All roads led to Sutton Park at the weekend for the Midlands Counties Road Relays. Although some of those roads were chocka-block with traffic, and the flow on some, notably the M6, was slow due to two separate accident which resulted in sat nav rerouting and a certain degree of team manager panic. Many thanks to John Abbiss for stepping in and assisting in the process of trying to herd cats on the day.
The men were off first, at noon, with the A team starting strong. Jon Hart took leg one and came home in a barnstorming time of 15.48 with the team in 10th place, Jonny Morris took leg 2 and moved the club up to 4th with 1.55, Dylan Illidge was off next running an excellent 17.49 with the club slipping to 11th, Dan Maskew solidified that position with a 4th leg of 16.45, James Neilson moved us up two places with 16.25, before Dan Turner put his marathon training to good use with 16.36. At the halfway point the club were placed 9th. The 7th leg was taken by Tom Isherwood who ran 17.27 for 11th place, Louie Lambeth ran 17.33 with the club placed 12th, Alex Blair ran 17.33 before handing over to Gary Worrall who recorded 18.00, crossing the line with the club placed 13thwhich was where they would stay. Alex Kelly, with 18.20, and Ben Foster with 18.17, unable to make an impression on the teams ahead. The club did move up a place to 12thwith the disqualification of City of Stoke AC recording a total time of 3.26.28.
The B team finished in a highly creditable 29th place with Derrick Milligan clocking 18.11, possibly prompting a move into the A team for next time, Lee Pearson ran 19.32, Joe Flatley 19.35, Tom Pryor 18.14 knocking on the door of an A team place, Tony Cheema 19.37, Jay Patel 20.05, Greg Asbury 19.12, Paul Rogers 19.47, Paul Dean 18.14, Dave Newport 19.48, Steve Newman 18.56 and Ashley Atkinson finished of the B team proceedings with a 12thleg of 18.47 and an overall time of 3.49.58.
We were also able to field an incomplete C team, it would have been complete but for illness, injury and a late booked holiday. Dave Norman led the team out with a 1stleg of 22.01, Mark Illidge ran 21.57, Andy Dyall clocked 20.55, Russ Blair 28.06, Adam Guy 20.13, Darren Owen-Jones 21.23, Andy Horton 20.38, Phil Evans 21.30, Rob Edwards 20.07 and Paul Clarke 22.18.
This time last year the men’s A team were 21st, the B team were 42nd and we were unable to field anything approaching a C team, so a huge improvement over 12 months the result of which the club have qualified two teams to run in the National Road Relays at the same venue in a fortnight.
The ladies gave the men a ten minutes head start and then charged off after them with Vicki Mackay taking the first leg and bringing the team home in 18th place in 19.23, Millie Williams made her senior road relays debut with a 2nd leg of 22.14 with the club placing 26th , Lucie Tait-Harris ran 20.27 to put the club into 18th again, Sabrina Thomas moved the team up a place with a 4th leg of 20.50, Sarah Thurley ran 23.43, the club dropping slightly to 21st and Lucy Semple was able to maintain that spot with a final leg of 21.41 and a total time for their six legs of 2.08.18.
A two person incomplete B team also had a run out with Emily Simmonds clocking 22.41 and Danni Braine 24.23. It would have been a 4 person team but for a breakdown in communication which resulted in the 3rd and 4th leg runners not competing.The only other action away from Sutton Park was down the M5 in Gloucester where Luke Maskew was putting the finishing touches to hsi marathon training at the Gloucester Half Marathon. Luke backed up an excellent performance at the Hillingdon 20 7 days previously with a 4th place finish in a rapid 1.12.34.
Dave Norman
