Men's Surrey League, Match 4, Petersham, 7 Feb 2015

Greyhounds Greased

Despite yet another long list of “did not starts” this was a pleasing affair. Our key aim was to take the required 50-odd points out of Ranelagh in order to leapfrog them in the league. Surprisingly this was achieved with room to spare, and our 6^th in what has been an incredibly strong league is not so bad, given the horrors of match 1. There was little coming back from that.Call me deluded if you like, but I think we can make a title push next season. Examine the evidence: the Wokingham half wiped out Phil, Alex and Roy; Goolab and Gauson were spotted by PO gunning it at the same park, but the next day. Pikett, Telkovsky and Welsh all late withdrawals; Smallwood a late arrival; Auden, Taylor and Trees were all some way afflicted… chuck in a cheeky cameo from Connick or a Scot… and suddenly we've 20 aces to fill the 10 spots.Ahh, it’s all ifs and buts, but one thing we do know is that momentum is key.   The waverers may not fancy giving up their afternoon for the fag-end of the table, but it’s amazing what a league push can achieve. Look at our 9 in 17 on that euphoric title-winning blitz 15 years ago!------------------------------------------------But there was still much entertainment to be had from our 10, and we even had a spare in Donny-boy, our skipper from exactly 30 years ago. Another big gun from the '84-5 season was Frank Ward, and here he was running brilliantly to close us in. His 31+-year range of Surrey League scoring must be close to the record, which I expect is around 35.Working backwards, Frase, Doug, Ferg and Knut all got stuck in well and finished within 42 seconds of each other. Knut has only missed two Petersham Surrey Leagues this Century. Ferg is a name for the future and has noted talents. His PB for rowing from the Canary Islands to Antigua (3000 miles) is 48 days and 7 minutes as in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic race of Dec/Jan 2013/14, which his 4-man team won.Doug and the Lase need to work on being less like wild animals at the start, but you have to admire their sass; while the ‘Pillar is mildly appalled at his decline this term, but is resolved to stop the bleeding. Nick and Andy (making his league debut) ran stellar races, right up there fighting in what was a tremendous field, while Gus after an injury-ravaged winter peeled off a real beaut. Local runners of his gifts come along about once a decade, and we must do all we can to nurture the talent.Which just leaves PO’s 11^th Surrey League win, and third in a row, as he repeated his 17-second defeat of John Gilbert from Petersham 2014 by precisely the same margin. No athlete in Surrey League history (man or woman) has ever won four in a row. Maybe our jewel can achieve that feat in October. And perhaps we can chuck another handful of aces at the problem, to start as we mean to go on.  1 P Owor 28:39; 7 G Upton 29:52; 16 A Jaksevicius 30:23; 18 N Bundle 30:27; 54 W Cockerell 32:10; 87 F Scholes 33:37; 98 K Hegvold 34:12; 100 F Logan 34:17; 101 D Morton 34:19; 117 F Ward 35:36; 164 D Anderson 44:17. 174 finished.Teams: 1 THH 208; 2 KEN 250; 3 SLH 326… 6 BEL 476.Overall: 1 Kent 934; 2 THH 1163; 3 SLH 1388; 4 HHH 1617; 5 H/W 1634; 6 BEL 1932; 7 RAN 1993; 8 CRO 2794; 9 REI 2925.