Updated 8th June. Unless I’ve missed anyone, we had 26 runners at the second grand prix. Problems with the results meant we had one result delivered late but it didn’t affect the grand prix tables, which are shown below and available for download. Well run everyone – click read more for full info, and don’t forget the next in the series is the Claygate Country 5, Sunday July 10. Enter at www.sportsystems.co.uk/ss/event/ClaygateCountry5
Given the heat of the previous day, it was a surprisingly cool start on Sunday – Murphy’s Law in full effect, seeing as the organisers had moved the start forward by an hour to avoid the heat.
The start is perhaps the only part that they might still work on, as we began fairly tightly penned in by ribbons on the village green, which might prompt anyone dissatisfied with their start to push higher up the field in future years. This year the approximate timing bands seemed fairly well observed, and the rest of the race fully deserved its gold status, with accurate mile markers and spot-on marshalling.
While the course record was being broken further up the field, Jack Holland led throughout for the club. Following the racers’ creed of not worrying about those behind, he was only aware when told at the finish that he had been hotly pursued for a time by Jason Blair and Joe Chang. Jack also took maximum points in the age-graded league – unusually, we finished in age-graded order down to 7th place.
Further down the field, Mark Osikoya started quickly, and he and Zoe Ashcroft paced each other through the first couple of miles before Mark pulled away – though he was caught by Zoe at the finish. Ben Downe ran conservatively and almost enjoyed it, following a heavy day’s training on Saturday, while Kevin Stone stayed clear of the chasing pack, with Matthew Pritchard occasionally in view, although slightly too far ahead to catch. David Pearce finished strongly while there was a welcome return to club colours for Robb Reeves. Mike Gray finished with a sense of mission accomplished, ahead of Ann Bath and inside 90minutes, while Javier Fuentes could take a rest from cheering everyone else on, finishing with a smile and cheered on by the club.
In the ladies’ race, Aimee Billington and Maggie Stacey set off at a quick but sustainable pace, running together for most of the first half before Aimee stretched away, finishing at a gallop and 11th lady overall. Zoe had them in view for a while, but ran her own race to finish strongly and complete a strong team performance in the Surrey Road League (see below). Sarah Pettefer and Libby Marchant were closely followed by Linda Grossman who prefers shorter races but nonetheless looked comfortable here. Sue Garnish chalked up another victory over Andrea Bennett, while Ann Bath took two minutes off her time from last year, enough to take the age-graded points. Maggie’s chip time was 1:10:49 – which still wasn’t quite enough to beat Ann’s age-graded score.
In the Grand Prix, Jack Holland takes an early lead in both competitions for the men, while Aimee Billington has the maximum points in the past the post race, Maggie the lead on age-grading.
Best news of the day comes from the ladies’ team – with 3 to score, they are well placed to pick up Surrey medals again, though there may be other results missing and there are a couple of highly placed ladies who are listed as unattached – from a quick search they run for incomplete teams (Hercules Wimbledon and Striders of Croydon), but if there are any missing runners from Dorking or Clapham that would change things.
Thanks to Don for photography and support, Binkie and Crimmo for cheering us on. Here they proudly survey their charges.
Provisional ladies team totals (3 to score) by place.
| Woking | 31 |
| E&E | 48 |
| 26.2 | 50 |
| Dorking | 56 |
| Clapham | 78 |
| Elmbridge | 97 |
| Stragglers | 100 |
Grand Prix tables
| Men | Past the Post | Age Graded | |||
| AGE | Time | Points | % | Points | |
| Jack Holland | 26 | 1:02:53 | 20 | 70.58% | 20 |
| Jason Blair | 31 | 1:03:27 | 19 | 70.00% | 19 |
| Joe Chang | 32 | 1:04:01 | 18 | 69.49% | 18 |
| Edward Brunskill | 36 | 1:06:31 | 17 | 67.93% | 17 |
| Steve Watkins | 38 | 1:07:45 | 16 | 67.60% | 16 |
| John Matthews | 38 | 1:08:15 | 15 | 67.11% | 15 |
| Mark Osikoya | 38 | 1:12:46 | 14 | 62.94% | 14 |
| Ben Downe | 32 | 1:18:16 | 13 | 56.84% | 10 |
| Graham Ashby | 45 | 1:24:04 | 12 | 57.55% | 11 |
| Matthew Pritchard | 35 | 1:24:24 | 11 | 53.24% | 7 |
| Kevin Stone | 43 | 1:25:48 | 10 | 55.50% | 9 |
| David Pearce | 31 | 1:26:28 | 9 | 51.37% | 6 |
| Greg Whiteman | 43 | 1:27:43 | 8 | 54.28% | 8 |
| Robb Reeves | 55 | 1:28:13 | 7 | 59.63% | 13 |
| Mike Gray | 54 | 1:28:52 | 6 | 58.68% | 12 |
| Javier Fuentes | 39 | 1:35:54 | 5 | 48.12% | 5 |
Ladies
| Women | Past the Post | Age Graded | |||
| AGE | Time | Points | % | Points | |
| Aimee Billington | 34 | 1:09:51 | 20 | 71.65% | 18 |
| Maggie Stacey | 43 | 1:10:51 | 19 | 74.35% | 19 |
| Zoe Ashcroft | 36 | 1:12:45 | 18 | 69.28% | 17 |
| Sarah Pettefer | 45 | 1:23:14 | 17 | 64.42% | 16 |
| Libby Marchant | 26 | 1:23:31 | 16 | 59.49% | 13 |
| Linda Grossman | 28 | 1:24:06 | 15 | 59.08% | 12 |
| Sue Garnish | 41 | 1:26:34 | 14 | 59.86% | 14 |
| Andrea Bennett | 46 | 1:27:23 | 13 | 61.99% | 15 |
| Ann Bath | 62 | 1:29:19 | 12 | 74.77% | 20 |
| Janneke Zoeteman | 29 | 1:35:59 | 11 | 51.76% | 11 |