Men's SEAA 6 stage road relay, Crystal Palace, 24 Sept 2017

Spirited Bels Open Their Season  A talented bunch came to race at his pleasant Crystal Palace course, which was just about about a spot on 5k (and not the advertised 6), with a wicked climb per lap.

After a brutal few hours passing his online Child Protection course the day before, Paskar ran like a man off the leash and all but three runners needed protection from the Lion as he was just one position off last year's epic run.  He ended up a mere 4 seconds off the day's individual silver, and who knows, we could just be in for a vintage season from our man of the decade.

Nick Buckle was set off in the firing line and did so well to only leak a few spots despite an over-eager first lap.  His time was then molested by the skipper, whom The Daily Telegraph reports is newly engaged, to Belle Helen White.  Many congrats to them, both serving the club's A-teams.

Perhaps the run of the day then came from Welshy to keep us inside the top 10 with just two to go.  Over to the suave Mr Bundle who rocked up to the venue in the nick of time in street denim threads and two mini 'Bundles of Love' in tow.  It was too cool for school and he said a minute before the off that it might be time to get his 'racing head' on.  So I unscrewed his civilian phizog and popped on his race face and he had a perfectly paced tour.  Well, small malfunction: I said to run 16:20, not 16:21.  Ah well.

Our work was completed by Alex Mills who battled hard all the way round, and we now have 23rd, 2nd, 24th & 22nd for the last 4 years under 'my watch'.  Well... only the mediocre are always at their best!

Teams: 1 Highgate H 1:30:11; 2 Tonbridge 1:30:26; 3 Aldershot F&D 1:30:39; … 22 Belgrave H 1:36:42; … 99 teams started, 79 finished.**The results do not show where the athlete was in the race after each lap, but we can see we were 8th after 2, and 10th after 4:Belgrave: P Owor (4) 14:39; N Buckle (8) 15:46, E Auden 15:41; M Welsh (10) 15:56; N Bundle 16:21; A Mills 18:19.Fastest: 1 P Sesemann (Blackheath) 14:26; 2 M Mahamed (Soton) 14:35; 3 C Olley (Ton) 14:37.