Chess in Club Vests

The beauty and the beast of the 12-Stage Road Relays is the ever-present sense of jeopardy, think chess in club vests as each team plays out different strategies, alternating, in the case of the Southern Championships, long  (8.6K) and short (5K) legs over 4 hours or so of racing. Who will front-load, who will wait to pounce at the end, and where are the hidden weapons?

Having made Club history winning bronze medals in last year's Southern 12-Stage Road Relays – the first medals for 52 years – there were high hopes for the team going into this year's event, which starts and finishes on the track in Stantonbury Stadium, Milton Keynes.  Inevitably illness and injury also have to be factored into the guessing game, and the Club were led off on the opening long lap by Charlie Sandison, nursing an illness, but nevertheless handing over in a solid 22nd place, in 27:47, to Josh Lally, who brought the team up to 13th in 15:16, the fourth quickest of the second legs, followed by Jonny Cornish, also running the fourth fastest third leg in 26:32. Hercules were now in seventh. Charlie Wyllie, returning from injury, notched up a time of 15:07, the seventh fastest short leg overall on the day, gaining another two places, and Fred Slemeck (27.27) and George Mallett (in 15:33, the third-fastest leg six) held fifth position, until Andrew Penney accomplished his mission to sweep the team into the bronze medal spot, clocking 26:27, the fourth fastest leg seven. 

James Stockings, running the second-fastest leg 8 in 15:16,  Rhys Boorman (27:18) and Charlie Eastaugh (15:40) kept Tonbridge at bay to hold position, and then it was down to Freddie Hessian on leg 11 to try to give Hayden Beauchemin a cushion on the final short leg. Californian student Hayden, studying for a year at Imperial College, has thrown himself whole-heartedly into racing for the Club, especially relishing the novelty of racing through mud in the Surrey Cross Country League and the National Championships on Parliament Hill, however he had been ill for most of the week.

Freddie duly delivered the fastest leg 11 of the day in 26:24 to give Hayden a 30 second lead at the takeover, but that was when the Tonbridge chess masters made their lethal move in the form of middle distance specialist Ted Higgins, who has an 800m PB of 1:49.41 and ran 4:01 for the mile earlier in the year. As Hayden entered the arena, the figure of Higgins loomed ominously behind him and with 200m to go he struck. Despite Hayden's valiant efforts and with the team roaring support, Higgins kicked hard for the line to snatch the bronze medals for Tonbridge. Despite a distraught Hayden jogging over the finish line to be consoled by his team-mates, the gap was a mere 12 seconds as he clocked 15:33, still the fourth fastest anchor leg – but that is the beauty and the beast of the 12-stage!

For the B team, which finished in 28th, there were strong returning-to-form pre-marathon runs from Oli Carrington in 27:51 on long leg three and Tom Jervis in 15:46 on short leg two.

Two weeks later an illness depleted team headed to Sutton Park, near Birmingham for the National Championships, which this year threw a curved ball by featuring 12 short 5.08km legs over the undulating course. Due to circumstances beyond the control of the organisers, a key park gate had to be left open meaning that for health and safety reasons the long course could not be used. 

Charlie Eastaugh, on the lead off leg, ran 15:39 to hand over in 31st place to Freddie Hessian who clocked 15:03, a new HW short leg record, to move the team into 15th. Archie Walton, in 15:45, held the place, with former Club short-leg recorder holder Charlie Wyllie running 15:20 to lift the club into 9th. Team captain James Stockings ran 15:37 to hand over in 7th to former team captain Fred Slemeck whose 15:59 was good enough for eighth. Running for the A-team for the first time, Sam Todd notched up 16:34 to hand over in eleventh place to George Mallett who ran 15:45 but was overtaken by  Olympian Andrew Butchart. Oli Carrington raised the team back up to tenth, clocking 15:50. Tom Drayton (16:39) handed over in 11th to Vitaly Baranov who sent Ed Mallett off in twelfth. Ed had missed the Southern Championships through illness and was still feeling the effects, so his 16:47 was almost 70 seconds slower than his best around the course, but it was enough to secure 12th position (11th English Club as Scotland's Central AC finished in 9th).