Firstly an apology that this Newsletter has been a bit delayed (it should be August, not September). Lots of holiday and work commitments have kept me busy, and I’m afraid it will be some "old" news; but I’m very grateful to Trevor Taylor, Richard Jégou and Jeremy Smeddle for their contributions.

 Events to look out for on the White Horse horizon are as follows:

 Talk by Sports Psychologist, Mark Donnelly, 7 pm Wednesday 12^th September

A good turnout of Harriers attended a previous talk by Mark in the summer, which produced lots of thought-provoking discussion. Marion Jones has organised another session, this time with an emphasis on cross-country training and competition. Venue is the Loyd Lindsey Rooms in Ardington.

 White Horse Half Marathon, 11 am Sunday 30^th September

As ever, this event depends on a good turnout of Harrier volunteers to be a success. The rescheduled date due to Foot & Mouth may affect the number of entrants, but we still need lots of marshals, drink station helpers and refreshments volunteers. And donations of cakes and other refreshments very welcome, too.

 White Horse "20 Years" Social, Friday 30^th November

Another reminder for your diary; it promises to be a fun-packed evening at Lains Barn. More details to follow. How about some recollections of the early days for publication in "The Harrier"?

01235 554123(work)

E-MAIL : simon.williamson@barclays.net

(all reports courtesy of Trevor Taylor, Track & Field Secretary)

 A spate of late withdrawals meant that we were unlikely to challenge for the lead in this fixture and our record run of five consecutive match victories came to an end, but we still managed a respectable third place. A couple of extra bodies and we'd have nipped past Reading but Plymouth at home would have been tough to beat even with a full team. Special praise must go to Kevin Bowerman who notched a sprint double despite having had a few niggles from leg muscles during the preceding week. In fact Kevin's wins were the only ones we achieved all day but we had numerous close second place performances. With Cliff Mills and Neil Rutterford missing from the Tooting Bec team we really needed another multi-event athlete to keep our points score up - and fortunately for us Graham Bailey made his season's debut to do the business. Graham only lost the high jump on count-back and he finished runner-up also in the 400 hurdles, 110 hurdles, steeplechase and pole vault, as well as running a nippy 25.9 in the 200 metres. Chris Gillespie and Owain Bristow ran close to their best times in the 800 and 1500 respectively, and Kevin’s younger brother Jimmy showed promise for the future in his debut at 100 and Long Jump.

 Results from Southern League Match 2

An excellent all-round performance gave us a clear victory at Salisbury, although it wasn't until the last few events that we got our noses ahead after a long hard battle against Winchester, our close rivals in Division 6 last year.

 We welcomed back Neil Webb for his first league match of the year and what a return! A troublesome Achilles tendon has plagued Neil in recent months but he ignored the pain to hurl the javelin a mighty 48.93 metres for victory over his rival Phillips from Kidlington. Any concern about the effects of his injury was put well to the back of his mind when a few minutes later he then surpassed even his javelin efforts by breaking the long-standing club record in the discus. Neil, a powerfully built athlete, has been practising his turn in recent weeks and it's clearly had the desired effect as he launched the 2kg implement out to record a mark of 34.61 metres, beating Ron Jones' previous record by almost half a metre.

You'll recall that Tom Penfold also broke a club record in the first league fixture back at Tooting Bec in May. At Salisbury he had an easier 800 metres race but was again able to dominate and sprint to victory in the finishing straight, with a time of 2 minutes 3.5 seconds. In the 'B' race Chris Gillespie showed remarkable maturity in holding back from a fast pace on the opening lap and then clawing back the leader from the bell to win with a near-best time of 2 minutes 10.6 seconds. Maximum points also came from the two longest distance events, the 5,000 metres and the steeplechase. In the flat race Steve McGuigan won the 'A' race with a nippy 16 minutes 11.1 seconds and Dave Wright also ran strongly to record 16 minutes 29.1 seconds as the 'B' winner. However, neither man won the battle for first Harrier home, which was won by non-scoring Pete Wilson, coming strongly into form with a time of 15 minutes 41.4 seconds. The 'chase saw both Harriers breaking the rest of the field with strong runs in uncomfortably warm conditions, but to us onlookers the intriguing question was who would win? Over the last couple of laps Jason Cooke gradually eased away from Paddy McCourt but both athletes clocked good times of 10.30.5 and 10.36.5 respectively. Jason had earlier warmed up in impressive style with second place in the 400 metres hurdles 'A' race in fast time of 65.2 seconds.

 The Harriers also notched up several other 'B' event victories courtesy of Graham Bailey and Trevor Taylor. Graham had another excellent afternoon in the sprints and jumps winning both the 'B' hurdles events and clocking personal best times along the way. He also ran an excellent 12.2 seconds for the 100 metres and 25.2 seconds over 200 metres in addition to leaping 10.84 metres for second in the triple jump. Trevor won the 'B' javelin and triple jump and also clocked some nippy times (for a vet) over the short sprints.

 Other runners-up placings included an excellent 1500 metres time of 4 minutes 16.6 seconds by Paul Jégou - clearly getting back close to his best form - and a near-best 4 minutes 34.7 seconds in the 'B' race by Owain Bristow. Chris Gillespie ran 4 minutes 29.5 seconds in the non-scoring race and it was good to see Dave Murfin back from injury. Tom Penfold finished second in the 400 metres 'A' race in 56.1 seconds while in the field Tom King cleared 2.20 metres for third in the pole vault and Dick Jégou finished third in both the 'A' hammer and the 'B' discus.

Non-Scoring performances:

5000m Peter Wilson 15.41.4

1500m Chris Gillespie 4.29.5

Dave Murfin 4.52.7

The overall match result at this venue was about as good as we could reasonably expect with a severely depleted team. The weather didn't help as it drizzled continuously throughout the entire match but at least it was warm and we didn't get the torrential downpours that caused some other fixtures to be curtailed.

 The hurdles started brightly for us with Jason second in the 'A' race before we unleashed our secret weapon in the 'B' race - yes, Chris James is back! Chris still needs to do quite a lot of work before he attempts the distance events but he was happy to answer the call when we were short and he managed second in both the 400H and the 110H. We even managed to help him get some training in at the long jump pit - I've never before seen someone hit lactic while pushing a rake!

The sprints were best not mentioned but in the 800 metres things weren't getting much better. Paul had a tough run in the 'A' race and then Ben Penfold made his season's league debut in the 'B' race. He ran a strong race, finishing third in 2.11.7.

 The 5,000 metres proved to be a much happier story for the Harriers with Pete Wilson running a season's best of 15.34.1 to win the 'A' race by a clear lap and Steve McGuigan chasing hard on Pete's heels to finish well over 2 minutes clear of the next 'B' runner with a time of 15.47.5. Another double-victory came in the next event, the 400 metres, and with all the speed merchants sticking to the short sprints Ben and Trevor took maximum points. The 1500 saw Paul pipped on the line, running 4.28.1 for second in the 'A' race and Owain as consistent as ever with 4.33.6 for third 'B'. The steeplechase saw Jason running strongly from the gun and looking a good bet for another season's best but the opposition kept chasing hard (forgive the pun) and he was caught by the Queen's Park runner on the last lap. Dave Murfin matched Jason's position in the 'B' race. The 4x400 saw us secure second place with splits as follows:

Ben 58.3, Owain 61.1, Paul 59.5, Trevor 56.5.

 Fleet & Crookham were particularly strong in the throws but we held our second position thanks to sterling work from Neil and Dick. Neil won the javelin with a throw close to 50 metres and then made it a double in the discus with a throw of 31.70 metres. Dick threw 25.37 for second in the 'B' hammer, behind Neil's 27.47, and he was third in the 'B' discus. A double victory was achieved in the Long Jump, with both Trevor and Ben leaving their best efforts until last.

 At Woking we saw the welcome return of Kevin Bowerman in the short sprints and he showed no ill effects from his recent injury problems, cruising to victory in times of 11.6 seconds and 23.9 seconds. Clifford Mills was thankfully granted day release from the asylum to run the 'B' races and he showed a respectable turn of speed in the 100 metres with a 12.8 clocking. Clifford also ran both the hurdles races 'B' races in support of Jason who finished second in both the 'A' events clocking times of 21.6 and 65.2 seconds.

 Tom Penfold was another back in action for the Harriers after his schools exploits and he again broke the club record in a well judged 800 metres with a time of 1 minute 58.4 seconds. He looks good for sub-1.55 in the right race. We were keen to see what sort of turn of speed he could muster in the 400 metres and he didn't disappoint, clocking a fine 53.5 seconds for 2^nd place. Paul Jégou won the 'B' 800 metres with a strong run but was outpaced in the 1500 metres by the Southampton athlete who had pushed Tom quite hard in the 800 metres. Owain Bristow ran an excellent race to win the 'B' 1500 metres in a personal best time of 4 minutes 31.5 seconds; one day soon he's going to come out and knock a big chunk off that.

 The distance men were again at their superb best with Pete Wilson especially impressive running strongly from the gun and blowing away not only the Division 1 athletes but also his team-mate Steve McGuigan. Peter again recorded a season's best of 15 minutes 23.9 seconds and Steve hung on well to comfortably win the 'B' race in 16 minutes 5.3 seconds. It was maximum points also in the 'chase where Jason cruised round in a steady 10 minutes 37.9 seconds and Dave Murfin took the 'B' event in 11 minutes 59.4 seconds despite a fall at one of the barriers. Dave's performance very nearly won us the match as he grittily held off a chasing Southampton athlete and it was even more commendable as he only ran the event as a last minute volunteer (covering for a "no-show") after running a hard non-scoring 5,000.

 In the throws Neil Webb and Dick Jégou made good use of their youth and experience (perhaps not evenly distributed!) to collect excellent points. Neil threw 52.06 metres in the javelin for a comfortable victory and doubled in the discus with a winning 33.87 metres. If he could get a turn sorted out he'd no doubt be pushing 40 metres. In both the shot and hammer Neil managed second place while Dick chalked up victories in both 'B' competitions. Dick was also second in the 'B' discus and Trevor Taylor managed second in the 'B' javelin.

 We were all delighted to see Robert Greaney back on the track and despite still having a dodgy shoulder and not a lot of training behind him, he performed admirably. In leaping 5.59 metres in the long jump he exceeded the winning distance at Hemel Hempstead by over 35 centimetres - yet at Woking he finished only fourth. His 12.29 metres in the triple jump would have won most of our previous matches but this time Robert lost on countback to a Southampton jumper. Yes, it was a tough season's debut! Ben Penfold also did his bit in the high jump clearing 1.40 metres at the final time of asking - again to be beaten on countback. Our two venerable vaulters, Tom and Bruce, both managed third place with 2.20 metres clearances, but we couldn't quite scrape past Southampton.

First things first! A big thank you to all those who helped us stage a successful Southern Men's League fixture at Tilsley Park on Saturday. No athletics meeting can even get started without a large number of officials and helpers and thankfully we had an excellent turnout with lots of people turning their hands to unfamiliar tasks. Despite some atrocious weather mid-afternoon and a temporary break to allow the lightning to pass over, everyone stuck to their tasks and we still finished earlier than our previous two matches. Well done one and all!

 Before the match started we knew we were going to have a job on our hands to beat a strong Salisbury team who were two places above us in the league table. Although we did get out a very strong squad, we were unable to overcome the Wiltshire team but there were several personal bests. There was a strong performance in the 200 metres where Kevin Bowerman skimmed to victory over the post-storm puddles, posting a time of 23.4 seconds. That completed a fine double for Kevin who had earlier taken a close 100 metres in 11.6 seconds. Another double winner was Tom Penfold who ran a superb tactical 800 metres and then followed up with a brisk 400 metres in 54.7 seconds.

 The Harriers' third double winner was thrower Neil Webb who warmed up with a personal best 10.27 metres for 3^rd in the shot putt, showing that he's closing in on another of Ron Jones' long standing club records. Neil then moved on to the hammer event where there was something of a Harriers' upset with Dick Jégou edging him out of the 'A' event. Over at the javelin Neil was back in his element and an opening throw of 49.94 metres suggested that he was likely to exceed 50 metres before the end of the competition. On his second throw Neil misjudged his run-up and braked hard on the runway to avoid a no-throw but unfortunately in doing so he slightly pulled a muscle in his leg and this hampered his subsequent throws, although that first effort was enough to win comfortably. Then it was on to the discus where Neil mastered the slippery post-downpour conditions better than most to win with a strong throw of 32.26 metres.

 The Harriers collected a seventh individual 'A' race victory in the 1500 metres through Paul Jégou who ran a well-judged race to win in 4 minutes 26.1 seconds. Owain Bristow also ran well to take 2^nd in the 'B' race. In the longer events we scored good points despite Peter Wilson being beaten in a league race for the first time this season. In the 5,000 metres Pete took it out from the gun as usual but this time one of the Overton runners was able to hang on to him until the last lap when he edged past to take victory. Pete's time was 15 minutes 24.0 seconds, only a fraction of a second outside his season's best. Steve McGuigan had another fine run to take the 'B' race in 15 minutes 59 seconds. Behind Steve we also had a couple of non-scorers who ran good races - Dave Wright notched up a season's best of 16 minutes 23.6 seconds and Dave Murfin clocked 17.49.1.

 The steeplechase saw the return to the track of Paddy McCourt and a good race with Jason Cooke looked to be in prospect with both men looking for a time around 10 minutes 20 seconds. However, they weren't going to have things all their own way and from the gun a Salisbury runner took on the pace, quickly building a lead of 10-20 metres. The Harriers soon reeled him in with Paddy leading and Jason making a few surges but unable to get past. However, the Salisbury man gathered himself and started to break away a couple of laps from home before surging strongly on the last lap to break 10 minutes, always a good time in this league. Paddy chased hard over the last few laps and recorded a personal best time of 10 minutes 16.5 seconds for a well-earned four points. Jason tailed off over the last few laps but still managed to win the 'B' event despite coming a cropper at the first barrier on the final lap.

 Our only other winner on the day was Chris Gillespie who emulated Tom Penfold's 800 metres 'A' race run with a well-judged victory in the 'B' race. Other second place finishes came from Clifford Mills in the 'B' 400 metres hurdles with a p.b of 69.5, Dick Jégou in the 'B' shot and Robert Greaney in both horizontal jumps. Robert had to produce a season's best leap of 5.86 metres in the last round to pull himself up from fourth place and he then went on to record 12.05 metres in the triple jump.

 The day was brought to a close with an excellent 4x400 metres relay, although on the first leg Clifford Mills looked to be a bit below par and finished holding his leg. Fortunately Kevin Bowerman on the second leg ran a storming 55 seconds to take us into the lead, Ben Penfold then ran an eye-opening 55.9 seconds on the third leg to pass the baton to brother Tom who cruised round to victory with a 54 seconds split.

 Results from Southern League Match 6

 TEAM MATCH PTS LEAGUE PTS

100m 110mH Pole Vault

Kevin Bowerman 11.5 Neil Rutterford 16.8 Neil Rutterford2.80

Graham Bailey 12.2 Trevor Taylor 21.5 Tom King 2.20

Nick Lillywhite 12.5 Graham Bailey 21.6 Bruce Charles 2.20

Clifford Mills 12.5 Jason Cooke 21.6 Graham Bailey1.32

Trevor Taylor 12.6 Clifford Mills 23.0 Chris Gillespie1.20

Jason Cooke 13.2 Chris James 26.8 Jason Cooke 1.10

Jimmy Bowerman 13.6 Ben Penfold 1.10

Kevin Bowerman 23.4 Jason Cooke 65.2 Robert Greaney12.29

Neil Rutterford 24.2 Clifford Mills 66.8 Graham Bailey10.87

Graham Bailey 25.2 Graham Bailey 68.3 Trevor Taylor 10.61

Trevor Taylor 25.2 Chris James 76.1 Clifford Mills 10.39

Clifford Mills 25.9 Ben Penfold 10.36

Jason Cooke 26.8 Jason Cooke 9.94

400m 3000m S/C Hammer

Nick Lillywhite 52.4 Paddy McCourt 10.16.5 Neil Webb 27.47

Tom Penfold 53.5 Jason Cooke 10.30.5 Dick Jegou 25.78

Trevor Taylor 56.2 Clifford Mills 11.51.5 Trevor Taylor 16.44

Clifford Mills 57.0 Dave Murfin 11.57.0 Tom King 13.00

Ben Penfold 58.2 Graham Bailey 12.13.7

Chris Gillespie 58.4

Jason Cooke 59.3

Steve McGuigan 65.4

4x100m 46.4 4x400m 3.39.7

800m Long Jump Javelin

Tom Penfold 1.58.4 Neil Rutterford 5.94 Neil Webb 52.06

Paul Jégou 2.08.7 Robert Greaney 5.86 Trevor Taylor 32.43

Chris Gillespie 2.10.4 Kevin Bowerman 5.54 Tom King 25.30

Ben Penfold 2.11 7 Ben Penfold 5.21

Owain Bristow 2.17.5 Trevor Taylor 5.10 Shot Putt

Jimmy Bowerman 4.36 Neil Webb 10.27

Neil Rutterford 9.97

Dick Jégou 9.24

Trevor Taylor 8.01

1500m High Jump Discus

Paul Jégou 4.16.6 Neil Rutterford 1.82 Neil Webb 34.61

Tom Penfold 4.23.7 Graham Bailey 1.60 Dick Jégou 25.66

Owain Bristow 4.30.7 Chris Gillespie 1.40 Trevor Taylor 24.72

Dave Murfin 4.47.9 Trevor Taylor 1.40

Ben Penfold 1.40

5000m

Pete Wilson 15.23.9

Steve McGuigan 15.47.5

Dave Wright 16.29.1

Trevor Taylor 17.46.3

Fixture List (courtesy of Oxon AA webpage at www.oxonaa.org)

205 finishers

 MOTA-VATION SERIES, 3^rd RACE, COOMBE, 5^th JULY 2001

187 finishers

173 finishers

Pete Wilson had his third race in four days; 22:22 for 4 miles at Chipping Norton on Thursday, 15:24 for 5000m on the track at Abingdon on Saturday, then finally 31:41 for 6 miles in the Hooky 6, and 2^nd place. My legs feel tight just thinking about it! But then again Pete is a past master at the Easter Guernseyruns, so he probably ran a hard half marathon on the Monday too!

 During the Easter visit to Guernsey I wandered into the Guernsey Press Shop in search of a book on the history of the island. There didn’t seem to be one but my gaze was drawn to a volume entitled ‘The History of Guernsey Track and Field Athletics Part One 1885-1963’. Now my time in Guernsey fitted into this time span – the last bit I hasten to add, so I picked it up for a browse.

 The author, one Ramon Hollis, was an old mate of mine from my days with the club, a half-miler with a personal best, on grass, of 1min 53.6sec set back in 1963 (still pretty good!). Flicking through I found a selection of photographs, going back as far as 1891, including one of Guernsey’s own Olympic Gold medallist, Percy Hodge, who won the 3,000m Steeplechase in 1920. As the photos were in chronological order the later ones were of people I knew, including my old form master at school, an ex-Oxford blue with a Long Jump p.b of 6.86m and High Jump p.b of 1.85m. One of the last photos in the last section though was the biggest shock – yours truly hurdling. After that I had to buy the book, despite the scorn and derision heaped on me by my son. (Just because he can’t hurdle!).

 A more leisurely perusal of this noble tome revealed more of my mainly forgotten past as a junior athlete in Guernsey.

 Some of the more choice entries included:

  U14 100 yards 1^st 12.4sec

220 yards 1^st 28.3sec

 13^th August 1959: Island Championships

  U15 100 yards 1^st 11.3 sec

220 yards 1^st 26.0sec

 The meeting was abandoned due to heavy rain.

  Age 15 220 yards 24.6sec

 11^th August 1960: Island Championships

  U17 220 yards 1^st 25.2sec

 Once again abandoned due to rain.

  U17 100 yards 1^st 11.0sec

220 yards 1^st 25.8sec

 29^th July 1961: Junior Inter Insular v Jersey

  220 yards 1^st 25.2sec

 9^th August 1962. I travelled over to Jersey with the Men’s team as reserve for the Inter Island Match. I was not expecting to run except perhaps a leg in the relay. Injury to our high jumper resulted in my competing in the 120 yards 3ft 6in hurdles – my first attempt at the Senior Men’s height and distance. Amazingly I placed first in 18.2 seconds.  

  100 yards 10.6sec

Discuss 26.62m

Shot 8.90m

 7^th November 1963: Indoor Meeting (on concrete)

45 yards hurdles 6.7sec

 That was my last competition recorded in the book. Ten months after this I left for the mainland.

I was amused to see that two of my Junior performances were good enough to make the Men’s all-time tests:

 Age 17 1962 Discus 2kg 29.24m

Both off grass.

Bring on volume 2!

 Richard Jégou

 (As many of you probably know, Dick Jégou retired from teaching English at King Alfred’s College during the summer. We wish him all the best and expect to see lots more Vets throwing records. Mind you, he’s probably going to be the first Harrier field eventer that’s ever reached those age groups!)

 Here are some of Dick's Vet55 Championship performances from the summer:

 MIDLAND VETS CHAMPS, SOLIHULL, 10^th JUNE 2001

Hammer : 2^nd, 28.49. Discus : 2^nd, 27.90. Shot Putt : 2^nd, 9.81. (all with Vet weights)

 NATIONAL VETS CHAMPS, WINDSOR, 24^th JUNE 2001

Hammer : 6^th, 28.18. Shot Putt : 7^th, 9.84 (Vet weights)

 Jeremy Smeddle has sent me his race results and a couple of reports, which I'm pleased to reproduce here. The rest of you needn't be shy….I'm always pleased to receive results by post, email, phone, carrier pigeon, message in a bottle, balloon, etc.

 03Jun01 Blackpool Marathon 3:55:28 PB

30Jun01 Bourton 15 miles 1:57:32 PB
7Jul01 Battersea 1/2 Marathon 1:38:04 PB
15Jul01 Tadley 10K 44:26
05Aug01 Hooky 6 miles 44:17

12Aug01 Salisbury 5-4-3-2-1 30K 3:07
19Aug01 Burnham Beeches 1/2 Marathon 1:40:10

Battersea was listed in Runners World magazine as a flat half marathon, and after improving on my Bourton 15 time by fourteen and a half minutes, I was looking for a flat half marathon to improve my 1/2M PB (1:40:47). I also secretly wanted to go under 100 minutes.

 Well if you are looking for a fast, flat 1/2M, I can recommend Battersea. If you are looking for an interesting, scenic course then best not head up the M4. Wondering how they manage to close down all these major roads in South West London in order to stage the event? They don't, you run thirteen times around Battersea Park.

The good news, for me, was that I managed to complete the race in just over 98 minutes, the question is, was this a hollow victory? Was the course more like a track than a road race?
I would like to think that, now I have broken this barrier, I will now be able to go under 100 minutes in a regular road race. So I suppose that means that I don't quite consider this a proper half marathon.

Having said that, the course does have some twisty turny bits, which you end up circumnavigating many times. You could compare it to the Oxford Town and Gown in many respects: twisty turny course, around a park with multiple laps. I would say that I am unlikely to ever run Battersea again. However I am very happy with my result this year, and on balance if anyone else wants to record a good time, well go for it.

From one extreme to another…

Having whinged about Battersea, next I went to the other extreme, Salisbury 5-4-3-2-1. This can be 10, 20, 30 or 40 kilometres (I chose 30K), and is a mixed event for walkers and runners. They give you a map, a bit of a surprise, but didn't phase me too much. I spent my youth doing Ten Tors and Dunkery Beacon hikes. The basic idea is that there are no marshals, just check points.

Anyway the years of walking over Exmoor and Dartmoor paid off, and when the leading group got lost in the woods, I found the path out first, and then led all the way back to Salisbury. In my books a win is a win, especially when it's your first and probably your last. If the rules say you have to
map read your way around the course, dress up as a telly tubby, or run backwards whistling, then that's what you do.

So I'm really happy with my season PBs for 10 mile, 15 mile, full and half marathon, and I won a race !!!. I'm now off into winter training for the 2002 whistling, backwards running, telly tubbies marathon.

The traditional date for our Cross Country Handicap race is the May Day Bank Holiday weekend, but unfortunately at that time this year whole swathes of the Ridgeway were still out of bounds due to Foot & Mouth restrictions. So we had to cancel that date, but Paul Jégou, your ever-resourceful Cross Country Secretary, was not going to be beaten that easily.

 Many of us (even me!) have discovered the pleasures of training in Lockinge Woods, an area on the Lockinge estate that has been made "open-access" for dog-walkers and other recreational users (thankfully the 4 wheel drivers haven't found it yet). The connecting track from Larkhill combined with a big loop of the woods gives you a nice soft surface route of about 7 miles from most parts of Wantage and Grove. The challenge for Paul was to pack a reasonable distance into a fairly small space, and this he managed with an undulating two-lap course.

But first he had to show us the course, as marshals were in short supply, and the pre-race discussion suggested that Harriers would be appearing in all sorts of directions at the various crossover points.

This didn't happen, but some runners took some "original" routes (there's a gap in the hedge so I'll run through it!)

 It was generally agreed that Tom Penfold had run the fastest time for the complete course, and is the new Club Record holder! Dave Murfin, handicapper's nightmare, claimed his third ownership of the Pieces Trophy and must surely run off scratch for the rest of his days. Owain and Chris as usual these days put the senior athletes to shame with fine runs.

Many thanks to everyone who helped with timing and marshalling. We are now considering whether we could use the course as a basis for either the B, B and O or the Oxon League.

1 Dave Murfin 26'56"

2 John Schutterlin 26'50"

3 Chris Gillespie 24'56"

4 Dave Wright * 22'13"

5 Owain Bristow 25'43"

6 Lisa Godding-Feltham 28'58"

7 Sheila Morrison 38'09"

8 Simon Williamson 29'16"

9 Nick Ponting 28'31"

10 Paul Jégou 24'55"

11 Tim Hughes * 25'03"

12 Marion Jones 43'25"

13 Tom King 31'25"

14 Kevin Harris 31'50"

15 Jason Cooke * 25'43"

16 Tom Penfold 24'43"

17 Cliff Jones 33'08"

18 Arthur Strain 35'29"

*modified route

SOUTHAMPTON CITY ATHLETIC CLUB OPEN MEDAL MEETING

Field commences 11.30(max 4 trials), track 12.15

Medals to first 3 each event, maximum 4 events.

Entry fees £1.50 per event

Entries to: Mr H Bowles, Plaitford Wood Farm, Romsey Hants SO51 6EN.

Tel: 01794 322898

Or e-mail longhurstrk@netscapeonline.co.uk and pay on the day.

U11Boys/Girls: 80m, 600m LJ

U13Boys: 100m, 200m, 800m, 1500m, PV, HJ, LJ, DT, JT, SP

U13Girls: 100m, 200m, 800m, HJ, LJ, DT, JT, SP

U15Boys: 100m, 200m, 800m, 1500m, 3000m, PV, HJ, LJ, DT, JT, SP

U15Girls: 100m, 200m, 800m, 75mH, PV, HJ, LJ, DT, JT, SP

U17Women: 100m, 200m, 800m, 1500m, 3000m, PV, HJ, LJ, TJ, DT, JT, SP

U20 Men: 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 3000m, PV, HJ, LJ, TJ, DT, JT, SP