Beagles win Southern Six Stage Relay

Those pictured are (from left to right) Kairn Stone, Dave Mitchinson, Rory Chesser, Keith Gerrard and James Ellis. Missing from the photo is the sixth runner, Steve Hepples.

The winter season started with a win for our men in the Southern Six stage road relays at Rushmoor Arena, Aldershot on Sunday 25th September. It was our first win in this race since 2006, but the sixth consecutive year in which we have finished in the medals. Conditions were warm but blustery. Our A team was without any of the athletes who went to the World Champs in Daegu, but contained plenty of experience and knowledge of the course. The B team had suffered several withdrawals in the four days before the race – special thanks are due to Stuart Major, who agreed to turn out at 10 p.m. the night before after only starting light jogging a week previously. The race started with a pack of four breaking clear on the first lap, before Chris Powner brought Winchester home first. Dave Mitchinson wasn’t unable to go with the leading pack, but worked hard to limit the damage and took fifth for the stage (18.29). Expected rivals Aldershot, Highgate and Belgrave were further back. The big surprise came with the run of John Clarke for the B team – 18.52 for 13th place. Steve Hepples took over, and maintained our fifth position (18.52) and James Ellis improved our chances considerably with 18.18 on the third leg.

Leaders at this stage were Kent AC, courtesy of Paul Pollock’s 17.37, the fastest of the day. The Lewisham based club increased their lead on the fourth leg, as Aldershot’s Jonny Hay brought the defending champions into the equation, but Rory Chesser’s 18.33 was a decent return. It was all change on the fifth leg as Kairn Stone(18.28) charged to contest the lead with Aldershot’s Scullion. We began to feel a bit more confident as we finished the race with Keith Gerrard on anchor. Keith had finished tenth in the previous week’s Great North Run (first GB finisher) and he proved to have a little too much quality for Aldershot’s Steve Connor, though Connor ran strongly to close the door on any late Kent riposte. Winchester showed renewed energy in fourth, in front of a below strength Belgrave and Highgate Harriers. Our B team toiled with little fortune to finish 49th. Bryn Reynolds was clearly still feeling the effects of a virus, Nathan Riding was solid on Leg 3, whilst Andre Duque was in some pain with a knee injury. David Kail and Stuart Major ensured that we finished a complete team – all the B team deserve great credit for giving one for the team – it was much appreciated. A note of thanks too for Ian Mahoney, who drove David and Andre to the race, but was unable to get near to the finish and patiently sat in the car waiting for their return – a great club man. Report by Team Manager, Bob Smith.