Women at Richmond, Men at Coulsdon. 11 October 2014

Our Mercurial Club - Unbeatable one moment, unspeakable the next

Well, if this wasn’t the yin and yang of team management for Will and Charlie… A fabulous women’s squad was assembled, with the co-skipper (Ultra-ing on Sunday) observing in the crowd lest she be needed. They placed first A and B teams, and the season is neatly set up to resist the clear and present danger from Guildford and Clapham.And for the men? Well if you take away the omnipresents Paskar, Gus, Knut and Roy (the latter travelling over 6 hours to be there), the truth is that W & C could not persuade a single first-claim athlete under the age of 60 to run.Could we have done any more? No. Our marketing was fine, we just got caught in one of those almighty sandstorms that sometimes hit a race without warning when all but everyone is a no. On Thursday we had 12, which was still pretty terrible, but then 5 of those dropped out in the next 48 hours, leading to a whamboozled CD pulling on his vest in defiance. And it turns out we were lucky to get PO, who was a very sick puppy, but he refused to buckle. No fewer than 15 wrote to say to expect them at the next one… So there it is, nothing sinister, nothing to panic about, new signings are being made, just one of those days.------------------------------------------And it all started so nicely over at Richmond. Well, the race itself was a headfry as with eye-watering incompetence K&P told the athletes to go ‘short lap/long lap’, and told the marshal to direct the opposite. The distance covered was the same, but confusion and compromised racing tactics reigned. The splendid MW continues to be right up there in the Surrey League, and she was followed not too far back by ZLD finding more pep in the legs than last week. Keri gets fitter by the hour, and how brilliant to see Jojo back and just running down the automaton that is Fee.Our back-up was only a few pips away in CL, running much better than at Aldershot. “Straight back on the horse,” she announced after that flub, and back on she is. Rose and Celine ensured the B’s would win their competition comfortably with high placings; with back up from Anne, in her 15^th year of Surrey League, carousing with our 200-metre Shirley Temple prodigy from the 1990’s, Genia. Young Lea has just started training with Imperial and will come on greatly this winter, but she still had enough weaponry here to dispossess 294 bodies in the joint race. What a wonderful start to our cross-country goals.1 C Ansell (HHH) 24:10; 4 M Wilkins 25:05; 10 Z Doyle 26:03; 18 K Mackenzie 26:39; 20 J Rhodes 26:48; 21 F Maycock 26:54; 25 C Lovegrove 27:20; 47 R O’Brien 28:14; 57 C Duraffourd 28:57; 60 A Hegvold 28:58; 76 G Marek 29:36; 80 L Virchow 29:43. 222 finished.Teams: 1 Belgrave H 73; 2 Guildford & G 114; 3 Clapham C 148; 4 Dulwich R 148; 5 South London H 151; …. 11 Belgrave B 265. 31 A&B Teams.[gallery_bank type="individual" format="thumbnail" title="true" desc="false" responsive="true" animation_effect="bounce" album_title="true" album_id="7"]---------------------------------Back to the men and the battered PO toiled away up at the front, desperately wanting to step off the course but knowing he couldn’t. A true Belgrave hero and no disgrace to bow on this occasion to the excellent Pepper and Gilbert. Gus was a revelation. Set a dreamland target of top 12 by Will, he cruised to one better in a confident and well-paced run. We could just have seen the birth of a Surrey League star. Roy’s massive calves propelled him to a very sound return, albeit hanging on grimly in the second lap; while Will and Knut were a tad below their best, but gave what they had on the day.As for the three amigos to bring us home! Mr cool Tezza looked a like a mafia boss in his Raybans and ran extremely well, dealing with the threat of new man Damian Lewis, taking a break from filming Homeland. And last but not least Charlie became the 19^th Belgravian to trouble the scorers on this day, having also match managed both squads. He first scored for us over 25 years ago, and his determination to take out five Reigate men in the last mile or so was a lesson in tenacity and spirit to us all.Perhaps surprisingly the relegation zone has been avoided, but only just. The fightback starts now - let’s make it swift and severe.1 J Pepper (Ken) 27:57; 3 P Owor 28:57; 11 G Upton 29:47; 37 R Maddams 31:16; 45 W Cockerell 31:37; 77 K Hegvold 33:13; 136 T O’Neill 37:49; 144 D Lewis 38:26; 149 C Dickinson 38:47… 176 finished.Teams: 1 Kent 219; 2 THH 299; 3 SLH 365… 7 Belg 605.[gallery_bank type="individual" format="thumbnail" title="true" desc="false" responsive="true" animation_effect="bounce" album_title="true" album_id="8"]