Pulsating Stuff – And a Corner Turned

What a dramatic half-hour’s racing this proved to be. It’s so easy to dwell on the ifs, buts and maybes, and we can if you like – for two lines: in the 36 hours before, our surefire 2^nd place was blitzed by Wicksy hurting his foot, the skipper coming down with a chest infection, and Gus damaging his calf. Ouch, a profligate 180 points down the swanny.

But this was the day when Belgrave bounced back: we nearly doubled Coulsdon’s turn-out, we blooded three scoring debutants (the 327-329^th in club history); and we were actually pretty lucky with how some got on, because a handful of men had big problems on the field of play.

What can we say about PO? A bit weary after a 10-hour shift at the academy the night before till 11pm, he won a superb duel with Paul Pollock to secure his 9^th league win to go within one of our life-member Gary Staines; with just Dave Taylor, Bernie Ford, Gerry North and Bob Holt to go. Surely Holt’s 18 wins are out of reach, but the rest could be claimed by the lion.

Andrew Connick, based in Dublin, and ruthlessly barred from our National teams, saw our flub in match 1, and got on to his travel agent. What a sweet gesture, and he certainly knew he’d been in a race. Whether it be asthma or the colder air, Andrew is currently having breathing problems in fifth gear, and got into big trouble here when holding 3^rd. He had to shuttle way back, but managed a roaring finish for 5^th. Thanks from all at Belgrave to you AC.

Kris continues his comeback after a lengthy easy spell, and how great it is to have him somewhere we can see him [Teddington as opposed to Indianapolis]. His top-ten here was fine, but there’ll be much more to come. And less than a minute back we all enjoyed a blinder from new man Taras. We knew he was solid, having beaten the ‘Pillar at Parkrun, but we didn’t dare hope for him to go out as hard as he did and hold on. And all this wearing a pair of spikes we presented him that were a size too small (when will the manufacturers regulate their sizing?!).

As for the day’s man-of-the-match, it was surely Gus. What a beast. The calf problem put his participation in doubt, but he started and then at half-way had to pull out in agony. Amazingly, his mind and body had different ideas and he jumped back in. What guts, and a pretty good second lap followed, worth some 45 points to the Bels tally. We hope he hasn’t done long-term damage, and we all take our hats off to the epitome of fighting spirit.

Great to have Nick back who had a fine race long duel with your correspondent. In turn towing me just clear of seven athletes in the next 7 seconds. And as for Knut – another blinder – as he climbed to the 7^th most prolific Surrey Leaguer in Bels history, passing Roger Alsop. For the record they have very similar stats, with Rog scoring 224 points from 40 scores, and Knut 225 points in 38. To settle our account we had Doug Morton, otherwise glued to his CFA books, having a workmanlike run; and Tom, loaded with anaesthetic and a numb face coming straight from the dentist. His eyesight started to fail him midrace due to the drugs. Great to see epic warhorses Phil, Terry and Mal out to play, which just leaves Adam and J-C, who were given a pretty harsh lesson as to the severity of league athletics.

 In the team stakes, relegation is now a forgotten concern, and we have pulled right up on the clubs ahead, and beat Herne Hill for the second time in three matches – good going when you think of their teams of just three seasons ago that were logging under 100 points per match.

Photos by Bill Laws.

1 P Owor 25:49; 5 A Connick 26:48; 10 K Gauson 27:04; 25 T Telkovsky 28:00; 40 G Upton 28:48; 49 N Bundle 29:10; 50 W Cockerell 29:11; 72 K Hegvold 30:10; 105 D Morton 31:42; 106 T Corbett 31:44; 138 P Carstairs 34:02; 152 T O’Neill 35:04; 158 M Byansi 35:28; 172 A Schindler 38:16; 177 J Doukrou 39:06. 190 finished.

Teams: 1 Kent 190; 2 THH 307; 3 SLH 369… 5 Belg 399.

Overall: 1 Kent 411; 2 THH 615; 3 SLH 742; … 7 BEL 1011.

Full Results