Newham and Essex Beagles senior men have continued their winning streak. The Beagles 'A' team were crowned champions at the ERRA National Road Relay Championships at Sutton Park, Birmingham, with a new course record of 1:43:14 ahead of Belgrave Harriers.

    1  Newham And Essex Beagles    'A'  1:43:14
    Dave Mitchinson    (13) 17:30
    Chris MacKay       (2) 17:16
    Lee Merrien        (1) 17:10
    Kevin Skinner      (1) 17:42
    Mo Farah           (1) 16:33
    Moumin Geele       (1) 17:03
The Beagles 'B' team finished a respectable 23rd place

Full results

17^th October 2009.

Sutton Park, Sutton Coldfield.

Conditions and result – perfect.

We travelled to the team hotel last Friday with high hopes of achieving our first win in this race since 2006. Mark Warmby was unable to run due to a toe injury, whilst Rory Chesser fractured his elbow when knocked over by a cyclist that morning as he returned home from a fitness test on an injured ankle. Bad luck to Rory who was obviously fated not to race in this one. John Pike and John Clarke took Mark and Rory’s places at short notice – thanks to both for responding so positively.

The team was well supported on the day – Mark Warmby came down from Yorkshire, and Jamal came up from London with his coach Peter McHugh (having run a 2.32.10 marathon in Italy the previous weekend) along with various family and friends of the runners.

The first leg is always loaded as smaller clubs will give their best runner a chance of glory by pitching them in at the start. It was no exception this time, and Dave Mitchinson^th place. The strength on the first leg was evident as Sam Farah’s respectable 17.52 sufficed for only 28^th place. sensibly stayed off the early pace, before picking things up before the turn. Top junior Dave Forrester (Liverpool St Helens) led the field home but there was an absence of big clubs in the top half dozen and we were happy with Mitchy’s 17.30 stint in 13

Chris Mackay had secured his place in the first team on the strength of a tasty showing in Scotland the previous weekend and he timed his effort superbly here, out sprinting three close rivals in the finishing straight with a 17.16 clocking which moved us into a narrow lead. The expected medallists had all come into the reckoning – Bedford, Aldershot, Belgrave, Leeds and Shettleston included. Further down the field, Kairn Stone had a stormer for the B’s – his 17.59 was his fastest ever round Sutton Park.

We had expected that Lee Merrien would take over on Leg 3 with targets in front of him, but Chris had put paid to that notion with his wonderful run, so Lee made the most of the situation and piled on the pressure from the front. His 17.10 was the eighth fastest of the day and gave us a valuable 38 seconds lead. Ian Grime had been suffering with a heavy cold and found it was still in his system as he ran 18.43 to leave the B’s in 23^rd position.

It was now Kevin Skinner’s turn in his last race before a well earned rest. In the last six months Kev has revised his pb’s for 5000, 10,000 and half marathon massively. His Achilles has been causing him some recent problems and he was slightly disappointed with his 17.42 clocking but from a team perspective it was a case of ‘job done’ as only Leeds made serious inroads into his lead through James Wilkinson’s 17.19. That was as good as it got for the Northern champions who once again turned out a fine competitive team which ultimately slipped out of the medals. Further down the field, Scott Sterling ran superbly to lift the B team to 22^nd with an 18.15.

We had left our two fastest runners to last and now it was Mo Farah’s turn, in his first road relay appearance since we last won this race in 2006. He ran 16.33, the fastest ever by a beagle in this race, and the fastest on the day. Mo is the best male endurance runner in the country and didn’t leave anyone in any doubt of the fact on this special day, also winning may friends with his willingness to sign autographs and pose for photos. Behind Mo, Phil Wicks reeled in three teams to put Belgrave (last year’s winners) into 2^nd, whilst Chris Thompson lifted Aldershot into 3^rd. John Pike relished his opportunity to run in the B team with a 19.11.

Moumin Geele had half an eye on the Cabbage Patch 10 the following day (he won in 50.03) and wasn’t running flat out but still recorded the 3^rd fastest time of the day (17.03) to bring us home with a huge winning margin of 1 minute 40 seconds – surely one of the most conclusive wins of all time. Our winning time of 1.43.14 shattered the course record by 70 seconds. Belgrave held onto the silver medals to continue their remarkable sequence of medal winning performances in this race, whilst Southern champions Aldershot retained 3^rd place. Matt Janes ran superbly on the last leg for Bedford (4^th) just one week after running a marathon and Leeds were solid in 5^th. Both Bedford and Leeds would normally have medalled with their finishing time, and Scottish champions Shettleston (6^th) and Morpeth were not far behind. No fewer than 14 teams ducked under 1.48 – a time which would usually result in a top 8 finish. These statistics are worth bearing in mind – we cannot rest on our laurels as the overall strength displayed in this race showed a welcome return to the high standards seen so often in the past.

Finally, all credit to the B team, who were brought home by a storming run by John Clarke (18.43) in 23^rd position (1.50.43) – only Aldershot’s B team got the better of us in the Battle of the B’s and our victims included the A teams of all our Met League rivals with the exception of near neighbours Woodford Green who finished 20^th.