distance judging by the times recorded.

Nevertheless Cath, not in her best racing condition, was placed 11th overall in a very competitive field and 7th in the Ladies over 40s category. This performance has earned her a place in Welsh Team to compete in the Home International Cross Country Championships in Scotland during November.

Winchester AC Continental Cross Country Races at Farley Mount 6 October, 2001, from Geoff

Arran Harris opened his cross country season with a fine run in the 3Km race for boys, and got off to a clean start completing the first lap in 5mins 49secs, in fifth place about 40 seconds behind the race leader. In the second lap, Arran was almost caught by the sixth place runner, but changed up a gear, and in his words ‘legged it’ to maintain fifth place in 11 minutes 44 seconds, earning himself a possible selection to run for Hampshire Schools in France at the end of November.

Alton Downland 10K & 5K Cross Country Races 7 October, 2001, from Geoff

Despite heavy overnight rain, the going on this challenging multi-terrain course was surprisingly firm, with only short stretches of muddy downland to negotiate. Both races were started at the same time, with Martin Crawshaw leading the Overton contingent, and in front with the leaders. He was followed by 13 year old Arran Harris, running the 5Km event, Geoff Cloke, Jill Hills and Darren Cuff. Geoff managed to get past Arran by the 2K mark, but Arran, was concentrating his efforts on closing the gap between him and the leader in the 5Km event. This he did during the next kilometer and opened up a gap of almost a minute to win the 5Km race in 24 minutes 32seconds.

Martin Crawshaw led the team home in 7th place overall and 3rd place in his category in 40 minutes 24 seconds, followed by Geoff Cloke in 46 minutes 8 seconds. Jill Hills, lacking race fitness, struggled on the steep hilly sections but still managed 3rd place in the ladies category in 50 minutes 12 seconds, and Darren Cuff was 50th in 50 minutes 23 seconds.

HANTS. X-COUNTRY at FARLEY MOUNT. 13^th OCTOBER.

A very warm afternoon for the opening fixture of the season and, despite all the rain of late, the course was in quite good condition with very little mud. Helped out immensely by our new friends from Team Kennet we managed to finish teams in both the U13 and U15 boys’ events which finished 5^th and 6^th respectively. Hopefully someone can supply me with first names for the next event though it looks as if Aaron may benefit from the competition given by R.Ridley in the older age group.

	UNDER 13 BOYS				UNDER 15 BOYS
22nd	R.KNAPES	12m 37 sec		18th	R.RIDLEY	17m 17 sec
34th	T.PURCELL	12m 59 sec		19th	A.HARRIS	17m 21 sec
37th	T.RIDLEY	13m 14 sec		30th	A.VARDY	18m 08 sec
				38th	M.BRIGHT	18m 39 sec
	54 Finished			53rd	S.GRAHAM	20m 29 sec
					59 Finished

 

 

The women produced the best team performance of the day by finishing 4^th on the day with the same three runners also winning the Veteran catorgary. Cath led them home with a super 4t^h place and an individual win in the Vets as she followed home a senior and two juniors. Audra got back to racing with a solid run, lets hope she can keep clear of injury this winter. Jill has been training for the Snowdonia marathon and looked to be short of speed on the first lap but, the miles paid off on the second lap as she moved up the field to anchor the team home. Liz put in a sterling effort to finish next with Nicky finishing less than 30 seconds behind. Moira had a very good run and seems to be showing signs of improvement. Close behind was Madeline who must be doing a bit of secret training somewhere. Belinda who as making her club debut over what is quite a hilly course completed the squad. She put in a really gutsy effort and was rewarded with the biggest cheer of the day, which was well deserved.

4th	C.WHEELER	18m 38 sec	81st	N.CLARK	23m 02 sec
24th	A.DENNISON	20m 16 sec	104th	M.WEST	24m 36 sec
32nd	J.HILLS	20m 47 sec	109th	M.VOSSER	25m 00 sec
70th	E.SANDALL-BALL	22m 33 sec	128th	B.LADE	28m 46 sec

 

 

132 Finished.

The men’s squad was missing a few of the runners who competed last season. Andy Hoile and Chris Try were sadly unavailable and our normal Newbury pairing of Bob and Dave were missing. Combined with Chris’s unfortunate injury the runners who made up the scoring team can be proud to have got us off to such a solid start with a fine 5^th place.

The good news on the day was Mikes storming 6^th place and a win in the vet’s age group. Ian took a break from his triathlon exploits to put in a good performance to take 6^th in the Vets just ahead of Mike Bowering who put in a performance that looks like strengthening the team this season. Mark was next home despite struggling with a calf niggle during the week while Martin showed what depth of talent we have in the club by anchoring home both the senior team and helping the Vets to a narrow victory.

Robert Purcell

 

Dave Henery had a battle royal to get his newly acquired paunch around the course. An over indulgence in Czech dumplings and beer has now earned him full membership of the FAT GITS section of the club. No excuses from me…I was crap while Steve was another to struggle throughout. JT ran well to complete the club interest in a large field of 251 runners.

6th	M.BLISS	31m 34 sec	111th	G.DUNCAN	37m 52 sec
29th	I.FORD	33m 43 sec	145th	A.HARTLEY	39m 17 sec
32nd	M.BOWERING	34m 01 sec	166th	D.BRIGHT	40m 20 sec
42nd	M.SIMCOX	34m 45 sec	184th	G.CLOKE	41m 12 sec
63rd	M.CRAWSHAW	35m 37 sec	195th	D.HENERY	42m 11 sec
78th	R.PURCELL	36m 19 sec	209th	R.FRANCIS	43m 38 sec
81st	K.CLARK	36m 28 sec	218th	S.McNAIR	44m 42 sec
86th	D.VOSSER	36m 50 sec	235th	J.THOMAS	46m 13 sec
89th	P.WHEELER	36m 56 sec

 

 

CONSISTENCEY LEAGUE.

The current tables (after 2 races) are on the notice board. The next fixtures are the cross-country at Reading followed by the Hayling 10 miles, which incorporates the club championship.

The cross-country championship is included in the fixture at Basingstoke on 1^st December with the following days Victory 5 mile also being a consistency event. A full list of consistency races is also on the notice board.

 

FOXDOWN HANDICAP. 25^th OCTOBER.

Sadly there was some disruption at the start due to the traffic and this wasn’t helped by people not knowing their starting times…please check the list on the notice board BEFORE you go out on your warm-up.

Winner on the night was Dave Bright with his improvement of 58 seconds being the biggest PB of the night. Newcomer Dave Titcomb was second ahead of young Aaron who improved his PB by 41 seconds. The other PB (10 seconds) came from Moira who is running much better of late while other good efforts came from JT and Gavin. Dave Henery was fortunate to take advantage of a handicappers cock up but he will now pay dearly in the next race!

Fastest runner was Jamie despite just jogging round!!! Next was Mark ahead of a tie between Andy and Gavin. Standards at the front appear to be slipping over the years with Paul’s time being his slowest since November 1979 though it was good enough for 5^th. Liz has won several medals in this event over the years but wasn’t helped this time with her slowest run in 11 years.

Overton Relays Sunday 28 October from Geoff

In this year’s event the two routes chosen were the Harroway Course for the long leg, and an out and back short relay leg to Northington Farm.

The initial excitement was provided by Mark Simcox just beating Newbury’s Bruce Bamber by 10 seconds to the first changeover, in the Men’s race. Chris Jones took the batten from Mark and further increased the lead over Newbury, to just under 1 minute, by running the fastest short leg of the day. Mike Bowering ran the third leg for us, and although he ran a very good time of sub 20 minutes, he lost ground to Newbury’s in form Simon Vines, which reduced our lead to a mere 30 seconds. Matt Bright, drafted in at the last minute, ran the fourth leg, and an absolute blinder under pressure, to claw back 26 seconds and keep Overton a healthy 50 seconds in front of Newbury.

Unfortunately from this point on, things went downhill for us when our next runner Keith Clark suffered muscle cramp halfway through his race and had to jog back to the changeover, finishing nearly 14 minutes behind Newbury.

By now a result was beyond the our reach, and 14 year old Scott Graham, drafted in at the last minute, ran the short leg in well under 12 minutes, but by now we were 15 minutes behind Newbury.

Jamie Jones, did the right thing and completely ignored our position and ran the fastest long leg of the day for the by almost 1 minute, clawing back 3 minutes on Newbury. Andy Hoare, brought out of semi-retirement for this race due to necessity, ran the final short leg in just under 11 minutes bringing us home a disappointing 13 minutes behind Newbury, in what could have been a very close race.

Meanwhile Cath Wheeler gave the our Ladies team a welcome lead of 3 minutes over Emma Dunham from Andover with Bev Hall from Newbury a further 2 minutes down. Nicky Clark running the short leg increased our lead to almost 5 minutes and was followed by Audra Dennison who again increased the lead to an unassailable 11 minutes over Newbury , who by now had overtaken Andover. The Harrier’s Ladies team were now in complete control and cruised to victory by a margin of 12 minutes through runs by Moira West, Liz Sandal-Ball, and Claire Boyle, with Newbury in second place, and Andover third.

The over 40s Men’s race as usual proved to be a very closely fought contest with the first leg going to Newbury through Ian Coxhead, followed by Mark Elliott from Andover with David Bright finishing about 2 minutes behind the leaders. In the second leg Steve McNair managed to pull back 4 seconds on Newbury’s Irwin Fairclough, but Andover’s Robin Kingston was 30 seconds quicker keeping us firmly at the rear by almost 2 minutes.

It was left to Paddy Keenan to provide any kind of revival, which he did by overtaking Bob Jefferies from Andover and closing down the gap on Newbury to 1 minute. JT did well to keep the deficit on Newbury down to under 2 minutes, leaving Paul with the incentive to try and improve our position, which he did by retrieving 20 seconds from Newbury’s in form Geoff Anderson, with Andover in third place almost 2 minutes behind us.

Clearly time was running out for us. We desperately needed two decisive runs to redress the deficit on Newbury. This we did with great runs from Dave Henery, who ran the fastest short leg and Martin Crawshaw who ran the fastest long leg in the Men’s over 40s race to give the last runner Geoff Cloke a 7 second lead over Newbury. Geoff was never put under any real pressure, and extended the lead to bring the Harriers home 1 minute ahead of Newbury, with Andover a further 8 minutes behind.

Our Mixed team of Eric Tilbury, Helen Kerr, Laura Denny, Belinda Lade, Katie, and Moira West were never a match for the much stronger Newbury team. However most of the team consisted of new members who have only just taken up the sport and were using this event to gain experience and confidence in future competition.

Great team event. Well done everybody.

Senior Men		Time		Veteran Men		Time
Leg	Runner	Mins	Secs	Leg	Runner	Mins	Secs
1	Mark Simcox	20	07	1	David Bright	23	06
2	Chris Jones	9	16	2	Steve McNair	11	08
3	Mike Bowering	19	54	3	Paddy Keenan	22	00
4	Matt Bright	10	36	4	JT	12	27
5	Keith Clark	34	17	5	Paul Wheeler	21	35
6	Scott Graham	11	39	6	Dave Henery	10	38
7	Jamie Jones	18	39	7	Martin Crawshaw	20	23
8	Andy Hoare	10	58	8	Geoff Cloke	11	07

 

 

 

Senior Ladies		Time		Mixed B		Time
Leg	Runner	Mins	Secs	Leg	Runner	Mins	Secs
1	Cath Wheeler	21	56	1	Eric Tilbury	23	31
2	Nicky Clark	12	03	2	Helen Kerr	12	43
3	Audra Dennison	24	17	3	Laura Denny	30	53
4	Moira West	12	39	4	Belinda Lade	14	10
5	Liz Sandal-Ball	26	06	5	Katie	30	39
6	Claire Boyle	13	35	6	Moira West	12	52

Bionic

This month’s award goes to Martin Crawshaw. His training for the current cross country season has stepped up a gear manifesting in a third Vets place at the Alton 10K, 5^th counter in the Senior Men’s race and 3^rd counter for the Vets at Farley Mount, plus the fastest long leg in the Vets category of the Overton Relays.