Nopesport

The final event of this year’s UK Relay League was the Harvester Trophy, organised by Roxburgh Reivers, one of Britain’s smallest clubs. The setting was Teviothead, most of which is on land owned by the Tullie family, also members of RR. There was always going to be a new champion in both Men’s and Women’s races with last year’s winners, SHUOC and SYO not entering teams this year.

The competition had a slightly different twist this year with the races starting in the light and running right through the night. First leg runners took torches out with them, although few would have actually needed them, but by the time the 2nd leg runners went out, no amount of carrots would have made you go out without a torch despite the splendid weather resulting in a clear night’s sky.

The courses had been planned by John and James Tullie, and their extensive knowledge of the area led to some fantastic long legs which all courses had a taste of. How people approached these long legs had a big impact on some people’s performance, with a lot of time being lost, particularly on the night legs if careful routes had not been chosen. Another highlight of the courses was the spectacular views of the course which were visible from the spectator area at the top of the assembly field. At night this led to some spectacular views across to far away hills littered with lights.

A Race

Ross McLennan got CLYDE off to a flying start winning the 1st leg by half a minute from Duncan Francis (FVO) and Richard Guillaume (SYO). Mhairi Mackenzie finished high up in 7th, less than 3mins down despite making a few mistakes.
On 2nd leg EUOC’s JWOC-bound Oleg Chepelin had a storming run, moving the university team from 7th up to 1st as he won the leg by 4 and a half minutes. Patrick Walder finished not long after for CLYDE with the 2nd fastest time of the leg, and Mike Sprot (SYO) got the 3rd fastest bringing SYO back 5mins behind in 3rd place.
3rd leg saw a surprise fastest leg for Andy Dale of AIRE beating David Eades (INT) by a couple of mins, with Tim Tett a few seconds behind after a shaky start to his leg saw him losing over 5mins. Overall, Alastair Brunton pulled his CLYDE team back up into the lead, just 6 seconds ahead of SYO as Ed Nicholas had a night he’d rather forget as he lost 20mins and dropped EUOC from 1st to 7th.
Leg 4 saw SYO take a lead which they would only ever extend as Martin Ward set the fastest time by 30secs from Ian Nixon, turning up for AIRE after 2 months out with injury, who moved the Leeds club to within 2mins of CLYDE who dropped to 2nd.
5th leg saw a very quick time being set by Duncan Archer, although he did have the advantage of running his entire leg in the light, whilst all of the top teams finished at night! Al Buckley (2nd fastest on leg) extended SYO’s lead to 16mins as Neil Conway (AIRE) pulled up to 2nd place, whilst Mark Nixon started clawing back EUOC’s deficit as he moved up from 6th to 3rd.
The penultimate leg saw SYO’s lead grow even more as Charlie Adams set the fastest time by 3mins, but with David Alcock of AIRE losing 16mins to the Sheffield club, and Andrew Brown (EUOC) losing 9mins to the fastest, SYO managed to set GB Squad athlete Rob Baker out on the last leg with a comfortable 28 minute lead over Donald Petrie of CLYDE, with Murray Strain heading out a further 2 and a half minutes back for EUOC.
Baker duly kept the lead, although he was 8mins down on the fastest leg time set by Nick Barrable (FVO) who pulled up from 6th to 4th. Strain set the 2nd quickest time and swapped places with CLYDE at the finish 27mins behind SYO, but this was enough for Edinburgh University to take victory in the UK Relay League.
South Ribble won the Handicap race, though they were over 200mins behind SYO in 11th place!
The Sutton Park trophy, which goes to the highest placed team who haven’t finished in the top 3 in the past 5 Harvester’s went to CLYDE.

Race B

Stewart Caithness of CLYDE led the charge in the earlier of the 2 races, though Catherine Taylor (CLOK) got the pre-race favourites for the Women’s race off to a flying start coming back 2nd place with Durham University’s Adam Stirk another couple of minutes back in 3rd.
2nd leg saw a storming run from top M45 Mike Billinghurst who moved up from 11th to 1st as he won the leg by 4 and a half minutes from former Czech international Jiri Kazda (MDOC) who moved up to 3rd place with GB Squadie Pippa Whitehouse in 3rd, keeping the CLOK ladies in 2nd place.
On 3rd leg, Evgueni Chepelin (GRAMP) kept up the family name by winning the leg by 3mins from David Smyth of NATO who brought his team up from 4th to 1st. Lucy Taylor (CLOK) kept 2nd place whilst Roger Thomas (WCOC) dropped a few mins to come back in 3rd.
Jon Musgrave (MAROC) showed excellent form on the long night course moving up from 9th to 3rd and won Leg 4 by 5mins from this year’s W21E JK champion Heather Monro (SLOW) who pulled up a massive 12 places to 10th place. At the front of the race, Karen Heppenstall (CLOK) took 15mins out of Adrian Barnes to move ahead of the Newcastle club who dropped to 6th. WCOC moved back up again to 2nd place thanks to Alan Irving, and Tim Martland of MDOC kept the pressure on MAROC by moving back up to 4th place.
CLOK Ladies, brought home by GB Squad member Aislinn Austin proved to be on top form completing their dominant year where they have now won the UK Relay League, winning Relay B by 6 mins from UDOC, who had a huge boost on last leg thanks to Ben Smith who pulled them up from 7th to 2nd getting the fastest leg time by 2mins. Lizzie Britton (MDOC) moved up into 3rd and ended up as the winning Handicap team, as WCOC’s Roger Jackson couldn’t quite hold on to the finish. James Taylor (NOC) was 2nd fastest on the last leg, and brought the Nottingham club home in 7th place, winning the Junior competition in the meanwhile. Jo Halliday of OD went round in the 3rd fastest time, pulling up 7 places to get 2nd place in the Women’s race and 8th overall, with MAROC’s Hazel Wright gaining 8 places to finish 9th overall and 3rd Women’s team, both teams having overtaken AIRE on the last leg, though the Leeds club can be proud to be the only club to have a team in the top 5 in the Men’s and Women’s open classes.

Relay A & Men’s Open
1. SYO (Guillaume, Sprot, Tett, Ward, Buckley, Adams, Baker) 388:35
2. EUOC (Mackenzie, Chepelin, Nicholas, Coombs, Nixon, Brown, Strain) 415:54
3. CLYDE (McLennan, Walder, Brunton, Emeleus, Robertson, Wilson, Petrie) 424:22

Relay B
1. CLOK (C. Taylor, Whitehouse, L. Taylor, Heppenstall, Austin) 260:12
2. UDOC (Stirk, Bean, Bridge, Bray, Smith) 266:57
3. MDOC (Fowler, Kazda, Harris, Martland, Britton) 270:44

Women’s Open (running in Relay B)
1. CLOK (C. Taylor, Whitehouse, L. Taylor, Heppenstall, Austin) 260:12
2. OD (Ross, Sarkies, Northall, Wilson, Halliday) 303:36
3. MAROC (Coombs, Martin, Nicholl, Dunn, Wright) 304:48

Juniors (running in Relay B)
1. NOC (Bowen, Martin, Taylor, Hodkinson, Taylor) 303:26
2. HOC (Farrington, Hartmann, Ford, Embrey, White) 327:09

Full Results