This years 12 Stage relays took place at Sutton Park on Saturday on one of the coldest and wettest days encountered for a long time for this annual fixture. Despite having entered a full squad for the event, only 9 runners were able to run on the day, which was unfortunate as there were other runners who would have turned up had they been contacted in time. Apologies here especially to Mick Morris, who would have happily given up walking the dog in the rain to just run in it!

John McNally led the team off on the first of the 4 long legs - 5 miles and recorded a time of 32:27, which was good enough for 62nd place out of the 96 starters. To get some idea of the calibre of runners that we are up against at races like this; the first runner home on this leg recorded 26:33! Mind you the slowest runner was 43:12. Handing over to Martin Dorrill for the first of the 8 shorter legs of 3 miles, Martin improved our position to 54th place with a time of 16:48. Richard Steele was next off on a short leg and in a time of 17:30 managed to increase our placing up to 52nd. With the second of the longer legs on stage 4 it was left to Wayne Oakes to further increase our position to 52nd place and a time of 30:13 - the best long leg time of the day from the Runners. Roland Smythe took over for leg 5 and held onto 52nd place in a time of 19:21. At this stage we were not able to get any further results sheets so I don't know how we managed to do - suffice to say, Stef Shillington took over for leg 6 and ran the short distance in 21:12; Simon Vine was next on a long leg - 31:34, before handing back to Martin Dorrill who was having to run a second leg earlier than anticipated due to Gary Bradbury being held up in traffic. Martin was unable to recapture the speed of his first effort and returned a time of 17:07. Gary eventually started on the next leg and did well for his first competitive run for a long time and recorded a time of 22:03. Mick Williams followed this with 31:21 for a five mile leg before Richard Steele took over once again on leg 11 for 18:11. It was left to Roland Smythe to run the final leg - in the mass start at 4 o'clock. His second effort at the shorter distance was slower than his first in a time of 19:51.

22/04/2001: Flora London Marathon Results

	Batman proudly shows off the new club trophy!	L-R - Terry Dyer, Steve Lee, Roger Wilkes, Lou Frondella, Bob Griffiths, Mick Williams, Carl Barthorpe, Angus McIntyre. The Batman Team - Batman - John Jones; Riddler - Gwyn Davies; Catwoman - Bridget Welsh (Macmillan Cancer Relief); Robin - Gus Davidson; The Penguin - Pete Warren Also running but not available for the photo, Simon Vine and Wayne Oakes.

Provisional results would suggest that Simon Vine had a belter of a race................

Position	Race Number	Name	10K	20K	½ Marathon	30K	40K	Full Marathon	2nd Half
224	873	Simon Vine	36:22	1:13:24	1:17:32	1:52:47	2:33:58	2:43:21	1:25:49
321	31374	Mick Williams	39:44	1:19:09	1:23:31	1:58:36	2:38:42	2:47:27	1:23:56
383	19800	Lou Frondella	39:44	1:19:10	1:23:32	1:58:37	2:40:04	2:49:42	1:26:10
627	7813	John McNally	41:20	1:22:27	1:27:01	2:03:36	2:46:21	2:55:47	1:28:46
728	20899	Wayne Oakes	39:43	1:19:09	1:23:32	1:59:30	2:48:24	2:58:19	1:34:47
1264	7044	Tom Dable	41:41	1:24:27	1:29:14	2:08:17	2:54:30	3:04:51	1:35:37
3952	47261	Roger Wilkes	49:11	1:38:01	1:43:34	2:14:18	3:17:34	3:30:49	1:47:15
4200	7812	Angus McIntyre	45:25	1:32:41	1:38:03	2:22:53	3:20:11	3:32:53	1:54:50
8445	0900	Bob Griffiths	58:28	1:51:36	1:57:29	2:46:19	3:44:39	3:57:57	2:00:28
10067	30785	Carl Barthorpe	58:39	1:53:46	1:59:34	2:49:28	3:49:13	4:06:19	2:06:45
15831	20680	Steve Lee	1:03:34	2:02:11	2:08:50	3:07:26	4:23:48	4:39:37	2:30:47
21237	18455	John Jones	1:29:57	2:53:51	3:00:19	4:01:02	5:15:50	5:32:23	2:32:04
21238	34126	Gwyn Davies	1:29:55	2:53:50	3:00:17	3:55:50	5:07:58	5:32:23	2:32:06
21239	3189	Gus Davidson	1:29:58	2:53:51	3:00:20	3:59:30	5:15:50	5:32:23	2:32:03
21240	42285	Bridget Welsh	1:29:57	2:53:51	3:00:18	4:01:01	5:15:51	5:32:23	2:32:05
21241	1229	Pete Warren	1:29:55	2:53:50	3:00:17	3:55:44	5:08:24	5:32:23	2:32:06

Well done to everyone - some excellent times and a few personal bests.(However, tough luck story of the day must go to Terry Dyer, well aware that he only got six miles before being forced to pull out last year - he only got half a mile this time before being forced to retire. What made matters worse, the baggage buses had already left, so he didn't have any warm clothing to get back into. He was eventually taken to the finish, but not quite in the manner he would have wanted.)

As for the fancy dress team, they hadn't even given it a thought that they may have won - but approaching the Mall they were asked to keep to the left and as they went past the presentation area - the cameras came out and on crossing the line were told that they had won the "Flora London Marathon Best Fancy Dress" . Along with the bouquet of flowers and sashes they also received the small matter of a cheque for £2,000! All in all the fund raising went well and with the cheque as well they may well have ended up collecting over £5,000 for Macmillan Cancer Relief.

Unfortunately, the coverage from BBC didn't actually show our team in fancy dress although they believed that the cameras were following them and Gwyn was interviewed by Garth Crooks towards the end. No footage was actually shown though.

 

29/04/2001: Stratford Half Marathon - incorporating Warwickshire Half Marathon Championships

Once again the London Marathon proved to be a good pre race warm up for the Stratford Half. The marathon men had outstanding performances on a changed course from last year due to foot and mouth restrictions which meant that the Greenway could not be used.

Top spot went to Martin Dorrill who came 9th overall and 3rd in the Championships itself. From a field of over a thousand runners, Martin's 1:17:54 was an excellent performance, but just to reinforce the current form of our top runners, Simon Vine came in 15th with 1:19:24; Mick Williams 18th 1:19:46; Lou Frondella 23rd 1:21:06 and Wayne Oakes 1:21:55 for 28th.

The change in route meant that it was a tougher course than last year with two strength sapping hills a 10 and 11 miles. Along with the warmer than expected weather, it made the results all the more impressive.

Along with retaining the Warwickshire Half Marathon Championship for the third year, the A Team also won the overall Senior Mens Team Trophy. Gwyn Davies back fresh from running the marathon as The Riddler, recorded a personal best for his 94th place, whilst Pat Noonan made a welcome return with a great run. There was also a fine performance from Richard Steel - not usually known for running this distance - he could have the making of a marathon runner yet.

Full Results:

Position	Name	Time	Last Year	Time
9	Martin Dorrill	1:17:54
15	Simon Vine	1:19::24
18	Mick Williams	1:19:46	21	1:23:51
23	Lou Frondella	1:21:06	44	1:26:49
28	Wayne Oakes	1:21:55
34	Pat Noonan	1:22:41
39	Richard Steel	1:23:41
40	John McNally	1:23:48
94	Gwyn Davies	1:28:56
157	Roland Smythe	1:34:09	51	1:27:40
296	Barry Elkington	1:41:56
366	John Jones	1:45:29
397	John Woodrow	1:46:49
411	Lawence Copeland	1:47:34
520	Mick Morris	1:52:10	410	1:50:24