Trying To Catch The Highate Express

Another successful day for the Bels came here as we added a silver to our previous silver and two golds at this event in the last five years. We can now boast runners-up spots in 2015 at the Southern cross, Southern 6 stage and Southern cross relay. A neat triple.We kicked off with AJ who in his inimitable style gave us a brilliantly effective run. Just 36 seconds off a resurgent Windsor in the lead, and with bodies neatly lined up ahead for a hard-bitten Cockerpillar to have a nibble at. It was a big shuffle of the deck as Reading, Harrow and Hillingdon were dispatched, while Highgate (uh oh), TVH and Heathside came by.As we were then, but the situation set up nicely for PO, with a body in place every 30 yards; and up in the lead, Herne Hill were less than a minute away, with Keith Newton in action, a great runner but now an M50. Keith battled hard but PO had him with 1200 still to go, and when TVH were gobbled too it was just Highate’s ‘Pocket Rocket’ to go. Alas, the outstanding Eritrean Robel Bahelbi simply wasn’t coming back. In fact he took a further 4 ticks out of our man, for game, set and match.With Royston never getting a sighter of Sean Renfer, who ensured his club smashed the course record, he had a lonely run, but behind him there was all sorts of action. The Herne Hill and Thames Valley fires were put out by Roy’s strong running, but Windsor were back in it in a big way, roaring through the field courtesy of Simon Millett. Closer and closer he got until it was under 40 yards with a mile to go. And Millett boasts a 53 for the four, and 1:57 for the 8, which is a tad frisky for our boy.But Roy is a whizz at pacing and he had planned for just this scenario, ensuring fuel in the tank for the final minutes. Amazingly, the two ran lock-step for the final K, with the speedster unable to gain at all.So we could savour victory over a precocious team aged 20, 21, 25 and 27. Our boys (in a remarkable coincidence) were 34, 34, 34 and 41. Experience triumphed over youth, by 7 seconds!In the B’s James Goymour caught the eye with a powerful run, whilst trusted faves Ben, Pete and Rob brought us home in 17^th, all running within 10 seconds of each other.1 Highgate H 56:45; 2 Belgrave H 57:49; 3 Windsor SEH 57:56; 4 Herne Hill H 58:21; 5 TVH 58:47… 17 Belgrave H ‘B’ 66:19. 34 teams started, 31 finished.A Jaksevicius (7) 14:12; W Cockerell (7) 15:01; P Owor (2) 13:54; R Maddams (2) 14:43."B": J Goymour (17) 15:51; B Hurley (16) 16:46; P Willis (19) 16:46; R Norville (17) 16:56.Fastest: A Silva (TVH) 13:26; R Harvie (WSEH) 13:36; D Thorne (Reading) 13:47.