FRANNY’S BITS.

The Overton 5 is almost upon us, keep an eye on the notice board for further details about this weekends events.

Congratulations to Belinda and Mike for winning their sections of the summer handicap leagues. The winter league starts on October 17^th over the Foxdown course. The starting list should be on the board by now and I look forward to your many complaints throughout the winter.

No reports handed in to me this month though I believe Geoff has a couple. If you have raced but not submitted a report can you please let me have the bare details (venue, distance, time) so that I can keep the standard scheme up to date.

I hope to have an up to date list of standards achieved on the board during the next month, this can then help those who try to achieve a set target throughout the year.

An up to date list of consistency events should also be on the board shortly and we hope to have a fixtures list available as soon as certain race dates have been clarified.

SOUTHERN LEAGUE – BASINGSTOKE – 03-08-2002 from John Hoare

Our home fixture provided us with the best result of the year and was by far the closest contest of the season. We were nip and tuck with Isle of Wight all afternoon and there was some justice in sharing the honours with them. Equally close was the fight for third place which again ended in a tie between Windsor and Newton Abbott. London Irish brought a very depleted squad and were a long way in arrears. Unfortunately our first equal place was not rewarded with any significant rise in the table and we again finished mid table in twelfth place.

On the track we were the top points scorers with a number of impressive results. Two double wins went to Mike and Keith Vallis in the 5000m while Keith was involved in another double in the Steeplechase with the hard working Darren. Dave Bush also had a rewarding afternoon with a ‘B’ string win in the 400m Hurdles and second place in the 400m. Chris was narrowly beaten in the ‘A’ string 800m but a fine run from Keith Clark secured us nine points in this event, while another nine points out of ten came in the 1500m courtesy of Mike and Keith. Good backing from Jeremy, Danny and Richard kept the points ticking over and we went into the 4x400m relay needing to beat Isle of Wight by one place to finish joint first. Well done to our squad who did just that.

Isle of Wight dominated the Jumping events but a string of seconds kept us in contention. These came from some splendid efforts from Danny and Jeremy in the Long and Triple Jumps and from Jeremy and Ivan in the High Jump. Darren and Paul also chipped in with very useful points in the Pole Vault.

It was a similar story in the Throws with Isle of Wight scoring heavily but there were again some super results from our trio of Simon, Ivan and Darren. Simon and Ivan picked up nine out of ten in the Hammer and then Darren teamed up with Simon to take two seconds in the Javelin. Ivan took a good ‘A’ string result in the Shot and Simon finished the afternoon with a similar result in the Discus.

MILLAND VALLEY 21km TRAIL RACE. AUGUST 4TH FROM FRANNY

After suffering a slight injury and then picking up a bit of a virus I decided that this anticipated low key stroll over an "undulating woodland and quiet country lanes" course would be an easier option than my planned attempt at a fast half-marathon, it would also be a gentle introduction to trail running for Jill.

The phrases "low key" and "gentle" were blown away in the first two miles as most of it were spent running uphill, included running through a river and ended in a climb up a flight of around 50 steps to the top of a heavily wooded ridge. It was obvious at this stage that the course was going to be something special and so it proved to be with a heavily rutted descent being followed by mile upon mile of continual long climbs, short climbs and uphills that tested the legs and lungs to the limit.

I made a steady start in the very warm and humid conditions but found myself struggling until around halfway when I had a tip off from a Burnham Jogger that " she’s not far behind". This forced me into picking up the pace and I managed to run the second half much better, helped by picking off a lot of runners who were struggling with the course and very hot weather. The steep "ski jump" descent from the final hill did little to help my very tired legs but I ended up feeling quite pleased with my run at the finish.

Jill had a great run and the tip off I had received at halfway had been more than accurate. She had made a very positive start and despite the shock of climbing those steps was only a few yards behind me at the 9km drink station. She found the course very testing but only started to tire as the course made it’s way up the last and longest uphill section of the course through head high bracken and heavily wooded paths. However she rallied over the last couple of miles and picked up several places over the final road stage with a storming finish. With little experience of this type of off-road running this was certainly a fine performance considering the niggling injuries that have curtailed her training recently. She just missed out on the prizes as she finished 6^th lady and 5^th in her age group

NUTLEY BOTTOM HANDICAP. 8^th AUGUST.

The smallest field of the series made life easier for the timekeepers with the field being more spread out than usual. First home was Alex who continued his improvement this summer with the biggest PB of the night as he sliced 2m 25sec from his previous best. Second was Nicky whose 46 second PB shows signs of better form while Josh took 35 seconds off his debut time to take third. The other PB’s on the night came from Aaron (8 sec) and Blissy senior (4 sec).

With Cathy Philo missing the last race it was left wide open for Belinda to take the handicap title (despite numerous moans that the handicapper was being rather unkind to her at the start). Aaron took advantage of several absentees to move up to second with Ian Vosser holding third ahead of Gavin. Jamie’s absence gifted the title to Mike on countback with Keith also being aided by absentees to take third.

Committee Meeting 18/08/02

Present G. Cloke, M. Dennison, P. Wheeler, C. Wheeler, R. Francis, G. Mclaughlin.

Matters Arising

1. Club Pentathlon. Idea from Richard for a BBQ next year perhaps this will inspire seniors to take part. Will review next year.
2. Consistency League. Geoff to re-print fixtures list, Franny to prepare.
3. Southern League. Went well and a small profit was made.

Treasurers Report.

Income £354.50

Expenditure £66.28

Current £1310.72

Reserve £2178.28 

Secretaries Report

1. Permit to hold races has been sent to the club.
2. New members G. England. E. Smith , both have been elected.

AOB

1) Relay entry forms have arrived. Vets 0/40 x 4 Ladies 29^th Sept.

6 Seniors, 4 Vets Men 28^th Sept

Paul to put notice on board. Entries close 13^th Sept.

3. Overton 5. All kinds of help is requested.. Suggestion to take guests to Highclere Castle to run 10k in the grounds followed by a picnic on the Sunday.
4. Southern Vets X.C Relays in Bournemouth in mid December.

Date of next meeting 9/09/02

Meeting closed at 9.30 p.m.

CLARENDON 5-4-3-2-1 Challenge. AUGUST 11TH FROM FRANNY

Midhurst 10K August 11th from Geoff

Mike Bliss competed in this race over an undulating two lap course, in warm sunny conditions. Mike was in the lead group of eight up to the 2Km mark, and then dropped off the pace due to the effects of a hard training week. However he persisted and hauled back some of the group to finish fourth in 32m 47s just 30 seconds behind the race winner.

Wessex Junior Track League Final August 18th Oxford

Aaron Harris, competed in Team Kennet colours in sunny and very warm conditions. There were sixteen competing teams split into two groups dependant upon their final league positions, but this did not always grade the athletes according to ability, where more competition would have produced some faster times.

In his main event, the 800metres, Aaron was up against tough opposition from a Basingstoke rival who has already beaten him twice this season.He tracked Aaron through the first 400metres, covered in around 66secs,but from there Aaron continued to run at an even pace, putting distance between them, which his rival was unable to reduce despite a last minute effort. This was an impressive run by Aaron, clocking 2mins 14secs, just outside his personal best, and the fastest time of the day by almost 2secs.

He followed this up by winning his race in the 400metres, with a personal best time of 61.2secs, and even managed to gain additional team points, by recording 3.72metres in the long jump. In the 400metres relay, a by this time tired Aaron, ran the first leg in 62.4secs handing over in second place, but the rest of the team were in an even worse state, and could only manage to limp home in last place.