FRANNY’S BITS.

A busy month ahead in the consistency league with scoring events at both the XC league fixtures and at the Gosport and Hayling road races. Thanks to Emma, entry lists have been on the board for some time.

The end of the month sees a double header weekend with the Victory 5 the day after the XC race at Reading. Mark currently has a big league in the men’s league but may drop back as he may not be available for all the XC fixtures. For the ladies, Karen has a narrow lead over Audra at the top but with double points for Club title events this could all change. A complete league table is on the notice board.

The club 10-mile championship will be incorporated into the HAYLING 10 on 24^th November with the club XC championship taking place the following week at READING. Double consistency points will be awarded for both these events.

The winter handicap league is underway and looks as if it will be as competitive as ever. Please remember the golden rules: RUN SAFELY and DO NOT CROSS OVER TOO SOON BEFORE THE CHURCH. Also it was noted at the first race that some people were still wearing dark kit……please wear white.

Congratulations to Geoff’s under 15 boys team on their superb second place at Farley Mount, it’s been many, many years since a junior team has done so well for the club. Sadly, apart from the veteran ladies team, the senior turnout was not so good and the men have made their worst start to the season for many years. Hopefully the return of some of our injured/unavailable runners will show an improvement at Goodwood on November 2^nd.

Reports are still slow in reaching Franny for inclusion in the newsletter, in fact quite a few never show up despite hearing people discussing events that they have done on training nights. Please let him have your results/reports ASAP…..Please don’t dump them on him all in one go at the end of the month.

CLUB VISIT TO EUSKIRCHEN. 30^th AUGUST – 2^nd SEPTEMBER.

At some ridiculous time in the morning 10 of us left Overton via Basingstoke by minibus to catch the Lufthansa flight to Cologne / Bonn airport from Heathrow. On this occasion we had elected not to be met by our hosts at the airport and rather took a bus to the centre of Cologne. The first thing to do was to deposit our luggage in a novel type computerised box which must have had a continuous belt of containers to disappear into the depths of the station concourse. This was followed by a short walk through the city centre but inevitably thoughts went to our stomachs and a search for a suitable watering hole was undertaken.

A very pleasant meal was had at the edge of the Market Square, which was playing host to a beer festival or some such event. This was followed by further sight seeing to meet up again at the station where, it is alleged, a lady member of our group decided that more summery clothes would be more appropriate to the warm weather. She chose to change in a side-corridor to the main concourse, much to the amusement of the locals. It has to be said that the writer did not actually witness this spectacle but rumours persist. A train journey to Euskirchen then followed to met by our hosts to take us to various homes around the town. Friday evening was spent propping up bars where the writer was reintroduced to Wheat beer.

Saturday was mostly taken up with a boat trip on a large lake in the mountainous Eiffel area of western Germany when we met our old friend Mike Baker who had made the trip from Munchengladbach to be with us. The evening consisted of further drinking at a disco/club beer festival in the woods close to Euskirchen. It rained rather heavily for a short while but it didn’t dampen spirits on a very convivial evening.

Sunday was race day at the 10km around the streets of Euskirchen, 7 laps to be precise!! All but Anna Vallis, John Hoare and Moira West ran on this desperately flat course, but 7 laps is definitely an acquired taste. Jamie had a good race but was well beaten by a Portuguese and a Belgian into an isolated third place. During the race he deprived a poor young lad of his lunch as he appeared out of Macdonald’s and crossed into Jamie’s’ path.

Keith Vallis also had a good run in 11^th place and Paul Wheeler made a rare appearance on the roads but paid for it the following day as his dodgy ankle protested at being treated so badly. Dorothy Wicke threatened to give JT a thrashing over the early stages of the race as she pulled 50 yards ahead but as the race progressed she started to fade and JT took advantage with a second wind.

170 Finished.

Sunday evening was spent in a local hostelry where we had an excellent dinner and Jamie spent most of his winnings on beer and cherry pancakes, a local specialty, accompanied by a large number of our hosts. The Wheat beer also took a pounding!!

Monday morning, fairly early we were rushed to the airport for our flight back, everyone agreeing that they had had a wonderful weekend.

ALICE HOLT 10km 15^th SEPTEMBER.

This was rather a strange race to be chosen as a consistency event because it was to some extent, a very inhospitable surface to run on. Most of it was loose gravel (rather like at Flashets) which the writer found disconcerting and this was only broken up by a short section of grass and approx. 600 yards of road, which was a welcome relief. Those members who did take part were rewarded with good consistency points, particularly Mark and Karen who both got 20 points.

386 Finished

Some Juniors Results from Geoff

The core of our rapidly expanding group of young athletes opened their cross country season with a visit to Farley Mount Saturday 5th October to compete in the annual Continental Cross Country Races organised by Winchester AC.

First in action was 10 year old Hannah Vosser running in her first ever major race, and loving every minute, as she confidently grabbed fourth place behind her older and more experienced rivals. Hannah comfortably maintained this position, completing the 2Km course in 6mins 5secs just one minute behind the race winner.

Next to go were Josh Bliss, Alex Bright and Aaron Harris in the fiercely competitive 13/14 year old age group for boys. Aaron, determined to stay with the leaders, completed the first of two laps in this 3Km race in third place. Thereafter he doggedly maintained his pace and moved up to second place, which he kept to finish in 10mins 19secs, just 34seconds behind the race winner and current English Schools Cross Country Champion.

Josh Bliss, a novice at this level started cautiously, but soon got involved with the race, and completed the first lap in fifth place. Spurred on by this success, he found the energy to improve by one place to finish fourth in 11mins 3secs.

Likewise, Alex Bright made a careful start, completing the first lap in twelfth place. However, he persisted and gained two places to finish tenth in 12mins 52secs.

Last to go in the 15/16 year old age group was new member Craig Williams. He ran his usual gutsy race, which included a strong finish to complete the 4.5Km course in sixth place in 12mins 31 secs.

Not content with that, 13 year old Josh Bliss, entered the 5Km Oakley Fun Run on the following day Sunday the 6th, and found himself running stride for stride with Cyd Hill from Basingstoke for most of the race. Cyd tried to pull away towards the end, but was overtaken by a fast finishing Josh (40 years Cyd’s junior) who won the race in 18mins 49secs.

Dorothy Wicke was the first lady to finish in 23mins 20secs out of a total entry of approximately 80 runners.

Hants. XC League at FARLEY MOUNT. 12^th OCTOBER.

272 Finished.

Committee Meeting 14/10/02

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

Apologies G. Mclaughlin

Matters Arising.

1. BBQ, Leave this until next year.
2. Fixtures list now on notice board.

Treasures Report

Income £816.51

Expenditure £212.50

Current £1710.52

Reserve £2180.14

Mark, ordered extra clothing all sizes.Slightly subsidised £101.

AOB

1. Hants Road Race League, have accepted Overton in league. Brading 10k is compulsory to qualify for prizes in league.
2. Consistency league is up on board and up to date.
3. Permit applied for Coombe Gibbet.
4. Andover-Newbury relays.. Andover not competing so Paul and Geoff have created 10k off road from bridge street. Newbury very keen. Geoff written to Basingstoke to make this a mixed mob style race. 10am 27^th Oct. This could also be used as a dry run for future Overton5, substitute.
5. Cyclist race in Dec, followed by Xmas lunch to be arranged by J. Hoare.
6. £25 spent on Southern league entry.
7. New member Cathryn Taylor.

Meeting closed 9.20p.m.

Date of next meeting 11/11/02

FOXDOWN HANDICAP. 17^th OCTOBER.

An excellent evening for running saw 6 PBS from the rather large field of 30 runners. The field was boosted by the influx of ladies from the Monday evening group and all put in good performances. First home was young Alex who showed the benefit of a summers training to hack 4min 09secs off his PB. He caught Caroline just before the end but she had a clear gap over third place Karen who took 2:45 off her PB. Other PB’s came from Claire (1:25), Scott (an excellent 74 seconds), Andy Hartley (14sec) and Dorothy (2sec).

Fastest on the night was the non-scoring Jamie ahead of Mark Simcox, Dave Vosser and Andy. The handicapper took a lot of flak on the night over some of the starting times (especially his own) but he couldn’t help noticing a group of four veterans who followed each other in towards the back of the field. ALL clocked lifetime worsts…..Is this a plot to con the handicapper???

FLEET 10km. 20^th OCTOBER.

Those of us who were expecting to take part in this years Fleet 10km were not looking forward to the terrible weather conditions being predicted by the media. As it turned out there were no gales or heavy rain and conditions were rather conducive to good running. The fact that all four of us got a mention in Athletics Weekly rather indicated that we must have got something right but times were not particularly good probably due to the deceptively difficult second half of the two lap course.

Approx. 400 Finished.

Cabbage Patch 10 –Twickenham Sunday 20/10/02 from Andy Hartley

Flat and fast! The word on the street was that a PB was as good as in the bag with the course being so well set up. And very nice it was too- Thames side suburbia, the affluent urban sprawl of the 1930s that is Kingston and Richmond and Twickenham etc.etc. Lots of quiet roads early on Sunday morning very well marshalled and a decent field of 1,200 to keep you interested with lots of running companions and targets to aim for.

A first mile of roughly 6.30 and a second of 6.28 was a decent start but after that I ‘zoned’ into an average of about 6.15 a mile before finishing with a sub 5.50 mile to finish in a time of 62m 32s. I knew I’d ran OK as no one passed me after the end of the second mile. A personal best by over 3 1/2 minutes on my only other 10m race at Newbury last year left me feeling very self-satisfied.

This is a good race and apart from a ½ mile stretch of slightly rough towpath and a short hill just before 8 miles it is an excellent fast course that lets you get into an excellent rhythm .One to try for next year.

Some Juniors Results from Geoff

On October 20 both Aaron Harris and Craig Williams took part in the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Rowing Machine Triathlon at Thruxton Race Circuit, comprising 2Km of rowing, 7Km of cycling and 1K5m of running. Aaron comfortably won the 13/14 year age group, and Craig was fifth in the corresponding 15/16 year group. Aaron’s win was his fourth in five outings, which made him this year’s overall champion.

Harroway 10K & 5K XC Races Sunday 27th October from Geoff

Gale force winds accompanied the first outing on this brand new course designed to provide an alternative to the now defunct Andover-Newbury Relays.

Simon Vines was the emphatic winner of the 10Km Race, but Overton were the winners of the team trophy comprising twelve runners from each Club.