National 12 Stage Road Relay: Men 18th
On Saturday 11th April, the end of the Winter season was marked in the traditional way as the best teams in the country descended on Sutton Park, Birmingham to contest the National 12 stage Road Relays. It was also to be the season's decider for the Ken Bray Trophy, with Angus Holford (photo below right) and Donatas Tumaitis going head-to-head.
First leg was Tom Phillips. Tom was pleased to be first leg and in a race but a 100 mile bike ride the weekend before had caused him to suffer with hip trouble, and it was touch and go if he would recover in time to be able to take his position on the start line.
Photos (courtesy of Bertie Powell)
Photos by Adi Royle (professional photographer)
The fact he did showed excellent powers of recovery, and although 29.18 was slower than Tom may have hoped for, it was a very good leg given all the factors and brought the team in 36th. Next out was Tony Russell. On losing James Stockings the day before, the order had to be reshuffled and Tony was the man who stepped up to take leg two. Just getting over a bug that slightly restricted his performance at the Southern Road Relays, Tony did a good job of holding off some of the fast men coming through, running 17.26 as he closed his leg in 38th position.
Third out was Ed Shepherd. Ed, off to America next year, will be missed not just for his leg times but his good nature in the group. He again showed his quality as he ran our fastest long leg of the day, 28.36, and moved the team up 9 places as we got into 29th place. Out next was Angus Holford. Angus not only had the usual relay tension, but added pressure from the fact that a good leg here could win him the Ken Bray Trophy for the first time. But he had to run a faster leg than Donatas Tumaitis on leg 6. Angus had been going well and in posting 16.43 he looked in excellent form as he set a high bar for Donatas and moved the team up into 27th place.
Fifth out was Daniel Steel. Dan has been pleased with form recently as he gets ready for the London Marathon, and he has enjoyed getting out for the club on his favourite surface in the road races. He had a tough leg as a flyer overtook 7 teams, but Daniel stuck to the team just ahead very well, and with his 30.04 brought the team in 29th. 
Up next was Donatas Tumaitis. Having an idea what Angus had run, he knew what was needed for him to win the Ken Bray Trophy. Donatas (photo, left) ran an excellent leg, overtaking one team and closing on the teams ahead, and his 16.55 meant that, after an 8 month season, the gap between him and Angus had come down to just 12 seconds, with Angus winning the Ken Bray Trophy in this final event.
Out next was Harold Wyber. It is fortunate that Harold has a constitution of an ox as his preparation for both relays may have caused a lesser man to be found asleep under a tree rather than on the start line for his leg! But Harold is in good form and this showed as he ran our second fastest long leg of the day, 29.08, and moved the team way up into 23rd. Eighth out was Joe Everitt. Joe (photo, right) has been on the cusp of the A team all season, and took up the chance of getting into the relay team with great enthusiasm. 
It is a shame that the leg lengths over the last two years have varied so dramatically as it would have been interesting to note how much faster Joe was this year. But last year he was 232nd fastest short leg whereas this year he was 175th, which indicates his improvement. With his 17.33 Joe gained the team one place so now we were in 22nd.
Out next was Matt Shone. What is the thing that most runner's dread when doing the relays? A muscle going is high on the list. And unfortunately for Matt, two minutes into his run, a ping in his calf and a loss of power is what occurred. However what followed is not what would usually happen, as Matt decided to keep going to see if he could complete his 5.5 mile lap.In his own words he ran 'on my own for the whole of the second half, experimenting with styles, sideways slightly, hopping slightly' and still ran 30.27 and made up a place for the team! Matt was probably helped as he knew he had a ready replacement in Daughter Laura, who'd he'd got ready in a Woodford vest, and although the swap would probably have been noticed by the judges, it would have been a very unpopular judge to stop little Laura!
Matt's efforts were greatly appreciated, none more so than by Darren Southcott, our next man out. Darren had come up from Sandhurst for a friend's passing out ball the night before, and although suffering a little from the celebrations was looking forward to a run. His 17.17 was about par on current form, he felt, and he had greatly closed up on the teams ahead. This set up our next man Gavin Lewis. Gavin had already done a full day's work, completing his post round in the morning before coming up to the relays in the afternoon. He had woken with a slight sore throat, and he said at the end he had taken bit too long to get going in the leg so that he felt 29.17 didn't quite do his current form justice, although he still made up two places for the team, to put us in the top 20 for the first time. Fittingly closing the team was Bertie Powell. With injury troubles all season, Bertie has done remarkably well to just be running, let alone running to any quality. The fact he posted our third fastest short leg time, of 17.10, is testament to his considerable talent, and he got the team to its highest position of the day at the finish line - 18th.
This was a solid display from the team. The fact that we had to use our considerable squad depth and then been met by some bad luck on the day, to achieve our goal of finishing in the top 20 showed great resilience and underlined what an excellent team performance it has been all season, and that we do have some real quality. There were five Met League teams in the Top 20, with Highgate the highest of those, in 7th. Newham and Essex Beagles and ourselves were the only teams to compete from Essex. That is the end of the Winter season, so now the attention turns to the track and hope that our track teams can continue their excellent form from last year.