Men's Surrey County AA Championships, Lloyd Park, 7 Jan 2017

Phil Wins his Sixth, Bels Medal Again

Hitting the podium [that's half-a-dozen for the season], Belgrave’s grinding consistency will pay off with a big win – or two – in the none too distant future.  We were lucky to get at least three of our men out here, with two originally a no before some gentle arm-twisting, and Paskar not nearly race-fit after injury.But the big story was Phil Wicks repeating his majestic debut win here of 2007, with his sixth triumph, drawing him to within just one of Bob Treadwell’s all-time record of 7.  Well, he’ll just have to come back and nab that, won’t he!Andrius started very quickly, but for some reason wasn’t quite at his best, but an iffy run for AJ is still stellar for most of us, and he never stopped fighting.  The team race was dramatic and unpredictable from the get-go.  It seemed that Aldershot were going to be unbeatable as they poured four athletes into the top 8 – surely game, set and match?  But then one of those drifted back and it turned out their back-up was poor.  SLH looked fairly good and Herne Hill solid.  We had our two aces in the hand but then a long gap to our third man.  In which time a Hercules man pattered by, then another, and another, and another, and another and another.  Whoops!  In a rush came Paskar, James, Arne and Roy, with Tom not so far back; and all were beseeched to find at least 5 points each.But Hercules lived up to their name and were too strong, and poor PO drifted alarmingly back through the field.  He really wanted to drop out, but took one for the team in a big way.  The race has been good to him with three fine wins, so this was a little pay-back.Phil remained imperious throughout, getting the comfortable lead early and then calmly settling the account.  Our warm congratulations to him for a Surrey record that now reads:  5, 1, 1, 1, 1, 4, 1, 1.So still just the two wins since precisely 50 years ago to the day.  What news of those lads of 7 Jan, 1967?  Well they’re all still with us (except for dear Gerry North), and the team manager as well!  Most are still intricately involved with Belgrave life and the anchorman that day was out on the course cheering on the troops in 2017.  I emailed the five plus TM, to point out their anniversary, and a ‘grateful to be remembered’ John Thresher in Canada quickly fired back this image of him on that exciting day when we did manage to fell Hercules – by 15 points.1 P Wicks (Belgrave H)  39:17; 2 D Nolan (Croy) 39:48; 3 K Kyereme (HHH) 39:57; 7 A Jaksevicius 40:52; 28 J Williams 43:59; 32 A Dumez 44:31; 38 R Maddams 44:59; 44 P Owor 45:25; 63 T O’Beirne 46:24.  209 finished.1 Hercules W 106; 2 HHH 143; 3 Belgrave H 150; 4 AFD 195; 5 G&G 219; 6 SLH 243.  16 teams closed in.