VPH & THAC NEWS

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VPH & THAC NEWS

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Circulation 262 dubose@enterprise.net www.vphthac.org.uk October 2002

12 Oct - Club 3.5M Champs, VP

19 Oct - Chingford League, Loughton

20 Oct - Mddx Marathon Champs

24 Oct - AGM

26 Oct - National 6-/4-Stage Relays

27 Oct - Young Athletes Relays

2 Nov - Club 5M/2.5M XC Champs

5 Nov - Chingford League, Eastway

9 Nov - Vets 5M XC Champs-North

London XC Champs

10 Nov - Rainforest 10K, VP

16 Nov - North of the Thames Jr (incl.

Men's 7.5M XC Champs)

23 Nov - Ware Cup (Men's B and Women's Teams/London XC Champs (Men's A Team)

8 Dec - Middlesex County Indoor Champs, Eton

14 Dec - Chingford League

28 Dec - Chingford League

4 Jan - Mddx XC Champs (incl. Women's Club 8K XC Champs)

7 Jan - Mob Match

18 Jan - North of the Thames Sr XC Champs (incl. Ladies 5K XC Champs)

25 Jan - SEAA XC Champs (incl. Men's Club 10M XC Champs)

1 Feb - Chingford League, VP

8 Feb - Club 10M Road Champs, VP

22 Feb - National XC Champs

4 Mar - Chingford League, Eastway

15 Mar - Club 20M Road Champs, VP

25 Mar - Physical Shield, Loughton

29 Mar - Open 5, VP

13 Apr - London Marathon

**Club Handicap races held on the last

Thursday of each month.

There'll shortly be a sign-out board put up at the hall exit. The idea is to write your name on it when you go out running. This is to prevent members being locked out when the person with the keys thinks everyone has vacated the premises and locks up for the night.

1st - £50; 2nd - £20, 3rd - £10

June winners: 1st M. Carr; 2nd S. Franey; 3rd P. Franey

July winners: 1st T. Harding; 2nd C. Reid; 3rd R. Newbold

August winners: 1st M. Eldridge; 2nd J. Roche; 3rd P. Franey

September winners: 1st W. DuBose; 2nd R. Iron; 3rd C. Reid

Once again, we have reached that time of year (1 November) when annual subscriptions are due. With the club having spent in excess of £32,000 this past financial year, I hope you can appreciate the vital need to pay your subs immediately. Here’s how much you have to pay and what that entitles you to:

1. Can compete in league competition

2. Can compete in Club Championships

3. Can use all training facilities at Club HQ, Cadogan Terrace

1. Can compete in league competition

2.CANNOT compete in Club Championships

3. Can use all training facilities at Club HQ, Cadogan Terrace

1. Can compete in league competition

2.CANNOT compete in Club Championships

3. CANNOT use training facilities at Club HQ, Cadogan Terrace

For those who are required to pay £70, we offer an early payment incentive scheme. If you pay me by 31 December 2002, you can subtract £10 and pay just £60 (which works out to a mere £1.15 per week). Here are the ways that you can all pay:

1. Send me a cheque for £60/£20/£10/£5 payable to VPH&THAC. I'm at:

Wayne DuBose

41 Ansley Way

St Ives, Cambs PE27 6SN

2. Hand your money over to Darren Stobbart (or whoever is at the bar) and he/she/they will keep it in a neat pile until I show up.

3. Hand your money to Terry Adams or Rich Newbold at the track.

4. Pay by standing order. The details are:

Bank: HSBC

Branch: South Woodford E8

Sorting Code: 40-06-23

Beneficiary's Name: Victoria Park Harriers

and Tower Hamlets AC

Account Number: 31384414

Reference: Your name

Amount: £5

Commencing: 5th November

Due Date and Frequency: 5th Monthly

5. Wait until 1 January and write out a cheque for £70.

Graded official and qualified active coaches (as determned by the Board of Directors) will receive free membership for the following year based on their contributions in an official capacity for the previous year.

Club Open 5M H/C, VP, 27 Jun 02
H'cap Actual

52:28 47:58
25 Agnes Collen 52:35 39:50*
26 Kevin Knight 53:42 43:42*
27 Henry ? 54:03 36:33*

On the day after the English Schools championships, and in competition with the World Cup final, we fielded a depleted team, but so did all the other boys teams who competed. As a result, we gained second place and can now expect to be middle placed in the league. This is a very good result for our first year in this competition. Particular thanks to Ben Chukwu-ona, who was running well off his best after the gruelling school championships the previous day, but still delivered maximum points coming first in the three events he entered and helping the under 15 relay team to finish first. At the last meeting in Ashford, Carl Paul stayed at home to watch the football and set the video for his brother. It was good to see them reverse roles this time around and Carl proceeded to take two first places, one second and take part in the winning relay team. Every under 15 athlete achieved at least one first place, showing just how high our standard has become. If we could only cover all the events, we would be leading this league. Even the under 13s were unable to cover all events on this occasion, but still put in a solid performance although some of the athletes are at the bottom end of this age group. Just four athletes covered as many events as they could manage. Simon Marriot-Dixon led the way with the best performances of the squad but as can often happen in league events, it was the other three who achieved a first position in at least one event. It all goes to prove that in league competition, every team member counts. (Pete Snell reports)

Under 17s - No competitors

Under 15s

100A B. Chukwu-onu 13.2 (1)

100B K. Agyemang 13.6 (1)

200A B. Chukwu-onu 26.6 (1)

80HA C. Paul 15.0 (1)

80HB D. Clarke 15.5 (1)

HJA C. Paul 1.45 (1)

HJB B. Chukwu-ou 1.35 (1)

LJA D. Clarke 4.35 (1)

LJB K. Agyemang 3.75 (1)

SPA M. Faidairo 8.01 (1)

SPB K. Agyemang 7.02 (1)

DTA M. Faidairo 14.93 (3)

JTA Carl Paul 22.11 (2)

JTB M. Faidairo 16.00 (2)

4x100m 54.1 (1)

Under 13s

100A F. Islam 15.3 (4)

100B S. Miah 17.7 (3)

200A D. Blissett 34.6 (3)

800A S. Marriot-Dixon 2:42.6 (2)

800B S. Miah 3:24.5 (2)

LJA S. Marriot-Dixon 4.33 (2)

LJB F. Islam 3.93 (1)

SPA D. Blissett 4.98 (1)

SPB S. Miah 3.96 (1)

4x100m 62.7 (3)

1^st Medway & Maidstone - 130 points 2^nd VPH&THAC - 81 points

3^rd Invicta East Kent - 70 points

4^th Highgate Harriers - 56 points

Congratulation to Darren Robinson, Jim Roche, Patrica Asante, and Banke Olofinjana on their selection to represent Middlesex County.

Men

400H D.Robinson (Mddx) 57.2 (2)

(also ran in 4x400m relay)

3000 J.Roche (Mddx) N/S 9:17.6 (7) PB

Women

400 P.Asante (Mddx) 62.2 (3)

Javelin B.Olofinjana (Mddx) 29.82 (3)

Assembly League, Dulwich, 4 Jul 02
Men
9th Tony Lashmar 16:39
20th James Waters 17:29
25th Terry O'Neill 17:54
28th Mike Penman 17:58
36th Tim Mitchell-Smith 18:34
41st Gary Deathridge 18:58
44th Francis Bray 19:12
45th Dave Robinson Sr 19:13
49th Mark Sutton 19:38
66th Phil Miller 21:38
71st Graham Prince 22:26
75th Jon Mail 23:30
76th Kevin Knight 24:13

Women
5th Georgia Wood 20:45
20th Louise Guthrie 26:12

Results
Women - 6th 48 pts
Men A - 4th 82 pts
Men B - 3rd 166 pts
After 4 races
Women - 4th 23 pts
Men A - 4th 29 pts
Men B - 3rd 32 pts

100A M. Ayoola 13.6 (3)

100B D. Paul 14.5 (3)

200A L. Bishop 30.5 (4)

200B D. Paul 31.7 (3)

400A P. Asante 61.3 (1)

400B M. Bishop 69.0 (2)

800A M. Bishop 2:38.7 (2)

800B L. Bishop 2:37.2 (2)

1500A L. Burgess 5:57.7 (3)

1500B C. Brugnoli 6:19.5 (2)

3000A L. Bruce-Burgess 12:47.0 (3)

3000B A. Fake 14:57.0 (2)

LJA S. Anibaba 4.59 (2)

LJB A. Clough 3.75 (3)

TJA C. Brugnoli 7.10 (4)

PVA A. Markiewicz 1.70 (1)

PVB A. Fake 1.70 (1)

SPA B. Olofinjana 9.24 (2)

SPB K. Songhoron 8.72 (1)

DTA K. Songhoron 30.93 (2)

DTB B. Olofinjana 21.94 (1)

JTA B. Olofinjana 28.88 (1)

JTB P. Asante 17.56 (1)

HTA K. Songhoron 26.01 (2)

HTB B. Olofinjana 20.88 (1)

4x100 54.2 (3)
4x400 4:40.3 (3)

U17

300H S. Anibaba 55.8 (1)

U15

100A E. Ali 13.4 (2)

100B R. Feeley 14.1 (2)

200A C. Whittaker 29.1 (1)

200B M. Zah 30.9 (1)

800A L. Blake 2:53.9 (1)

75HA M. Zah 13.2 (3)

75HB L. Blake 14.9 (1)

LJA E. Ali 4.86 (1)

LJB C. Whittaker 4.49 (1)

HJA C. Whittaker 1.20 (1)

SPA L. Blake 7.32 (2)

DTA B. Abdul 15.74 (1)

JTA L. Blake 18.67 (1)

4x100 56.8 (1)

VPH&THAC 174

Braintree 145

Cambridge & Coleridge 115

Phoenix 99

Lewes 3

Great day at the Orion 10. Not only did we win the overall team
trophy (3 to score - we placed 5th, 6th and 7th), but Tony won a prize for being 5th overall and Pete McHugh DeClare won the M50 category. The trophy is now resting proudly in the bar. (Tim Mitchell-Smith reports)

5 Tony Lashmar 58:25

6 Laurence Curley 59:16

7 Jim Roche 59:26

16 Mike Penman 63:34

18 Peter McHugh DeClare 64:57

26 Tim Mitchell-Smith 68:03

30 Francis Bray 68:39

56 Les Vialls 74:32

92 Agnes Collen 82:34

114 Jonathan Mail 86:48

132 Jo Sargent 91:04

(156 finishers)

Rikki Fifton, Graham Burns, Sam Pullan, Lee Bruce, Richard Bruce, Abdul Buhari, Jon Cullom, Carey Simon, Terry Beackon. With six of them representing our very best in the club, you could be forgiven if you thought that this constituted the A team which competed against 4th-placed Milton Keynes who were on their home turf. In fact, this was a list of those who were missing for a variety of reasons. There were those of us who were mentally prepared for 2nd place, rationalising that a runner-up slot here and a win in our last match would still guarantee us the divisional title. By the end of the day, however, the team had showed a lot of character. There were many who were willing, and able, to go above and beyond the call of duty in order to secure the club's fifth Southern League win of the season and remain unbeaten. Perhaps the athlete who best personified this call to arms was Eddie Thomas who completed the tough schedule of running the 800m, then the 400m, and finally the 3000m steeplechase. Not content to merely put in points-raising appearances, Eddie gave it his all and ran personal bests in all three with the added extra of winning the B string 'chase and moving into second spot in the club rankings this year. Equally impressive was Rich Newbold who, despite illness during the week and despite rupturing the lower part of his foot on the third lap of the race (I saw the injured area afterwards and it was real), he held off Eddie with an extraordinary gutsy run to gain his 12th 'chase win in a row over the past three seasons. Rich's run was the kind of effort that makes you want to go out and be the best you can be, do the best you can do. On the day, there weren't many club victories; just four A strings and six B strings, but as usual our ability to gain good placings in many events was the key. This was exemplified by Lourens Malan who had run a 400m only once this year in competition, but rose to the occasion to finish second, knocking 1.6 seconds from his PB. He then had to go straight to the pole vault to attempt his opening height. With his energy level seriously depleted, Lourens failed on his first two tries. Terry Adams and Wayne DuBose stood by nervously, advising and encouraging Lourens on his final attempt. He was seconds way from gaining zero points for the club, but once again his competitive juices flowed strongly and he cleared with ease and, in true Lourens style, went on to equal his best. Earlier, Darren Robinson was the lead-off VPH&THAC'er who got the ball rolling on the track with an emphatic win in the 400m hurdles. A man of pride, not able to think in terms of energy conservation with three races still ahead of him, Darren won by the better part of 30 metres. In the sprint hurdles, Richard Alleyne smoothly skimmed the barriers to A string victory with another sub-15.0 clocking to go along with his win in the B string 100m earlier in the day. Richard was backed up in the hurdles by Dave Robinson who also ran out as a convincing winner. Dave was called upon to do twice as many events as he normally does. Late call up (the night before) Tony Lashmar did us proud running a PB in the 5000m to win the B string race by half the straight in quite hot conditions. His efforts complemented those of Jim Roche's who bravely doubled up in the 5000m and 1500m. Tim Grose was another who found himself running more races than he's used to. After completing his best Southern League 800m time of the season, Tim teamed up with Lourens, Darren, and Richard Alleyne to run the club's best 4x400m relay time of the year, and certainly faster than anything the old VPH ran over the previous eight seasons. This was very much due to Darren, despite his three previous flat-out races and a very good high jump clearance of 1.75m, who managed to pull back 30 - 40 metres on the third leg to give Richard a fighting chance. Richard, with his smooth-flowing, deceptively fast stride, caught up the 25 metres to latch onto the two runners in front. Although slightly tying up in the last 30 metres, he held on for 2nd. Club eyes were widened when we saw that he had run his leg in 50.3 seconds! Over to the field, and although not having a banner day, the throwing team of Wayne DuBose and Tony Alexander swept the shot putt, giving Wayne his second win of the year and Tony his season's best by over half a metre. Tony went on to throw his best javelin of the year, while Wayne threw the discus out to his furthest for two years to consolidate his lead within the club. Our other victory in the field came in the B string high jump, courtesy of Marc Malone. Marc, who competed in 5 events, later linked up with Richard Alleyne, Darren Robinson, and Toleme Ezekiel to just miss out on the sprint relay win, recording the same time as the winners. Running anchor leg, Toleme made up 5 metres on the leader to put the team into contention. Today, there were some marks which wouldn't ordinarily be seen in our A team's results, but today wasn't so much about quality, it was more about heart. Toleme, Richard, Marc, Darren, Lourens, Eddie, Tim, Jim, Tony, Dave, Wayne, Tony, and Rich; these 13 men showed heart.

4x100 Marc Malone, Richard Alleyne, Darren Robinson, Toleme Ezekiel 44.8 (1)

Havering 81

LJB M. Wheeler 4.55 (4)

SPA R. Porter 10.96 (1) #1 in club

SPB G. Burns 9.17 (1)

DTA C. Murtagh 22.69 (5)

DTB A. Castle 21.63 (1)

HTA G. Burns 30.72 (3)

HTB A. Castle 18.21 (3)

JTA A. Castle 36.95 (2)

JTB R. Porter 31.25 (3)

Brighton 128.5

Herts Phoenix 121

West Suffolk 117

VPH&THAC 108.5

Bexley 63

Rikki Fifton's third silver at these Championships was unthinkable six weeks ago with his season wrecked by injury. If only he could have relaxed through the race, he would have repeated his victory over the eventual winner in the semi-final. Karenate Songhoron finished in 15th place in the discus with a throw of 30.55m. Chris Musa didn't compete through injury. Alex Babb went out in the heat of the 200 metres. (Alf Vickers reports)

1st in heat R. Fifton (London) 10.90

2nd in final R. Fifton (London) 11.07

From: "Lydia Bruce-Burgess"

Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2002

Subject: Results of New Forest 10

A few of us competed in the New Forest 10M on Sunday 14th July. Despite the heat wave which made it seem more like the Saharan 'Marathon des Sables', there were some really impressive performances. Beautiful course, and extremely well organised, not suprising that it's still in Runners World top 100 races.

39th Simon Perham 67:08

406th Anna Fake 1:38:08

511th Sally Weddell 2:00:52

520th Lara Orija 2:02:20

DNF Lydia Bruce-Burgess (very embarassing seeing as this was home turf).

As in 2000 (Symons won) and last year (I won), the battle was between the two of us. I tracked him for the first three miles then eased away!!! Perfect tactics if I say so myself. Quite muddy underfoot (course about 3 miles off-road, 2 miles on road), so time wasn't great but was unimportant really. Best I've done is 27:03. Now 4 wins in 5 years in this and my 9th win (3 800, 3 1500, 1 Mile, 1 5M, 1 10K) this summer.

1st Tim Grose 27:42 (self-timed)

2nd David Symons 28:30 (approx)

Cheers , Tim

Bewl Water 15M, Wadhurst, Sussex, 15 Jul 02 (by Francis Bray)

You may have seen the Rave Run feature in August's Runner's World - the Bewl Water and Nature Reserve near the Kent/Sussex border south of Tunbridge Wells. Well, unlike one of the previous "Rave Run" features where the runner appeared to be airbrushed into the picture, there are plenty of real runners at Bewl Water which provides a perfect, almost idyllic setting. In the space of 9 months, I've participated in two official events which use the cross-country paths around the entire reservoir (12 ½ miles long) which has just about everything a runner could wish for. Take the mid-July Bewl 15 run, starting from the Sussex hamlet of Wadhurst. The 1st mile to the reservoir is downhill over rutted farmtracks, then a grassy field before hurdling a stile to join the reservoir path clockwise. This consisted of an undulating mix of hard mud, grass, tarmac, even some unavoidable slushy mud puddles, although thankfully not too many. Down about 40 steps, across the dam (which is flat to provide temporary relief for nearly a mile) for a great view of the water and the ferry. Apart from here, mostly all the way up to 10 miles, you have to be aware of the lie of the terrain, else your ankle might decide to do the twist. However, as if that wasn't enough, at 10 miles the fun really starts. The route is forced to bypass the nature reserve, so a 2 ½ mile section of road ensues - one mile of gentle but noticeable uphill, followed by a sharp drop, followed by the steepest uphill I've ever come across in all my runs. And it wasn't the last uphill either! Back onto the reservoir cross-country route for about another 1 ½ miles to complete the circuit before hurdling the stile back for the one mile uphill along farmland to the finish. And what a relief, making BBQ lunch and real ale at the Greyhound in Wadhurst all the more pleasurable, and a fitting reward. Bewl Water is well worth the effort of paying a visit, if only for a leisure and pleasure walk and not pursuits demanding a greater aerobic function. 1st - 1:25:24; My time: 1:41:07 27th/156 (the organiser admitted it was a "shade" below 15M, but didn't elaborate).

On a day where the weather forecasters were confidently predicting rain (with a 90% certainty), we had the rare circumstance of a sunny day during almost all of our club championships. It's a known fact that our club champs and rain go hand-in-hand. But not this time. The first battle for medals took place in the women's pole vault. And what a ding-dong head-to-head it was as co-favourites Anna Fake and Aude-Claire Markiewicz achieved personal bests, but with Anna prevailing with the better height on this occasion. Finishing quietly in third place was 11-year-old Maxime Salter-George who added 5 cm to her best and is no doubt a future club champion if she sticks to it. On the men's side, a revelation of pole vaulting took place. Although adding 20 cm to last year's club championship record, Chris Murtagh found himself in 5th place. Art Castle, using raw talent over Chris's much better technique, cleared 2.80m but was out of the medals in 4th place. Mike Wheeler, seemingly forever a 2.40 - 2.60m vaulter, added a foot to his best as he cleared 2.90m. Going into the event with a comfortable 30 cm best this season over Lourens Malan, Wayne DuBose must have thought that the gold medal was his for the taking. However, despite clearing 3.20 and smashing the championship record, Wayne had to bow to the talent of Lourens who added that vital 30 cm for yet another personal best, not to mention the new championship record. Lourens indeed knows how to rise to the occasion. His win and the others' improvements are in no small measure due to the coaching of Terry Adams, who is slowly but surely building up a group of highly enthusiastic vaulters. We're going to see much more from this group in the coming seasons. Despite a very small turnout for the women's club championship events, those who did show were determined to collect their fair share of medals before those who rank far ahead of them finally wise up and start vying for those precious club championship medals in the coming years. In addition to her vault win, Anna also collected gold in the javelin and high jump. Also winning three events on the day was Sarah Johnsen who claimed championship wins in the shot putt, 100m, and discus. Cecile Brugnoli and Lydia Bruce-Burgess shared the honours of one gold medal each, winning the triple jump and mile, respectively. In the men's hurdles and barriers races, there were some fine displays of athleticism including two championship best performances. In the 400m hurdles championship race, Richard Alleyne ran in his first ever race over this distance and responded by winning by over three seconds and knocking over a second from Wayne DuBose's record set in the mid-Seventies. And it was probably that far back when we last had two athletes under 60 seconds in the same race, as Lourens just ducked under the minute to secure the silver medal. Fortunately for Lourens, Richard, with a best of 14.70 this year, departed prior to the start of the 110m hurdles. This paved the way for Lourens to pick up his second gold medal of the day, but he had to work for it as Dave Robinson ran him close with a PB of 18.0 secs. The best display of individual effort of the day came from Tim Grose who ran his first 3000m steeplechase of the year. Despite having no opposition, with the other starters dropping out early, Tim reeled off laps of between 77 - 81 seconds to finally remove Pete Read's 21-year-old club championship record of 9:55.7 and also improve his PB by 10 seconds. Interestingly, Tim's timekeeper, Wayne DuBose, had run in Pete Read's race all those years ago, recording his fastest ever time of 10:28.7. A great day's athletics and let's hope that in the seasons to come, more members will realise that their opportunity for immortality lies in the recorded history of club championships.

3rd Maxime Salter-George 1.55

1st Lourens Malan 3.30G

3rd Mike Wheeler 2.90B

4th Cecile Brugnoli 4.32

1st Richard Alleyne 56.3G

Women's JT

4th Anna Fake 16.7

4th Lydia Bruce-Burgess 8.43

Men's Guest TJ

Art Castle 10.23

Women's HJ

1st Anna Fake 1.10G

2nd Lydia Bruce-Burgess 0.90

Cecile Brugnoli NHC

Men's Guest HJ

1st Art Castle 1.50

2nd Mike Wheeler 1.30

U17

100A T. Balogun 11.3 (2)

100B K. Peters 11.9 (1)

200A T. Balogun 24.2 (3)

200B L. Herbert 25.2 (2)

800A E. Olmwasanyo 2:14.8 (2)

4x100 48.0 (2)

LJA K. Peters 5.52 (2)

LJB L. Herbert 5.39 (1)

HJA E. Olbiwasany 1.65 (1)

U15

100A B. Chukwu-ona 12.0 (3)

100B B. Esnard 17.7 (3)

200A B. Chukwu-ona 24.4 (3)

200B E. Aryee 26.3 (3)

400 A J. Paul 62.2 (3)

1500A J. Foley 4:58.7 (2)

80HA C. Paul 13.1 (2)

80HB D. Clarke ? (2)

4x100 51.6 (3)

4x400 4:13.2 (2)

LJA A. Potter 5.33 (3)

LJB J. Paul 5.16 (2)

HJA C. Paul 1.40 (2)

HJB D. Clarke ? (2)

PVA J. Ali 2.30 (2)

SPA M. Fadairo 8.47 (3)

SPB R. Knotts 4.98 (2)

DTA M. Fadairo 18.92 (2)

DTB R. Knotts 8.19 (3)

JTA M. Fadairo 15.92 (3)

JTB J. Ali 12.53 (2)

U13

100A S. Odelowo 13.0 (3)

100B A. Ali 16.1 (4)

200A J. Baldwin 31.2 (3)

200B J. Peters 36.4 (3)

1500A T. Baldwin 5:56.1 (2)

1500B A. Ali 6:13.1 (2)

4x100 62.9 (4)

LJA M. Richards 4.19 (2)

LJB J. Peters 3.22 (2)

SPA S. Odelowo 8.50 (1)

SPB M. Richards 8.30 (1)

Team Result

Chelmsford 284

Ipswich 140

VPH&THAC 110

Eton Manor 38

From: "Timothy Mitchell-Smith"

Sent: Monday, July 22, 2002

Subject: Summer Parks League Race

Hi Wayne,

Yesterday passed off reasonably successfully. We were a little short on numbers but that's hardly surprising given how many different things we've been involved in this weekend.

Senior Men's 10K

2nd Tony Lashmar 35:03

17th Mark Sutton 41:11

41st Jon Mail 47:30 PB

Senior Ladies 10K:

7th Lydia Bruce-Burgess 45:17 PB

12th Cecile Brugnoli 48:20

Junior 3K

4th Eugene Sutton (Age 9) 15:38

=7th Jason Sutton

Relays (approx 350m per leg):

Ladies: Lydia, Anita Britt, Bianca (guest) & Cecile - 2nd of 3 teams

Men: (3rd of 3)

Split Aggregate

Mark Sutton 59.95 59.95

Eugene Sutton 84.25 2:24.20

Jason Sutton 88.96 3:53.16

Yama Hashima 55.74 4:48.90

Jon Mail 65.41 5:54.31

Tony Lashmar 59.49 6:53.80

I'm afraid there were no official times taken so the above are where I remembered to take a split on my watch! Apologies to Jason and the ladies relay team for not clocking a time. Thanks to all who turned out to help and support. I haven't fully totted up the cash taken and bills, but I think we'll end up about £45 in profit after laying out for the refreshments. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and we got very positive feedback again from the other clubs, so I think it was worthwhile. And looking at results to date, I'd say Tony has every chance of retaining his title as league champion in the Open category which would be good. See you later, Tim

From: "Timothy Mitchell-Smith"

Sent: Friday, July 26, 2002

Subject: London Business House Open 5 Mile Race at Victoria Park

Hi Rich,

Just to let you know that all went off successfully last night. There was a
field of about 70 at a guess, of which about 20 were VPH. Winner was Andy Weir in 25:37. He must have been about 90 seconds clear and gave me a very nasty moment when I drifted away from my marshalling spot for a couple of moments and suddenly realised quite how fast he was approaching and had to run like hell to get back there in time! Our first man home was Tony. First lady was Georgia Wood who stormed into second place in the all-time VPH&THAC ladies top ten on the course with a cracking 34:23. This despite being tired from overtraining a little in the last few days! I suspect Annie's course record of 33:15 may well be under threat in the coming
months if Georgia chooses to work towards and peak for a tilt at the course.

Well done everyone on a fine set of performances on a humid evening. And huge thanks to all who helped marshall - Roger, Steve, Garry, Veronica & Louise - sorry if I've missed anyone out! Tim

1st Andy Weir (Fidelity Inv.) 25:37

5th Tony Lashmar 28:42

12th Peter McHugh DeClare 31:10

15th Mick Cairns 31:53

17th Gary Deathridge 32:05

19th Dave Shortridge 32:13

21st Dave Robinson (Sr) 32:17

22nd Francis Bray 32:24

24th Mark Sutton 33:03

25th Paul Birchall 33:14

31st Georgia Wood (L1) 34:23*

34th Gary Bagnall 36:10

36th Phil Miller 36:35 PB

37th Tom Rider 36:42 PB

41st Jon Bygrave 37:35*

43rd Jon Mail 38:07 PB

44th Tony Bunbury 38:36 PB

48th Tracy Green (L3) 46:12*

51st Darren Stobbart 51:13

* First time over this course

100A S. Belle 12.6 (1)

100B M. Ayoola 13.9 (2)

200A M. Ayoola 29.8 (4)

400A M. Bishop 68.1 (4)

400B L. Bishop 67.6 (2)

800A L. Bishop 2:35.8 (4)

800B M. Bishop 2:38.8 (3)

1500A L. Bruce-Burgess 6:01.2 (3)

3000A L. Bruce-Burgess 13:02.4 (2)

100HA S. Belle 15.5 (1)

LJA S. Belle 5.25 (1)

LJB M. Ayoola 3.80 (2)

HJA S. Belle 1.50 (2)

PVA A. Fake 1.70 (4)

PVB A. Markiewicz 1.60 (2)

SPA B. Olofinjana 9.60 (2)

SPB K. Songhoron 9.12 (1)

DTA K. Songhoron 29.03 (1)

JTA B. Olofinjana 29.99 (2)

HTA K. Songhoron 23.88 (3)

HTB B. Olofinjana 23.07 (2)

4x100 55.8 (3)

U15

100A C. McCollins 13.8 (3)

100B E. Ali 14.0 (1)

200A E. Ali 28.3 (2)

200B R. Feeley 30.1 (1)

800A L. Blake 2:53.0 (3)

75HA R. Peterkin-Belle 14.4 (2)

75HB M. Zah 14.4 (2)

LJA E. Ali 4.46 (2)

LJB C. McCollins 4.27 (1)

HJA R. Marlae 1.30 (3)

SPA L. Blake 7.36 (3)

JTA L. Blake 22.36 (2)

SP L. Blake 3 7-36

JT L.Blake 2 22-36

4x100 55.8 (1)

London Heathside 199.5

Dartford 196

VPH&THAC 136

Barnet 109

Harlow 50.5

On a day when the heavens opened up before and after the meet, but not during, you knew that VPH&THAC was going to be blessed with a good performance. It also didn't hurt that all four teams were outside the top 10, with two of them outside the top 20. How confident were we of winning the Divisional title. Well, we had engraved championship medals for presentation immediately after the match, and Terry Adams has a change of clothes in anticipation of being thrown into the steeplechase water as befits the team manager of a championship team. I never thought I would have to do this, but with 19 victories and 9 2nd places, there's just too much to write about so I'll have to go for the highlights and let the results overall speak for themself. So many star performances on this day. On the track, Darren Robinson set the tone in the first race of the 400m hurdles. With a personal best of 56.0 under his belt this year, Darren was determined to have a crack at the Club record of 54.6 set by Colin Richardson in 1977. Darren went for it from the gun and you knew that nothing was going to hold him back. At the line, however, Darren was narrowly beaten by Bray of Havant with just 0.2 seconds between them. However, disappointment was soon shaken off when Darren was given his time of 55.1, a new Club Southern League record and a time which places him #2 on the club all-time rankings. Later in the day in the 200m, Darren managed to close Bray's winning gap down to 0.1 second and was rewarded with an excellent 22.9 secs to go 2nd in this year's club rankings. In the 400m, we all watched in admiration as Rikki Fifton won by half the straight to go to the top of the club rankings by 2.5 seconds! In the sprint hurdles, Richard Alleyne set yet another Club Southern League Record by skimming over the barriers to a 14.8 sec clocking. Darren, Rikki, and Richard teamed up with Abdul Buhari (who had superb wins in the B string 200m and A string long jump) to win the 4x400m by a long, long way in the Club's best time of the year. At the longer distances, Tim Grose won the 1500m with an excellent last lap of 59.9 which is fast becoming his trademark finish. In the 5000m, we all knew Tony Lashmar was desperate for a sub-16:30 clocking and we willed him round the laps as fast as our voices and minds would allow. Giving it his all down the final straight, Tony ducked under his target time by 0.7 seconds. Well done, Tony! After 12 consecutive steeplechase A string victories, we had the unusual sight of Richard Newbold not only not winning, but also finishing behind another VPH&THAC'er, in-form Eddie Thomas, who slashed 10 seconds from his PB to finish 2nd in the A race. Richard picked up the B string victory so it could be argued that he maintains a 'chase winning streak. Our three Masters (new name just voted in in place of Veterans) throwers of Graham Burns, Wayne DuBose, and Tony Alexander performed their admirable exercise in damage limitation with Tony coming out best by setting a new Club Masters Record in the hammer throw, beating Graham's record set earlier in the year. By the end of the day, we had won by a massive 55.5 points, won the Divisional title by 4 points, and are now on our way to Division 2. In the words (sort of) of a politician from the early 1980's, "return to your training grounds, and prepare for Division One!" Bring it on!

100A R. Fifton 11.0 (1)

100B T. Ezekiel 11.4 (1)

200A Darren Robinson 22.9 (2)

200B A. Buhari 23.9 (1)

400A R. Fifton 50.3 (1) PB

400B T. Beackon 56.1 (2)

800A T. Grose 2:01.5 (2)

800B E. Thomas 2:09.9 (1)

1500A T. Grose 4:18.4 (1)

1500B J. Roche 4:29.0 (2)

5000A T. Lashmar 16:29.3 (2) PB

5000B J. Roche 17:01.2 (2)

110HA R. Alleyne 14.8 (1)

110HB L. Malan 21.7 (1)

400HA Darren Robinson 55.1 (2) PB Club Southern League Record

400HB L. Malan 60.2 (1)

3000SCA E. Thomas 10:10.4 (2) PB

3000SCB R. Newbold 10:17.9 (1)

4x100 45.0 (1)

4x400 A. Buhari 53.9, R. Alleyne 54.1, Darren Robinson 53.5, R. Fifton 51.9 - 3:33.4 (1)

LJA A. Buhari 6.43 (1)

LJB M. Malone 5.99 (1)

HJA L. Bruce 1.80 (1)

HJB M. Malone 1.80 (1)

TJA L. Bruce 12.14 (2)

TJB L. Malan 11.72 (1)

PVA W. DuBose 3.20 (1)

PVB M. Wheeler 2.80 (1)

SPA T. Alexander 10.69 (4)

SPB G. Burns 9.11 (3)

DTA W. DuBose 32.48 (3)

DTB T. Alexander 25.77 (2)

JTA W. DuBose 40.90 (3)

JTB T. Alexander 36.62 (3)

HTA T. Alexander 34.47 (3)

HTB G. Burns 33.72 (3)

VPH&THAC 155

Havant 99

Diss 87.5

Stevenage 67

Newquay 65

5th North Devon 25 (803)

We could have finished 4th in our final match and still gone up as champions. We could have finished last and still been promoted. Domination!

100A D. Wedderburn 11.6 (1)

100B S. Gibbons 11.8 (1)

200A K. Peters 24.9 (3)

200B D. Clark 27.3 (3)

400A E. Oluwasun 54.7 (3)

400B S. Farah 55.2 (2)

800A D. Shortridge 2:12.0 (2)

800B L. Curley 2:13.8 (1)

1500A T. MacDowall 4:40.4 (2)

1500B D. Shortridge 4:59.4 (1)

5000A J. Waters 17:25.3 (3)

5000B G. Bennett 17:26.1 (1)

110HA D. Robinson 18.7 (2)

110HB R. Porter 20.2 (1)

400HA D. Robinson 62.3 (1)

400HB T. MacDowall 67.1 (2)

3000SCA L. Curley 10:47.2 (2)

3000SCB C. Oxlade 11:16.6 (2)

4x100 47.0 (1)

4x400 R. Saunders 56.8, D. Clark 59.1, K. Peters 55.9, Aniola 54.9 - 3:46.7 (2)

LJA D. Wedderburn 6.14 (2)

LJB K. Peters 5.94 (1)

HJA A. Castle 1.60 (2)

HJB J. Watson 1.55 (1)

TJA C. Murtagh 11.09 (2)

TJB K. Richards 10.90 (2)

PVA C. Murtagh 2.80 (1)

PVB A. Castle 2.80 (1)

SPA R. Porter 10.49 (1)

SPB A. Castle 8.84 (1)

DTA A. Castle 27.98 (1)

DTB C. Murtagh 25.69 (2)

JTA A. Castle 33.16 (3)

JTB K. Richards 26.25 (3)

HTA R. Bruce 29.61 (1)

HTB A. Castle 20.65 (2)

VPH&THAC 153

Tonbridge Wells 131

Paddock Wood 129

Eastbourne 21

Our B team finished 16th out of 24 teams for the season with 613 total points and 15 match points.

Men

8 Tony Lashmar 18:36 PB

20 Tony MacDowall 19:44*

33 Peter McHugh DeClare 20:29 PB

35 Tim Mitchell-Smith 20:40

37 Terry Beackon 20:53 PB

41 Dave Shortridge 21:09 PB

45 Gary Deathridge 21:18

51 Mark Sutton 21:41

54 Pete Wright 21:54

56 Paul Birchall 22:19*

59 Simon Perham 22:36

69 Phil Miller 23:22*

71 Tom Rider 23:37*

74 Graham Prince 23:59*

75 Tim Amor 24:02

80 K. Knight 24:29 PB

84 Jon Mail 24:55*

87 T. Bunbury 25:10*

96 Pete Snell 26:59

97 Len Williams 27:07*

(115 runners including women)

Women

6 Georgia Wood 23:07*

10 Sarah Johnsen 25:17*

11 Elaine Battson 25:32*

12 Cecile Brugnoli 26:07 PB

14 Kate Boyle 27:28 *

15 Paula Orton 27:28 PB

22 Veronica McCabe 31:02

24 Annika Hakannson 32:28*

25 Sally Weddell 36:24 PB

* First time over this course

VPH&THAC Race Results

Men's A Team - 5th 96 pts

Men's B Team - 3rd 174 pts

Women's Team - 3rd 27 pts

VPH&THAC Overall (after 5 races)

Men's A Team - 4th 35 pts

Men's B Team - 3rd 40 pts

Women's Team - 4th 31 pts

Lovely setting (around the Serpentine in Hyde Park) and a warm day. All
round, a fun race - especially the relays at the end where Sarah almost
managed to recover what looked a lost cause on the final leg for the ladies
while the mixed team stormed to a big victory. I believe (but won't know until the full results are calculated and sent
out) that Tony Lashmar is again the league champion in the U40 age group
with myself and Mark hovering around the top 6 or 7. There's also a real
chance that Eugene & Jason will both have finished in the top 2 of their
respective age groups. So it has been a succesful season and loads of fun!
(Tim Mitchell-Smith reports)

Results

Sr Men (short 10K):
10th Tim Mitchell-Smith 38:30
12th Ian Sesnan (guest) 39:28
16th Mark Sutton 40:08
33rd Jon Mail 47:18

Sr Women (short 10K):
7th Elaine Battson 47:29
9th Cecile Brugnoli 47:40
10th Sarah Johnsen 47:48
11th Kate Boyle 49:19
13th Jo Sargent 50:18
26th Veronica McCabe 58:02
34th Sally Weddell 68:09

Boys Race (approx 1 mile):
4th Eugene Sutton
6th Jason Sutton

Sr Women Relay:
Cecile, Elaine, Jo & Sarah - 2nd of 3

Mixed Relay:
Mark, Jason, Veronica, Jon, Ian & Tim - 1st of 4

U17 Men 100m heats

Ht1 (w/s +1.7)

5th Tunde Balogun 11.68

7th Daniel Wedderburn 11.85

Ht 3 (w/s +1.0)

6th Christopher Musa 11.3

From: "Tim Grose"

Sent: Thursday, August 15, 2002

Subject: Best for 10 years...

4:00.35 for me tonight in the 1500 at the Watford BMC meet! My best for 10 years!!! 5th fastest ever behind my 4 sub 4s from 91-92. Should just sneak into the Top 25 combined VPH & THAC all-time lists...When did a VPH'er last run faster? 1980s? Splits were 66, 2:09, 2:58. Think the relatively slow start helped, although didn't think I sped up that much on 2nd lap. Well, maybe I could have got the sub 4. 62 last lap though. Came 7th in the race but winner did 3:58 so not far behind.
Cheers, Tim

(Editor's Note: Last time a club member ran faster was in 1986 when Des O'Donnell ran 3:56.7. )

Congratulations to U20 Rikki Fifton, U20 Richard Alleyne, U20 Symone Belle, and Darren Robinson who were all selected to compete for the Senior Middlesex team. Rikki won the B 100m race in 10.85 (same time as winner of A race and the Club's fastest time of 2002). Richard Alleyne won the B 110m hurdles in 15.00. Symone Belle won B LJ 5.25m and was 3rd in the 100m hurdles in 14.4. Darren Robinson finished 2nd in the A string 400m hurdles covering the distance in 58.5 despite almost falling at a hurdle.

100H Symone Belle 14.06 (1)

110H (39") Richard Alleyne 14.41 (1)

LJ Abdul Buhari 6.82w (2) PB

(Tim Mitchell-Smith reports)

The pentathlon was incredibly close - going into the 1500m,
Marc had a small lead over Lourens for the title, but Lourens put in
a storming last 400m to surge to the title. Great performance by Lydia also
in the 1500m - some 18 seconds inside her PB to go to the top of the club rankings! Poor old Anna pulled up with what appeared to be dodgy quads and ended up with a cold pack of orange juice strapped in place as makeshift first aid! Rikki stormed to the 200m title in a new championship record, removing 0.7 secs from Brian Allen's 21-year-old performance. However, Rikki didn't have it all his own way as Marc Malone ran him very close, also well under the old record. Given that I had brought along a beautifully polished Junior Men's 200m trophy (and Rikki is 17) and as we have no senior trophy and won't be hosting a junior 200m this year, I awarded him the trophy - well deserved I felt - it's one of our nicer ones! I also presented Lydia with the Senior Women's 200m trophy (returned to me to get engraved) and Lourens the Pentathlon trophy, and handed out as many outstanding medals as I could. Thanks to Toleme Ezekiel and Graham Bennett for their efforts in officiating.

Pentathlon

1st Lourens Malan LJ - 5.66 (514), JT -

Sr Men 200 Champs (run during Pentathlon)

1st Rikki Fifton 22.1 G

2nd Marc Malone 22.3 S

3rd Lourens Malan 23.8 B

4th Randal Porter 24.0

5th Art Castle 26.4

6th Tony MacDowall 26.7

7th Tim Mitchell-Smith 29.9

8th Jon Mail 31.6

Sr Women's 200 Champs

1st Lydia Bruce-Burgess 35.2 G

DNF Anna Fake, Sally Weddell

Senior Men's 1500 Champs (run during

Pentathlon)

1st Tim Grose 4:12 G

2nd James Waters 4:31 S

3rd Tony MacDowall 4:37 B

4th Dave Shortridge 4:51

5th Lourens Malan 4:58

6th Tim Mitchell-Smith 5:01

7th Art Castle 5:12

8th Marc Malone 5:24

9th Jon Mail 5:41

10th Randal Porter 5:57

U20

110H (39") Richard Alleyne 14.41 (1st) (Club Junior Record)

LJ Abdul Buhari 6.82w (2nd) PB

100H Symone Belle 14.06 (1st)

Open Meeting, Newham, 25 Aug 02

34 medals for VPH&THAC from a successful trip to Newham. 9 gold, 13 silver, and 12 bronze with a total of 15 new personal best performances.

75m Abena Adu 13.28 PB

75m Christopher Zah 13.69 PB

LJ Christopher Zah 2.51 (3rd) PB

200m Millie Zah 31.11 (2nd)

LJ Millie Zah 3.88 (2nd)

100m Tola Orilinishe 14.58; Andrew Ali 15.86 PB; Jay Peters 16.33 PB

200m Terry Baldwin 30.91 (3rd) PB; Tola Orilinishe 33.67

1500m Terry Baldwin 5:59.2 (3rd); Andrew Ali 6:20.2 (3rd)

LJ Michael Richards 4.25 (3rd);Andrew Ali 3.60;Tola Orilinishe 3.51; Jay Peters 3.22

SP Michael Richards 8.52 (1st)

JT Michael Richards 20.92 (2nd)

100m Elizabeth Ali 13.69 (3rd); Sareena Robinson 14.10 PB

200m Elizabeth Ali 27.69 (1st)

800 Louise Blake 2:41.0 PB

1500 Perri Shakes-Drayton 5:39.7 (2nd)

LJ Elizabeth Ali 4.62 (3rd); Sareena Robinson 4.45 PB; Louise Blake 4.34PB

HJ Sareena Robinson 1.35 (2nd)

SP Louise Blake 7.15 (2nd)

100m Daniel Gibbons 11.76 (1st); Jahangir Samadl 11.77 (2nd) PB; Alex Babb 12.04 (3rd)

200m Alex Babb 24.58 (1st); Jahangir Samadl 24.60 (2nd) PB

400m Alex Babb 59.64 (1st); Jerome Paul 60.80 (2nd)

800m James Foley 2:20.7 (2nd) PB

LJ Jahangir Samadl 5.54 (2nd); Jerome Paul 5.05 (3rd)

SP Ricky Knotts 5.93

JT Ricky Knotts 8.92 (3rd) PB

100 Marie Ayoola 13.47 (1st)

LJ Amy Clough 3.10 (1st)

SP Amy Clough 6.68 (1st); Marie Ayoola 5.60 (3rd)

100m Cymon Gibbons 11.44 (1st); Kwame Peters 11.93 (3rd)

200m Kwame Peters 24.35 PB

U20 Men's 200 Rikki Fifton 22.04 (1st)

U15 Boy's 80H Peter Ball 12.58 (3rd);

Carl Paul 13.60

U13 Girl's 70H Millie Zah 12.14 (4th)

200m Terry Baldwin 32.4

800m Tola Orilinishe 3:14.1 PB

1500m Terry Baldwin 5:45.1 (3rd) PB

80H Jay Peters 16.6 (3rd) PB

LJ Michael Richards 4.12; Andrew Ali 3.32

SP Michael Richards 8.89 (1st); Jay Peters 5.39

JT Michael Richards 22.28 (1st) PB; Andrew Ali 16:15 PB; Jay Peters 15.93 PB

200m Elizabeth Ali 27.7

75H Sareena Robinson 13.5 (3rd)

LJ Elizabeth Ali 4.70 (1st); Chekaila McCollins 3.96; Louise Blake 3.56

HJ Sareena Robinson 1.43 (1st)

JT Louise Blake 23.20 (3rd) PB

100m Daniel Gibbons 11.9 (1st); Jahangir Samadl 12.1 (2nd)

200m Jahangir Samadl 24.8 (1st)

400m Jerome Paul 59.0 (2nd) PB

800m James Foley 2:28.6 (3rd)

LJ Jerome Paul 4.83 (1st)

SP Ricky Knotts 5.67

JT James Foley 19.53 PB; Ricky Knotts 14.43 PB

100m Marie Ayoola 14.0 (2nd)

LJ Amy Clough 3.98

SP Amy Clough 6.01 (3rd); Marie Ayoola 5.35

100m Cymon Gibbons 11.6 (1st); Kwame Peters 11.9 (3rd)

200m Cymon Gibbons 24.2 (1st) PB; Kwame Peters 24.5 (2nd)

LJ Kwame Peters 6.06 (1st) PB

200m Darren Clark 26.4 (3rd)

400m Darren Clark 59.7

LJ Darren Clark 4.97 PB

100m Marc Malone 11.5 (3rd); Tony MacDowall 13.3

LJ Marc Malone 5.97 (2nd); Kelvin Richards 5.53

800 - Dave Shortridge 2:15.05

H'Cap Actual

1st Darren Stobbart 45:58 44:58

2nd Barbara McHugh DeClare

48:38 47:38

3rd Tom Marrs 48:56 34:26

4th Henry Murdoch 48:59 34:29PB

5th Phil Miller 49:11 34:41PB

6th Tom Rider 49:37 35:07PB

7th Mark Stamper 50:02 37:02*

8th Jon Mail 50:06 37:06PB

9th Jane Appleton 50:43 44:43*

10th Paul Birchall 50:52 32:52PB

11th Gary Deathridge 51:15 32:15

12th Dave Shortridge 51:25 32:25

13th Dave Robinson Sr 51:29 32:29

14th Lydia Bruce-Burgess 51:40 35:10PB

15th Peter McHugh DeClare

51:41 31:41

16th Tony Lashmar 51:48 28:48

17th Georgia Wood 52:17 35:32

18th Peter Wright 52:43 34:43

19th Veronica McCabe 53:08 47:08

20th Tony Bunbury 53:16 40:16

21st Georgia Pettipher 53:30 40:30

22nd Ray Russo 53:57 53:57*

23rd Sally Weddell 54:22 54:22

24th Mark Sutton 55:43 37:43

Rikki Fifton ran a season's best when winning this match in the 100m in 10.74, beating the AAA's U20 champion, while in the 200m, he finished 2nd in a new PB time of 21.53. Also, congrats to Symone and Richard for their great runs.

100 Rikki Fifton 10.74 (1st)

200 Rikki Fifton 21.53 (2nd)

100H Symone Belle 14.31 (1st)

110H (39") Richard Alleyne 14.42 (2nd)

800 Tony MacDowall 2:09.95

800 David Shortridge 2:11.7 PB

1500 Eddie Thomas 4:06.9 PB

3000 Tim Grose 8:55.3 (5th)

9th Tony Lashmar 15:09 PB

38th David Shortridge 17:00 PB

41st Pete McHugh DeClare 17:06

52nd Dave Robinson 17:35

53rd Simon Perham 17:39 PB

56th Gary Bagnall 18:01

61st Mark Sutton 18:31*

68th Phil Miller 18:54*

74th Matthew Townend 19:11*

98th Mick Wheeler 21:16

101st Sarah Leipciger 21:42*

* First time over this course

VPH&THAC Race Results

Men's A Team - 6th 143 pts

Men's B Team - 5th 212 pts

Women's Team - 6th 52 pts

VPH&THAC Overall (FINAL)

Men's A Team - 5th 40 pts

Men's B Team - 3rd 46 pts

Women's Team - 4th 37 pts

Congratulations to Symone Belle on her selection for Senior international honours and for finishing 2nd in the 100m hurdles in 14.18 secs.

Seniors

100A P. Asanti 14.2 (4)

100B E. Nassuna 15.9 (4)

200A P. Asanti 29.1 (4)

200B E. Nassuna 33.2 (3)

400A A. Dublin 73.0 (3)

400B M. Shasanya 74.9 (2)

800A M. Bishop 2:38.6 (1)

800B L. Bishop 2:38.6 (1)

1500A L. Bruce-Burgess 5:49.9 (2)

1500B A. Fake 6:34.2 (1) PB

3000A L. Bruce-Burgess 12:16.5 (3) PB

3000B A. Fake 13:50.3 (2)

4x400 4:46.9 (2)

LJA A. Clough 4.13 (4)

TJA A. Clough 8.29 (4)

PVA A. Markiewicz 1.90 (2) PB

PVB A. Fake 1.70 (1)

SPA B. Olofinjana 9.16 (1)

SPB K. Songhoron 8.93 (1)

DTA K. Songhoron 30.67 (1)

DTB B. Olofinjana 22.31 (1)

JTA B. Olofinjana 26.10 (1)

JTB P. Asanti 17.56 (2)

HTA K. Songhoron 26.19 (2)

HTB B. Olofinjana 22.36 (1)

U15

100A E. Ali 14.3 (4)

100B C. McCollins 14.3 (1)

100 n/s R. Feeley 15.0; M. Zah 15.2

200A R. Feeley 30.1 (4)

200B M. Zah 32.2 (4)

800A P. Shakes-Drayton 2:40.9 (2) PB

800B L. Blake 2:51.3 (3)

75H S. Robinson 13.5 (3)

4x100 54.9 (2)

LJA E. Ali 4.63 (2)

LJB C. Whittaker 4.04 (3)

HJA S. Robinson 1.48 (2) PB

HJB C. Whittaker 1.25 (2)

SPA L. Blake 7.13 (3)

SPB C. McCollins 6.68 (1) PB

JTA L. Blake 19.02 (1)

JTB P. Shakes-Drayton 8.86 (2) PB

1 Southend 188

2 VPH&THAC 155

3 E.Grinstead 136

4 Ilford 100

5 Eastbourne 78

(Run in conjunction with London Business House Champs)

Men

1st Tim Grose 15:43.0 G

2nd Eddie Thomas 16:25.5 S

3rd Laurence Curley 16:26.7

4th Tony Lashmar 17:09.3

5th James Waters 17:21.8 PB

6th David Shortridge 18:46.1

guest Sam Pullan 15:57.2

guest Georgia Wood 20:48.4

guest Lydia Bruce-Burgess 20:49.1

(by Tim Grose)

The men's team opened the winter (yuk!) racing programme with a resounding victory in the Chingford League Road 6 x 2.5M Relay. The team of Jim Roche, Laurence Curley, Tony Lashmar, Graham Bennett, Gordon Faulds and Tim Grose finished almost two minutes clear of the rest. Given such a margin and bearing in mind we have several people to bring in then winning the league overall this year must surely be within reach. On the first leg, Jim was only a few seconds down, but Laurence took us into the lead at the top of the hill and we just continued to go away. I thought I ran OK but really it was little more than a hard time trial for me. Best leg was probably then Laurence and he'll be hard to beat over the XC in light of his vast endurance shown in the 20M champs. Quite a shock running over lumpy courses again after a summer of track. Such a difference required, especially when you have no opponents in view!

Report from Rich Newbold:

We got off to a roaring start at the beginning of the 2002/3 Chingford League campaign with an emphatic win for the men's team. In addition, the Club's women fielded a complete team for the first time, comfortably beating local rivals Eton Manor in the process. Leading off for the men was Jim Roche, who clocked the 5th fastest time of the day, and brought the team home in 2nd place, just behind Enfield and Haringey. Next up for us was the fast-improving Laurence Curley who took it easy over the opening half mile before scorching ahead to give the Club first place and a lead of 37 seconds. Running solo, Tony Lashmar extended this lead by an additional 3 seconds on leg 3 with Graham Bennett on the fourth leg extending the lead to a seemingly unassailable cushion of 1:27. This just left Gordon Faulds and Tim Grose to bring the team safely home, which they duly did with Tim clocking the fastest time of the day, pipping teammate Laurence for the honour by the narrowest of margins. In the end, the men won by 1:45 from Orion Harriers with last year's easy league winners, Barnet & District, only managing 4th place. Given that the Club has some seriously useful performers to add in, it looks like we can challenge for the Men's Chingford League title for the first time in six years, provided we can keep getting people out. The VPH&THAC women recorded an excellent 5th place out of 11 teams in their section with the highlight being Lydia Bruce-Burgess breaking 16 minutes on the testing two and a quarter mile course. Thanks to Tim Mitchell-Smith, Brendan Reilly and Roger Daniels for their support.

Men

1st VPH&THAC 74.47

J Roche 12.05 (5th fastest overall)

L Curley 11.58 (2nd fastest overall)

A Lashmar 12.32

G Bennett 12.40

G Faulds 13.35

T Grose 11.57 (fastest overall)

Women

5th VPH&THAC 71.04

S Leipciger 16.41

V McCabe 20.55

A Fake 17.55

L Bruce-Burgess 15.33

(by Tim Mitchell-Smith)

The Middlesex County 10K Road Champs, hosted by VPH&THAC, passed off very smoothly. The winner ran a frightening 30:33 - particularly frightening given that I was lead bike and pedalling desperately to avoid being overtaken! Tony Lashmar was our first man home. Slight embarrassment though - he was running as Gary Bagnall on the day as he hadn't pre-entered and his 4th place overall was good enough for silver in both the Open & County races - the winner and either 2nd or 3rd placers entered on the day which made them ineligible for prizes. So there were surprised looks when Gary was announced as second despite having spent all morning dealing with the refreshments! However, I don't think anybody particularly picked up on it. All of our runners either set personal bests or ran this course for the first time.

Men

4th Tony Lashmar 34:46 (2nd in Mddx)

17th David Shortridge 38:51 (7th in Mddx)

18th Brendan O'Reilly 39:06

52nd Jon Mail 45:20 (15th in Mddx)

78th Darren Stobbart 53:46 (18th in Mddx)

Women

46th Lydia Bruce Burgess 44:18 (7th in Mddx)

57th Cecile Brugnoli 47:21 (8th in Mddx)

58th Elaine Battson 47:35 (9th in Mddx)

74th Anna Fake 52:27

88th Veronica McCabe 59:22

93rd Sally Weddell 66:50 (12th in Mddx)

Team Results

Men VPH&THAC 2-7-15-18 = 42 pts (2nd)

Women VPH&THAC 7-8-9-12 = 36 pts (2nd)

From: Tim Grose

Sent: Wednesday, September 18

Finished off the season nicely with a winning 8:51.8 3000m for me at Watford tonight. Season's best. In the end, only 2.5 seconds from my PB and was my best time since that race (same one in 1999) and 4th best ever. Given however that I went through 2K in 6:01, was pleased to get the win and speed up so much. Guess I did about 62 or 63 on last lap as I didn't start to up the speed until 350 out. Followed whoever was leading the whole way. Thought about taking it up but maybe I was just lazy but anyway nice to run relatively fast feeling reasonably comfortable. Think that is it for the track now. Watford was very quiet tonight and I was running BEFORE 9pm! Cheers, Tim

20th Jim Roche 73:36

(Tim Grose reports)

Well, on Tuesday I felt dreadful and was 3 mins slower than normal on a 20-minute easy run, but thanks to copius quantities of blackberry and apple pie cooked by my mother-in-law, I managed to get to the line for the club road mile. Thoughts of a course record attempt of 4:24 were however put aside and I thought it better to try my usual 1500/mile tactic of doing nothing much until within sight of the finish. However, these best laid plans were thrown into confusion by Rich whispering in my ear that the new club member, Paul, a US student who is here until Christmas, had run a recent 1:55 800 and worse (for me) a 50-second flat 400! OK, maybe leaving it to a sprint was a bad idea. The start was delayed a few minutes while James "Superman" Waters emerged from his customary running kit of business suit and black shoes into more usual running attire in the short run from the clubhouse to the start. The defending champion, Eddie Thomas, then also emerged but unfortunately no quick change of kit for him as he was suffering from a cold as was former winner Rich Newbold who was timekeeping along with Tim Mitchell-Smith. The "gun" went and James Waters employed his usual fast start to tow the field past the clubhouse. I then come alongside and, trying to maintain a good even pace, started to inch ahead although I realised that Paul and Tony Lashmar weren't far behind. The light was starting to fade rapidly and, as we turned past the tennis courts, my thoughts turned to whether I had actually shaken off this virus and what would happen if somebody tried to go past. My mind was still working overtime as I turned left into the long and now almost dark home straight and sensed that Paul was not far behind and thoughts of his 50.0 400m were upmost in my mind. Fortunately, the last stretch is slightly downhill so, as Rich remarked later, you just need to pick the knees up a bit to keep going and it soon became apparent that I had a clear lead. It was so dark by the end that Rich's bike light finishing post beacon was a welcome sight as were the cheers from the waiting timekeepers. Maybe cheering the loudest was Rich as my 4:33 just failed to break his best on the course but still good enough for 6th fastest ever. As us runners are always prone to saying, next year I will really go for it! Newcomer Paul ran well to come 2nd in 4:50 and James ducked under 5 minutes with 4:56 just pipping Tony Lashmar for 4th. In the women's race, Lydia ran the 2nd best ever women's time. There were about 30 finishers in all - probably the best supported club champs I've run in. Thanks as ever to Tim and Rich for organising. Cheers, Tim

Men

1st Tim Grose 4:33*

2nd Paul Migill 4:50*

4th Tony Lashmar 5:02

5th Mick Cairns 5:29*

6th Ian McGilloway 5:30*

7th Gary Bagnall 5:35

8th Peter McHugh DeClare 5:38

9th Paul Birchall 5:38*

10th Gary Deathridge 5:43

11th Simon Perham 5:44*

12th Phil Miller 5:46*

13th Terry Adams 5:48

14th Mark Sutton 5:51

15th Jon Mail 5:54*

16th Chris Schemeres 5:59*

17th James Foley 6:03*

18th Graham Prince 6:23*

19th Pete Snell 7:03

20th Roger Daniels 9:40

Women

1st Lydia Bruce-Burgess 6:03* G

2nd Sarah Johnsen 6:34* S

3rd Harriet Warden 6:36* B

4th Elaine Battson 6:40*

5th Carolin Bolton 6:41*

6th Anna Fake 6:41 PB

7th Jenny Costelloe 7:29*

8th Ros Payne 7:38*

9th Katy Lord 8:11*

10th Tracy Harding 8:13*

11th Sally Weddell 9:10 PB

12th Lara Orija 9:40*

* First time over this course

Men

1986 Steve Mahon 4:25

1988 Richard Bruce 4:29

1989 ?

1990 Tom Daly 4:30

or Steve Mahon 4:32

1991 Mark Edmunds 4:34

1993 Keith Lowe 4:40

1994 Richard Newbold 4:30

1995 Richard Newbold 4:34

1996 Richard Newbold 4:55*

1997 Richard Newbold 4:44

1998 Richard Newbold 4:41

1999 Tony Lashmar 4:58

2000 Jim Roche 4:47

2001 Eddie Thomas 4:50

2002 Tim Grose 4:33

* (80 yards over-distance)

Women

2000 Fiona MacGregor 7:22

2001 Georgia Pettipher 6:26*

and Annie Gammon 6:21*

* Awarded jointly as separate races run

31st VPH&THAC A Team 2:01:32

Jim Roche 20:34 (55th)

Tim Grose 19:31 (39th)

Laurence Curley 19:52 (36th)

Tom Carrick 20:05 (31st)

Tony Lashmar 20:50 (31st)

Graham Bennett 20:40 (31st)

57th VPH&THAC B Team 2:12:32

Jon Cullom 20:37 (56th)

James Waters 21:53 (60th)

Richard Newbold 21:37 (58th)

Damian Manning 22:30 (60th)

Gordon Faulds 22:10 (56th)

Gary Bagnall 23:45 (57th)

91 teams started; 74 finished

53rd VPH&THAC 1:10:07

Lydia Bruce-Burgess 16:11

Anna Fake 18:20

Elaine Batteson 17:33

Sarah Johnsen 18:03

Day One

100 metres. Lourens and I were drawn in adjacent lanes for the second of three races. I got out reasonably well but did not drive as well as I had been in recent training sessions. Ominously at 50 metres, I felt Lourens pull right alongside me. I fully expected him to go past, but his lack of any real sprint training meant he couldn't find another gear and I edged in front, just. We were both awarded the same time 12:20. A disappointing start for me as I had hoped to go well below 12 secs possibly even equalling my PB of 11:60. However, after 7 weeks of focused training, I was simply relieved to get the first event out of the way.

Long Jump. In a decathlon field event, the worst thing that can happen is that you foul twice, because that puts you under incredible pressure on the final jump. A third foul or an overly cautious and hence substandard final attempt can effectively knock you out of the running. Well, this happened to me, my worst nightmare. I had fouled twice and was staring down the barrel of elimination. I pulled my run up back and aimed to take off before the board. Hence, I was surprised to hear the prang of the takeoff board beneath my feet. When I landed and turned, it looked longish. I held my breath and looked at the official. He took a long look at the board. If you've ever watched Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, you’ll understand the tension. This was a classic Chris Tarrant type moment. He looked at me and said "it was close". I was probably a couple of centimetres from away from elimination. Instead, I was ecstatic when 5.81 metres was put up on the scoreboard. This was my longest jump since 1999 when I jumped a personal best of 6.10m. At this point, I was on 1,113 points and ahead of Art and Lourens in the unofficial Victoria Park Harriers & THAC Decathlon Championships.

Shot Putt. My first throws are usually rubbish. So I took Wayne DuBose’s advice from a previous conversation and made sure that I had a couple of full on dress rehearsals. It paid off because I opened with 10.70 without getting my technique right. This scored OK points but I never advanced as my technique went from bad to worse. I was disappointed because, after being out of sorts, I often recover in the later rounds to get a big one out and I know I had a mid-11 metre throw in me, no question. Unfortunately, there are no later rounds in a Decathlon. As usual however I won the loudest grunt contest hands down. Art "The Quiet American" Castle was silently getting on with it, and set a new PB with 9.18. Lourens scored 9.37. So far, I was reasonably satisfied because I was scoring well and I was very conscious of the fact that I have had a few disasters this year in the long jump and the shot putt so I was relieved. Also, I was still leading the VPH & THAC contest, which I knew was essential because my second day is by far the weaker of the two. In between events we were sat in the stands deliberating the points that certain performances would achieve. An older gentleman turned and volunteered to give us the information we required from his IAAF Decathlon hand book. I then recognised him as the former Olympic 400 hurdles champion from 1968, David Hemery. He was there supporting his son Adrian who just happens to be one of the best Decathletes in the country, and who we were competing against. This quiet, unassuming man was once a national hero.

High Jump. This was the event I had been dreading most. I had never even practiced high jumping and had no clue as to how high I could jump. I also was fearful of the effect of the event on my dodgy right shin. So I started on 1.20 and was on my own jumping until 1.39 when other competitors started to join in. By the time I got to 1.47, I was getting very tired. But my technique was improving all the time and, by my third and final attempt, I was beginning to slightly resemble a high jumper. I cleared 1.47 and now regretted not starting at say 1.35, as the conserved energy may have got me over 1.50, the next height which I failed to clear. However, I was delighted. Even though I came last of the 14 competitors, this event was always about damage limitation, and for this reason I was delighted with 367 points. Also, the ironic applause that I was receiving at 1.20cm clearances from the other competitors turned into genuine applause at 1.47. Art Castle equalled his PB with 1.65. His run up was very dodgy; he stuttered a couple of strides always at the same point halfway through with such consistency that it looked like part of his run up. Another competitor made the comment that it would be better to do the short steps at the beginning. Lourens looked effortless, always doing just what was needed to get over the bar, clearing 1.71. Furthermore, he had gone past me in the points table.

400 metres. Lourens was in the first race. He started slowish but ran a storming last 200 and clocked 53.39 secs. I had clocked him at 53.03. What was so impressive was the fact that he hadn’t run in weeks. He had no right to run such a time off no training after a gruelling day of athletics. But then Lourens’s body doesn't listen to reason. I was very pleased with my own race. I went off at a brisk pace, relaxed into the straight and with 150 metres to go, kicked again, and had enough to kick hard in the straight. I was surprised at how slow I was timed at - 56.94; I must have relaxed too much in the back straight. Art made a move to pass me on the inside at 300 as he had followed me round, but his legs wouldn’t obey him and he fell back a few yards off the pace. I was pleasantly surprised at the end of day one to still be feeling energetic. But I dreaded how I was going to feel in the morning.

The unofficial VPH decathlon table overnight looked like this.

1^st Lourens Malan 2703

2^nd Randal Porter 2531

3^rd Art Castle 1882

Day Two

On Saturday night, I introduced myself to the dreaded 15 minute cold bath. And I must say it worked as my body held up well in day two. This was new territory for me. I had never before competed with fatigue from the previous day. Even though we got to the track in good time, the time raced away and before we knew it we were at the starting blocks for the hurdles.

110 Hurdles I saw something at the start of the first seeded race that for me summed up the decathlon and confirmed in my mind why it is the event for me. As the top guys who were competing for first place were called to their starting blocks, they were wishing each other good luck. True decathletes don’t compete against each other, they compete against the clock and the tape. In my race, I repeated my previous 20.1 from August 3^rd. What this race confirmed to me is that there's no future in 5 strides between hurdles. Every time I tried to drive, I had to chop and hence lose momentum. Lourens on the other hand loped along in ungainly fashion but still managed to go a second faster than me with his 3 strides. Art clocked 21 seconds jumping over the majority of the hurdles. After the race, my body reached a new plateau on the pain threshold. I now had pain on top of my fatigue. Welcome to decathlon!

Discus Art was in his element. He threw one out to 31.35. With so much room for improvement in his technique, he's more than capable of using his long arms to achieve close to 40 metres. Lourens by now was showing bad body language and the discus was easily his worst event only managing 22.87. Art and I did our best to raise Lourens' spirits. I think that the penny had dropped that his body and dodgy shoulder were dictating that he wasn't going to challenge 6000 points. Lourens always expects to do great. Discus isn't my strength and I was just relieved to get 24.86, less than a metre from my best of 25.65.

Pole Vault. The worst case scenario happened. I opened on 2 metres, a height that I effortlessly cleared time and again in practice, and failed 3 times, No Height Cleared. All I can say is that when points were at stake, the bar just got taller in my mind. On my first attempt, I was so busy looking at the bar, I missed my plant and placed the pole in the landing mat. Art Castle on the other hand achieved a PB and joined Wayne and Lourens in the 3 metre club. Lourens also cleared 3 metres. I went off and gathered my thoughts. Even though I had suffered an embarrassing disaster, this later proved to be the precipitator of a very satisfying last two events for me. After a 45-minute lie down in my car, I borrowed Lourens' scoring book and calculated what it would take to achieve 4000 points. This was no easy task as the thing was in German. I figured that the page with Speer was likely to be the Javelin. My own pride dictated that I wouldn't accept being the only decathlete to fall short of this bench mark. I worked out that a javelin throw of around 37 metres would give me at least an outside chance but I would have to run a massive PB in the 1500 metres. I had hoped to have done the job before the 1500 and use it as a warmdown! I decided that I wasn't going to go home, but I was going to go for it! This despite being out of sorts all year in the javelin event, most notably 28.50 in the Club Pentathlon. To quote Richard Newbold a couple of years ago when I was dropped from the event "the feeling is, Randal, when you throw the javelin anything can happen. You’re just as likely to throw 21 metres as you are 40."

Javelin. My first throw was a foul. It was 30'ish metres but my toe went over the white line. My second attempt was 30.30. I was glad to have registered a points-scoring throw, but I knew that it wasn't going to be enough. I needed a throw in the late 30s. Otherwise, I would have had too much to do in the 1500 metres. To take my mind off my own problems, I went off and introduced myself, to a (M70) vet called Gordon. He was impressing us all with his own effort in the Vets decathlon. It turns out that he's going to the World Championships next July. The poor fellow just can’t get any competition in this country. The M55 vet who he was competing against just couldn’t live with him. He also said he felt embarrassed at having to race over the reduced height hurdles that M70s use. I had to cut our conversation short as my name was called up and I was the next to throw. He wished me luck. The chat did the trick in relaxing me. As I entered onto the runway, I knew that this spear was going somewhere. I gave my loudest grunt of the day, my arm was fast and it went out to 36.86. A fellow competitor said to me that with my power if I learned to throw I would go past 50 metres. Funny, because similar comments have been made frequently about my shot putting. I was delighted as this gave me 397 points and at least a fighting chance to achieve 4000 points. Furthermore, it was a season's best by over a metre. Art Castle PB’ed with 38.43. and Lourens with his dodgy shoulder still managed 35.07. He's a fighter if ever I saw one.

1500. I worked out that I needed to run the 1500 in 5:33. Now this might sound like no problem, but bear in mind that on my only previous run over the distance in August, I clocked 5:57 and was soundly beaten by the ladies club champ by over 100 metres. I would have to PB by 24 seconds to break 4000. What I had in my favour was that at least it was a rubbish PB. Art who had expected to run around 5:12 offered to pace me around and shoot for 5:30. We planned our splits and set off; the first lap was 5 seconds ahead of schedule, but I didn’t feel too bad. After 800, I was still not feeling too bad. At 1100, I was beginning to breath heavily but was lifted by the bell and Art shouting "come on, Randal". With 300 to go, I pulled up alongside Art with half a mind to kick, but I settled for a slight raise in tempo. I was relieved at the bell to have around 85 seconds to do the last lap in. I was ecstatic to finish in 5:29.35, a PB by 27:65 secs. And I knew that if I had got my sums right, I had passed 4000 points. I was so grateful that Art sacrificed a few points on his total to help me to achieve my goal. Again, this sums up the bond that is built between fellow decathletes, especially if they are teammates. Finally, let me not forget to mention that Lourens won the silver medal in the Middlesex Championship, Art finished 4^th and I finished 5^th. Overall, we placed 6^th, 13^th, 14^th respectively. All things considered, I totally enjoyed the experience. I learned a lot about competing, dealing with physical pain and emotional disappointment, as well as teamwork. I'm so looking forward to future multi-event competitions, especially the National Vets in 2004. I can also console myself with the fact that I can now call myself a Decathlete.

2nd Lourens Malan

100 - 12.2 (567)

LJ - 5.45 (471)

SP - 9.37 (448)

HJ - 1.71 (552)

400 - 53.4 (665)

1st Day TOTAL - 2703

110H - 19.0 (412)

DT - 22.87 (326)

PV - 3.00 (357)

JT - 35.07 (371)

1500 - 4:51.09 (612)

2nd Day TOTAL - 2078

OVERALL SCORE - 4781

4th Art Castle

100 - 12.6 (495)

LJ - 5.21 (423)

SP - 9.55 (460)

HJ - 1.65 (504)

400 - 58.7 (461)

1st Day TOTAL - 2343

110H - 21.0 (258)

DT - 31.35 (491)

PV - 3.00 (357)

JT - 38.43 (419)

1500 - 5:28.55 (407)

2nd Day TOTAL - 1932

OVERALL SCORE - 4275

5th Randal Porter

100 - 12.2 (567)

LJ - 5.81 (546)

SP - 10.70 (528)

HJ - 1.47 (367)

400 - 57.0 (523)

1st Day TOTAL - 2531

110H - 20.1 (323)

DT - 24.86 (364)

PV - NHC

JT - 36.86 (397)

1500 - 5:29.35 (403)

2nd Day TOTAL - 1487

OVERALL SCORE - 4018

(Report by Rich Newbold)

Two wins out of two and VPH&THAC's Chingford League campaign is off to a flying start in 2002. From the gun, the VPH&THAC men showed their intent with five runners in the leading group with reigning champions Barnet and 2000 champions Orion trailing in their wake. Taking the pace was Tim Grose, ostensibly to enable him to see where he was going. Joining Tim at the front was Graham Bennett who has taken huge strides back towards his normal
top-quality form in the last few weeks on his comeback from injury. Tucked in was Laurence Curley, running his third race in 4 days, with Tom Carrick and Tony Lashmar also in close order. After a lap and a half, Graham and
Tony dropped away from the leading group but still maintained highly competitive placings within the top 15, with Richard Newbold gradually making inroads into the top 20 after a more cautious start. With a lap to go, Tim Grose began to test the rest with strong running up the hills, but it wasn't until the last 300m when he really opened up for a comfortable win, breaking 16 minutes in the process. Laurence maintained excellent form despite stiff legs following the 6-stage and an 'easy' 78-minute run round the Windsor Half Marathon. Laurence's clocking was a new 5K PB, slashing over 20 seconds from his track PB set only last month. Completing three runners in the top 5 was Tom Carrick in a splendid non-relay debut for the Club. Effectively, Tom is a straight swap for Phil Hampshire, who joined Tom's former club Phoenix AC, and Tom looks like he'll be a good swap in running terms (Phil was an outstanding 5K runner) if not quite in maintaining beer sales in the bar (Phil being a quality drinker, as were all the 80s stars)! On the last lap, Graham and Tony were involved in a tight battle with a bunch of Orion and Barnet runners, with Graham's surges doing considerable damage to their bunch. In the end, Graham was just outside the top 10 in 11th place with Tony hanging onto a highly creditable 15th at the finish. Close in behind Tony was a 'fat and slow' Richard, who had a much improved run over his leg at the 6-stage, closing up the team in 17th. This gave the men a total of 52 points, certainly the best score they've achieved in the last ten seasons, as they beat their nearest challengers by over 40 points. With Jim Roche, Eddie Thomas, and Jon Cullom to add to this team, we should be the team to beat provided we can keep getting people out. To put the opening races into context, when we last won the League in 1996, we never won a single fixture but relied on consistency with a series of 2nd place finishes while other teams yo-yo'ed up and down. Yes, things are looking very encouraging this year, so please try and get along to the league fixtures if you can. Backing up the men's 'A' team challenge was an excellent 'B' team 2nd
place, led home by Dave Shortridge in 38th place. Close behind were Mick Cairns in 40th position, cracking 19 minutes for the first time, Gary Deathridge in 44th and Peter McHugh DeClare in 48th place. Closing up the team were new face Paul Birchall and the very familar Gerry Franey. Gerry, Mick, Peter, and Les Vialls combining for a very solid 5th place in the Veterans category. Not to be outdone were the VPH&THAC women who fielded two complete teams gaining 7th and 13th places on the night, which leaves the 'A' team on equal 5th place overall with Orion and Eton Manor after two fixtures. Once again leading the team home was Lydia Bruce-Burgess, a shade over 21 minutes for 105th overall (14th female finisher), with Anna Fake, newcomer Pat McGrogan, and Jo Sargent completing the scoring quartet. VPH&THAC's sole junior representative was 14-year old James Foley who clocked an encouraging 12:56 for 6th place in the U17 boys 2 mile race

1. Tim Grose 15:59 PB

3. Laurence Curley 16:05*

5. Tom Carrick 16:13*

11. Graham Bennett 16:52

15. Tony Lashmar 17:00

17. Rich Newbold 17:06

38. Dave Shortridge 18:38 PB

40. Mick Cairns (V40) 18:46 PB

44. Gary Deathridge 19:01

75. Paul Birchall 19:53*

88. Gerry Franey (V45) 20:30

90. Les Vialls (V55) 20:33

91. Phil Miller 20:39*

105. Lydia Bruce-Burgess (L14) 21:01 PB

106. Chris Schemers 21:02*

116. Graham Prince 21:37*

124. John Mail 21:55*

161. Pat McGrogan (L37) 25:33*

168. Darren Stobbart 26:11

169. Jo Sargent (L43) 26:18

181. C.Chapman (L54) 27:38*

184. Veronica McCabe (L57) 28:01*

190. F.Porter (L62) 29:06*

191. Barbara McHugh DeClare (L63) 29:24

* First time over this course

VPH&THAC Team Results

Men's A - 52 pts (1st)

Men's B - 333 pts (2nd)

Men's Vets - 266 pts (5th)

Women's A - 126 pts (7th)

Women's B - 236 pts (13th)

Overall (after 2 races)

Men's A - 24 pts (1st)

Men's B - 11 pts (5th)

Men's Masters - 12 pts (7th)

Women's A - 15 pts (7th)

100

Rikki Fifton 10.74

Richard Alleyne 11.1

Darren Robinson 11.1

Chris Musa 11.1

Abdul Buhari 11.2

Toleme Ezekiel 11.3

Tunde Balogun 11.3

Cymon Gibbons 11.44

Marc Malone 11.5

Keith Porter 11.6

Dean Kosoko 11.6

Daniel Wedderburn 11.6

200

Rikki Fifton 21.53

Marc Malone 22.3

Darren Robinson 22.9

Chris Musa 23.1

Abdul Buhari 23.1

Lourens Malan 23.8

Randal Porter 24.0

Shaun Alley 24.11

Tunde Balogun 24.2

Cymon Gibbons 24.2

400

Rikki Fifton 50.3

Carey Simon 52.8

Darren Robinson 53.2

Lourens Malan 53.3

E. Oluwasan 54.7

Samater Farah 55.2

Terry Beackon 55.9

Eddie Thomas 56.4

Femi Akinyisola 56.4

Randal Porter 57.0

800

Tim Grose 1:59.27

Eddie Thomas 2:03.1

Lourens Malan 2:06.1

Samater Farah 2:06.4

Richard Bruce 2:06.4

Graham Bennett 2.07.6

Derek Decicco 2:07.8

Tony McDowall 2:07.9

David Shortridge 2:11.7

Laurence Curley 2:13.8

1500

Tim Grose 4:00.35

Eddie Thomas 4:06.9

Sam Pullan 4:18.9

Jim Roche 4:24.2

Jon Cullom 4:28.4

James Waters 4:31.0

Graham Bennett 4.31.6

Tony MacDowall 4:37.0

Tony Lashmar 4:44.7

David Shortridge 4:46.2

Mile

Tim Grose 4:36.5

Eddie Thomas 4:41.2

James Waters 4:59.9

Tony Lashmar 5:02.4

David Shortridge 5:24.9

James Hall 5:30.0

Darren Clark 5:31.5

Mick Cairns 5:33.2

3000

Tim Grose 8:51.8

Graham Bennett 9:12.7

Jim Roche 9:17.6

5000

Tim Grose 15:43.0

Sam Pullan 15:48.6

Jim Roche 15:57.3

Eddie Thomas 16:25.5

Laurence Curley 16:26.7

Tony Lashmar 16:29.3

James Waters 17:21.8

Graham Bennett 17:26.1

Mike Penman 17:33.0

Colin Oxlade 18:23.3

10000

Tim Grose 33:49

Jim Roche 33:53

Tony Lashmar 35:45

James Waters 36:52

Mike Penman 37:27

Colin Oxlade 38:28

David Shortridge 41:28

Francis Bray 42:46

Phil Miller 46:52

110H

Richard Alleyne 14.70

(Also 14.59w 5.0 mps)

Lourens Malan 17.7

David Robinson 18.0

Randal Porter 20.1

Chris Murtagh 20.8

Tony MacDowall 21.0

Art Castle 21.0

400H

Darren Robinson 55.1

Richard Alleyne 56.3

Lourens Malan 59.3

David Robinson 62.3

Tony MacDowall 67.0

Art Castle 67.8

Jon Cullom 75.3

Colin Oxlade 84.5

Mike Wheeler 87.3

3000SC

Tim Grose 9:53.8

Eddie Thomas 10:10.4

Richard Newbold 10:13.0

Jon Cullom 10:27.1

Laurence Curley 10:47.2

Gordon Faulds 11:06.2

Colin Oxlade 11:16.6

Dave Robinson 11:44.6

Art Castle 14:23.7

Long Jump

Abdul Buhari 6.82w

Marc Malone 6.34

Daniel Wedderburn 6.14

Kwame Peters 6.06

Randal Porter 5.81

Kelvin Richards 5.74

Lourens Malan 5.71

Alex Simpson-Porter 5.70

Jahangir Samadl 5.54

Dave Robinson 5.49

High Jump

Lee Bruce 1.85

Marc Malone 1.80

Darren Robinson 1.75

Lourens Malan 1.73

Alex Babb 1.70

E. Olbiwasany 1.65

Art Castle 1.65

Jerome Watson 1.60

Femi Akinyisola 1.60

Dave Robinson 1.55

Triple Jump

Lee Bruce 12.32

Lourens Malan 11.98

Marc Malone 11.85

Randal Porter 11.65

Dave Robinson 11.50

Chris Murtagh 11.09

Kelvin Richards 10.90

Terry Beackon 10.25

Art Castle 10.23

Mike Wheeler 10.09

Pole Vault

Lourens Malan 3.30

Wayne DuBose 3.30

Art Castle 3.00

Mike Wheeler 2.90

Chris Murtagh 2.80

Jayden Ali 2.30

Terry Adams 2.00

Derek Decicco 1.00

Shot Putt

Randal Porter 10.96

Wayne DuBose 10.86

Tony Alexander 10.69

Richard Tufft 10.37

Wayne Stickney 9.80

Art Castle 9.55

Remo Wuethrich 9.41

Lourens Malan 9.37

Alex Wood 9.21

Graham Burns 9.17

Discus

Wayne DuBose 33.29

Art Castle 32.27

Graham Burns 28.15

Tony Alexander 28.04

Wayne Stickney 27.79

Chris Murtagh 25.69

Richard Tufft 25.60

Lourens Malan 24.92

Randal Porter 24.86

Terry Beackon 20.79

Javelin

Wayne DuBose 45.14

Art Castle 38.43

Wayne Stickney 37.88

Randal Porter 36.86

Tony Alexander 36.62

Lourens Malan 35.49

Alex Wood 28.86

Marc Malone 27.42

Remo Wuethrich 26.96

Kelvin Richards 26.25

Hammer

Tony Alexander 34.47

Graham Burns 34.15

Richard Bruce 29.61

Wayne DuBose 27.97

Alex Wood 26.48

Richard Tufft 23.74

Wayne Stickney 22.10

Art Castle 20.65

Randal Porter 19.83

Lourens Malan 19.35

Pentathlon

Lourens Malan 2,483

Marc Malone 2,407

Art Castle 2,321
Randal Porter 2,089
Tony MacDowall 1,809
Jon Mail 812

Decathlon

Lourens Malan 4781
Art Castle 4275
Randal Porter 4018

100

Symone Belle 12.0

Banke Olofinjana 12.5

Anique Dublin 12.7

Elizabeth Ali 13.4

Marie Ayoola 13.47

Patrice Asante 13.7

Chekaila McCollins 13.8

Sareena Robinson 14.10

Raquel Feeley 14.1

D. Paul 14.5

200

Banke Olofinjana 25.5

Symone Belle 26.3

Patricia Asante 26.7

Elizabeth Ali 27.69

Caryl Whittaker 28.7

Marie Ayoola 29.5

Marian Shasanya 30.0

Raquel Feeley 30.1

Larraine Bishop 30.5

Millie Zah 30.9

400

Patricia Asante 61.3

Anique Dublin 61.69

Larraine Bishop 67.6

Marian Shasanya 68.0

Michelle Bishop 68.1

Sarah Johnsen 74.9

800

Michelle Bishop 2:35.01

Larraine Bishop 2:35.8

Patricia Asante 2:37.92

Perri Shakes-Drayton 2:40.9

Louise Blake 2:41.0

Polona Kulovec 2:45.8

Lydia Bruce-Burgess 3:01.4

Cai Lewis 3:13.7

1500

Lydia Bruce-Burgess 5:36.0

Larraine Bishop 5:37.0

Perri Shakes-Drayton 5:39.7

Annie Gammon 5:49.6

Cecile Brugnoli 6:06.4

Anna Fake 6:34.2

Mile

Lydia Bruce-Burgess 6:23.4

Sarah Johnsen 6:24.5

Anna Fake 7:42.2

3000

Lydia Bruce-Burgess 12:16.5

Cecile Brugnoli 13:10.4

Anna Fake 13:50.3

5000

Georgia Wood 20:48.4

Lydia Bruce-Burgess 20:49.1

100H

Symone Belle 13.96

300H

Sara Anibaba 53.4

Long Jump

Symone Belle 6.05

Banke Olofinjana 5.18

Elizabeth Ali 4.86

Sarah Anibaba 4.59

Chekaila McCollins 4.55

Caryl Whittaker 4.49

Sareena Robinson 4.45

Louise Blake 4.34

Caryl Whittaker 4.11

Amy Clough 4.13

High Jump

Symone Belle 1.55

Serena Robinson 1.48

Cai Lewis 1.43

Rebecca Peterkin Belle 1.35

Sarah Anibaba 1.30

Caryl Whittaker 1.30

R. Marlae 1.30

Anna Fake 1.10

Lydia Bruce-Burgess 0.90

Triple Jump

Amy Clough 8.85

Cecile Brugnoli 7.67

Anna Fake 6.23

Pole Vault

Aude-Claire Markiewicz 1.90

Anna Fake 1.85

Maxime Salter-George 1.55

Caryl Whittaker 1.30

Shot Putt

Banke Olofinjana 9.99

Karenate Songhoron 9.12

Sarah Johnsen 6.71

Amy Clough 6.68

Aude-Claire Markiewicz 5.88

Anna Fake 5.60

Marie Ayoola 5.60

Lydia Bruce-Burgess 4.81

Cecile Brugnoli 4.32

Discus

Karenate Songhoron 32.08

Banke Olofinjana 25.29

Claire Walker 18.84

B. Abdul 15.74

Aude-Claire Markiewicz 15.21

Anna Fake 10.79

Sarah Johnsen 10.52

Cecile Brugnoli 9.50

Lydia Bruce-Burgess 9.25

Javelin

Banke Olofinjana 29.99

Louise Blake 23.20

Patricia Asante 21.41

Aude-Claire Markiewicz 11.98

Anna Fake 9.49

Perri Shakes-Drayton 8.86

Cecile Brugnoli 8.74

Lydia Bruce-Burgess 7.46

Sarah Johnsen 6.99

Hammer

Karenate Songhoron 26.19

Banke Olofinjana 23.07

Notice is given of the VPH&THAC AGM which will be held at The Club HQ, St. Augustine's Hall, Cadogan Terrace, Victoria Park on Thursday 24th October 2002, beginning at 8pm. All supporters of the Club are welcome to attend although only fully paid-up first claim members of 18 years and over are eligible to vote.
Any proposed rule changes, nominations for Board Positions, the Presidency, Vice-Presidents, Life-Vice Presidents, etc. should be delivered to Richard Newbold, 75, Sydner Road N16 7UF (or given by hand), at least seven days before this date. Signatures of two Club members (proposer and seconder) are required for any nomination or proposed rule change to be added to the agenda.

"This doesn't mean anything to me."
Well, if you are an athlete, official, coach or supporter of Victoria Park Harriers & Tower Hamlets AC, the decisions made at the AGM could affect what you do for the next year or even the rest of your athletic career! The AGM is where the people who run the Club on the membership's behalf (The Board) are called to give an account of the Club's activities over the previous 12 months. It is also when the Directors of the Board are elected by the membership. So, if there are aspects of the Club you don't like or areas which you think could be improved, then the AGM is the perfect opportunity for your voice to be heard. You may feel so strongly about a certain area of the Club that you may wish to do something about it and become a Director.

The Board of Directors is made up of nine Club members, listed below, with the current incumbents in brackets. They each have a specific role within the Club looking after certain aspects of Club life. They are accountable for the activities of the Club. To ensure that things run smoothly they attend meetings at Cadogan Terrace on the penultimate Thursday of each month. Here, they report their activities to the other Directors and agree a course of action for the coming months for a whole range of topics from organising road races, to ensuring that the Clubhouse is cleaned on a regular basis.

Chairman (Richard Newbold): The Chair's roles include banging a gavel at meetings, hosting the AGM and attending outside meetings on the Club's behalf. The Chair is also there to keep an eye on the different aspects of the Club and to provide an overview of its activities.

Secretary (Veronica McCabe): Traditionally, the hub of the Club, the Secretary ensures that all the other directors receive information that is relevant to their activities. The Secretary acts as the point of contact between the Club and the associations we are affiliated to. The other key role of the Secretary is to field enquiries from potential new members and direct them to suitable training groups.

Finance (Wayne DuBose): The person who controls the Club's purse strings, keeps cash flowing in and out, and tries to stop all the other directors frittering away our bank balance to nothing.

Athletics (Tim Mitchell-Smith): The person who coordinates the athletic activities within the Club, covering everything from cross country running to the hammer. Involved in organising the Club's competitive and coaching activities and linking up with the Women's Director and Youth Director in providing a joined up and effective athletics strategy.

Women (Cecile Brugnoli): A separate position for women's athletics exists to ensure that the voice of the female membership is heard. This is a role that primarily promotes the athletic activities of women and girls, whilst acting in concert with the Directors of Athletics and Youth.

Youth (Peter Snell): A key role in developing the Club's future. This involves interacting with schools and local youth organisations, providing young athletes with coaching and competition suitable for their needs.

Entertainment (Darren Stobbart): The role that shows that being a member of VPH&THAC is not all hard work. This Directorship provides a range of social activities at the Clubhouse (Quizzes, BBQs, Parties, Comedy Nights, etc.) and runs the bar which is open every Thursday.

Public Relations (Paul McKinley): The role that ensures that the Club is known to the outside world. This aims to raise our profile within the local community and bring to attention the range of good things the Club achieves, whether individual athletic successes or promotion of our sport at the grassroots. This position is also key in keeping the Club membership informed of what is happening within its Club.

Building Maintenance (Gary Bagnall): The Forth Railway Bridge comes to mind here. Keeping our Clubhouse up to scratch and improving the facilities it provides is a major and vital undertaking

Being a Director means that you oversee a particular area of Club life, ensuring that the right people are chosen to carry out day-to-day activities, possibly in a sub-Committee. For example, Alf Vickers is the Coaching Secretary and Terry Adams is Men's T&F Team Manager both of which are part of the "Athletics" sphere. Delegation is an important part of these roles.

"How do I become a Director?"
Firstly, find two people to nominate and second your application to stand. Get them to sign a letter stating this intention at least 7 days in advance of the AGM. Then canvass the opinions of as many first-claim members (aged 18 or over) and persuade them to: (a) vote for you and (b) turn up to the AGM. Then, turn up to the meeting yourself, have a speech prepared outlining your vision for the Club and be ready to answer a range of questions from the floor. There will then be a vote and, if you're lucky, you'll find yourself one of the Directors of VPH&THAC…. this is where the hard work begins.

The Board structure was created so that Board Members serve for a maximum of three years before having to seek re-election. This year will see three Board positions automatically come up for re-election, with three more in 2003 and the final three in 2004. In this way, we will have a gradual change in personnel, providing some continuity of service whilst still enabling less confrontational replacement of Directors.

So, if you feel that you have something positive to contribute to the Club, then please come along to the AGM and air your views. Even better would be for you to take a deep breath and a big step forward and take up the responsibility of organising some of our activities. You could be the person to revolutionise our Club.

Rich Newbold

(President & Chairman, VPH&THAC)

From: Terry Adams

Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2002

Subject: Congratulations All Round

Wayne,

Our last Southern League double match was a great day (except for my visit to
the water jump) and I think it vindicated our decision to merge. It'll
be even better next year when we're all in the same vests! So many
people worked hard on Saturday at both Mile End and the clubhouse
to make sure both functions (track meet and barbeque) were a success. I think that there are very few clubs in the country who could have put on two functions as well as our club did on Saturday. Well done to all those who made it happen. Terry

UK Athletics would like to take this opportunity to invite you to attend one
of the UK Athletics 2002 Roadshows that are taking place from September to
November this year. It will be an opportunity for you to speak to an
Athletics panel led by myself. We are giving you the opportunity to ask the panel any questions that you may have, to discuss your ideas and thoughts on the future of athletics in the UK and also to take part in the biggest ever UK wide athletics opinion survey. From coaching pathways to facilities, from World Class Performance to teacher education, the agenda is yours. The closest venue for yourselves is: Monday, 4 November - Lee Valley Water Works, Leyton - 7 to 9 pm

Kind Regards, David Moorcroft, UK Athletics

NOTE FROM WAYNE: If you're interested in attending, let me know (dubose@enterprise.net or 01480 494367 as I need to register attendees. I can confirm that Dave Moorcroft will be there.

From Mike Wheeler:

I would like to thank everyone who turned up for the BBQ on Saturday and made it the perfect end to a great day.
Victoria Park Harriers has always held celebratory occasions at the beginning of August and at Xmas for the benefit of members getting to know each other and letting their hair down. I would especially expect this trend to continue now that we are all part of one even greater club - VPH&THAC. I would also like to take this opportunity to name particular individuals who gave up a lot of their time to make the day run as smoothly as possible; Aude-Claire Markiewicz, Veronica McCabe, Anna Fake, Dan O'Sullivan, Paul Johnston. A special mention to Georgia Pettipher and Lydia Bruce-Burgess who made themselves available very late into Friday night as well as all day Saturday. One person who wasn't there this year but deserves a mention is Joe Loboda, whose previous experience and culinary know-how pointed us in the right direction. WELL DONE! Thanks, Mike

From Barbara McHugh de Clare:

Just a thank you from Peter and I to everyone and anyone who was involved in making the BBQ such a success. An enormous amount of hard work had obviously been undertaken and it was I am sure appreciated by everyone. We left relatively early around 10.30 as we were off to Dorset at 7.00 Sunday morning as Peter was running a half marathon but have had good reports that the evening ran and ran. The food was superb and the company brilliant as always. Thank you again for your great efforts. Barbara and Peter McHugh de Clare

From Paul McKinley:

Thanks from me too. It really was a very good and very special Club BBQ. Mike and his helpers did a fantastic job and deserve the very highest commendation for their efforts (sound like I'm about to pin the George Cross on him!) It takes a lot more hard work and time to put something like this together than many people realise. Well done and thanks. The best thing about the whole evening for me was to see such a large contingent of "former THACers" joining in. Particularly encouraging was to see so many juniors, although I sincerely hope they are better athletes than they are singers! Great stuff, keep up the good work!

From Rich Newbold:

Congratulations to everyone concerned for such a fabulous effort. One of the best ever at the Clubhouse, that I can remember, despite the torrential rain. You certainly kept up to the high Loboda standard. Brilliant! Rich.

From Lydia Bruce-Burgess:

Cheers also to you Mick for all your extremely hard work, for arranging, planning and promoting the BBQ and the entertainment; for getting up at 4am on Friday to buy the fish; and for BBQ-ing all of Saturday night.

Congrats to Richard Alleyne who set a wind-assisted Club Record of 14.59 (5.0 mps) in the heats of the AAA U20's on 29 June before finishing in the silver medal position in the final the next day running a legal 14.82.

While I was perusing the on-line New Zealand Weekly News (it's only three pages long), I became aware of this web page:

http://www.geography.otago.ac.nz/Geography/People/StudentProfiles/SarahJohnsen.html

Congrats to Sarah on officially becoming Dr. Johnsen after completing her PhD and recently attending her graduation ceremony in NZ.

Chine Oputa (Sprints Level 3)

Alf Vickers (Hurdles Level 3)

Richard Newbold (Steeplechase

Endurance Level 3, Young Athletes

Level 2)

Terry Adams (Pole Vault Level 3 and

Sprints Level 3)

Peter Snell (Sprints, Throws, Jumps,

Young Athletes Level 2)

Kelvin Richards (Long Jump Level 2)

Larraine Bishop (Middle Distance

Endurance Level 2)

Michelle Bishop (Middle Distance

Endurance Level 2)

Tim Mitchell-Smith (Middle Distance

Endurance Level 2)

Chris Zah (Sprints and Young Athletes

Level 2)

Dennis Ali (Young Athletes Level 2)

The new Boswall League season will begin on 26^th September with the Club Road Mile Championship. For those of you who aren't aware, the Boswall League is an internal club league based on race performances over the winter season. In each race, the first VPH&THAC man home scores 20 points, 2nd VPH&THAC man 19 points and so on down to 20th VPH&THAC man with 1 point. Any men who come in further down the order fail to score. Likewise, the first VPH&THAC woman gets 20 points, second VPH&THAC woman 19 points etc. There are 4 categories of race that count in the league: Chingford League, Club Road Championships, Club Cross-Country Championships and Other One-Off Events. Within each category, you discard your worst score - i.e. your best 6 performances in the 7 Chingford League races count - but this only applies if you run every race in that category. So if you run 6 or less of the Chingford League races they would all count. This season the following races will count towards the league:

Road Champs - 1 mile, 3.5 miles, 10 miles, 20 miles (Best 3 results to count)

Chingford League - all 7 races – not the Chingford Relays (Best 6 results to count)

XC Champs - 5 miles, 7.5 miles (within North of Thames Jr), 10 miles (within Southern XC Champs) (Best 2 results to count)

Others - North London XC Champs, London XC Champs/Ware Cup*, Middx XC Champs, Mob Match, North of Thames Sr, National XC Champs (Best 5 results to count)

Road Champs - 1 mile, 3.5 miles, 10 miles, 20 miles (Best 3 results to count)

Chingford League - All 7 races – not the Chingford Relays (Best 6 results to count)

XC Champs - 2.5 miles, 5K (within North of Thames Sr), 8K (within Middx XC Champs) (Best 2 results to count)

Others - North London XC Champs, Ware Cup*, Mob Match, Southern XC Champs, National XC Champs (Best 4 results to count)

* The Ware Cup and London XC Champs are being held on the same day. The intention is to send a women’s team to the Ware Cup, a men’s A Team (of 8) to the London XC Champs and a men’s B Team to the Ware Cup. Women will score points at the Ware Cup as normal. The men’s A Team will score 20 points down to 13 points as normal. The B Team will score 12 points for first man home, then 11 points etc, down to 1 point for the 12^th VPH&THAC man home.

The Newbold League is intended to focus the Club's leading male athletes towards the more important races in the winter season. It's also designed to promote participation in some poorly supported events, and to provide a trophy for the athlete who consistently produces good results in Club colours in the key races of the winter campaign. The League runs from September until March and complements the existing Boswall League, which is aimed towards participation in the wider range of events that the Club competes in, from low key Mob Matches through to National Championships. The ten-race series is:

Chingford League Relay

6-Stage Relay

North London XC Championships

North of the Thames Senior

London XC Championships

Middlesex XC Championships

North of the Thames Junior XC

Championships

Southern XC Championships

National XC Championships

12-Stage Relay

In the 'straight' races, the first VPH&THAC runner home will collect 24 points, 2nd home 23pts, etc. down to 1pt for 24th home. In the Chingford League and 6-stage relays, athletes will receive 12 points for participating and additional points depending upon how fast their individual leg is: 12, 11, 10, ....2 ,1. In the 12-stage relay, athletes will gain 12 points for taking part and additional points for their individual performance (12 -> 1 for the long legs and 12 -> 1 for the short legs). Athletes not eligible to compete in the Middlesex CC Championships (those who were born outside and who live outside the county) will be awarded 12 points if they compete in another county championships in Club colours with additional performance points depending on their finishing position (1st - 12pts, 2nd - 11pts, ....., 12th, 1pt.) Only first-claim, fully paid-up members of VPH&THAC will be eligible for the competition and will be automatically entered. Athletes will be able to 'discard' two races, of which not more than one can be a relay, with the best eight scores adding to a final total. The athlete with the highest total at the end of the ten events will be declared the winner and awarded the Newbold Trophy, which will be held for one year. This competition will have the same status as any other VPH&THAC Club Championship and medals will be awarded to the first three athletes. In the event of a tie the athlete who has beaten the other(s) in the most 'straight' races will take the higher position. If this doesn't separate athletes, then there will be joint champions or medallists. (This programme was devised by Wayne DuBose who persuaded Rich Newbold to donate a trophy.)

As of 9 October, our membership stands at 282 members. That's a tremendous number of people to belong to one organisation. And they're all current members who are up-to-date with their annual subscriptions. However, there are many young people who haven't taken the time to fill out the club membership form and thus get their contact details recorded. What does this mean? Apart from not being covered under club insurance (Coaches, take note), they're not receiving this club magazine which probably has their name in it. Look on the bulletin board for a list of members, track down those who don't appear, and sign them up!

Southern League Champs!