Men's Surrey County Road Relays, Wimbledon Park, 3 Sept 2016
Irrepressibles Too Hot, but Bels Grab Silver
In a fine race the Bels scored a time that would have won in plenty of recent years, but here had to bow to a stunning SLH team. The third fastest time ever seen on the course, just four seconds off their blinder from 2001 and 1:06 off their amazing Gary Staines led team of 2000, with the course now around 8 seconds longer per man, due to two tweaks, on a breezy day, this would have run that lot very close.Before the start, the TM briefed Nick Smallwood that he’d be running for 15:43, so to plan for that. The officials then rounded him up to 15:44, but that’s still an obedient and clinical run from this quietly determined and able athlete.The ‘Lion’ was set up a treat, and didn’t Paskar enjoy devouring every single one of the dozen souls ahead. A brilliant 13:58 is a repeat of his anchor from our last win in 2010 – so no change there. We then had to raid our 8th reserve to complete the team as a slightly tubby gaffer grimly set off having recently returned from a scalding Sardinia where 13 miles were mustered in 10 days – insufficient! I was in major damage-control mode as SLH, Thames and HW blew past.
Still, the plan had been for a 1:20 deficit at half-way before wheeling out the heavies, and it was ‘only’ 1:25. Phil Wicks had another tremendous run for the day’s fastest, but barely caught sight of a remarkable performance from ex-Bel Kev Quinn. Making his debut at this one 20 years ago, Kevin was a key member of our winning team from 1997. On the back of a pretty scary heart operation in the spring, Kev surrendered a measly 20 seconds to our whiz, to land us in deep trouble.Gus Upton now laid siege on the young race-junkie Tom Higgs – he of 235 races since 2012 fame. But as the saying goes, ‘how do you chase a man you can’t see?’ It was a very solid run from Gus, but Higgs’ benevolence only stretched to 22 seconds, leaving Gregg Clark ‘Mission Impossible’, up against the ruthless Tom Holden.Actually, we were very lucky to get Gregg out at all as he hurt his calf on Wednesday, and needed much taping up and the sharp elbows of Lydia in the hours before the gun. Could Gregg hold off HW’s evergreen Matt Sharp for the silver? Easily, as running with great courage he ran full pelt until the skipper gently told him he could shuttle back in the last half mile.
A really fighting performance from the lads then, and a welcome return to the podium at this one after a five-year hiatus. Hats off to the “Irrepressibles”, as they are known. SLH’s rich history saw them as the finest club in the land in the 1950s, before simmering down for the next half-century. But their splendid new track in Coulsdon has triggered their boom, and they can now count themselves as one of the serious players once again. As for us, we’ve just got to keep building the foundations of our squad, brick by brick. We’ll get there.For the stattos, here’s the Surrey road relay medals table since the race came to Wimbledon in 1998:
| Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total medals | |
| Belgrave H | 6 | 6 | 1 | 13 |
| South London H | 5 | 3 | 2 | 10 |
| Herne Hill H | 3 | 3 | 2 | 8 |
| Hercules W | 3 | 2 | 4 | 9 |
| Thames H&H | 1 | 2 | 5 | 8 |
| Hounslow | 1 | 1 | ||
| Boxhill | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Ranelagh | 1 | 1 | ||
| Croydon | 1 | 1 | ||
| Guildford & G'lming | 3 | 3 | ||
| Wimbledon Windmilers | 1 | 1 | ||
1 South London H 1:28:17; 2 Belgrave H 1:30:40; 3 Hercules W 1:32:02; 4 Thames H & H 1:33:05... 22 teams started, 20 finished.N Smallwood (12) 15:44; P Owor (1) 13:58; W Cockerell (4) 16:17; P Wicks (2) 13:48; G Upton (2) 14:45; G Clark (2) 16:07.Fastest: 1 P Wicks 13:48; 2 P Owor 13:58; 3 K Quinn (SLH) 14:08.