Press Report 11th November 2014  

Three runners from Ilford AC guested in the second match of this winters Chingford League, held on the challenging 5k circuit of the Redbridge Cycle Circuit at Hog Hill, Hainault last Tuesday. Kevin Newell was best placed of the trio in the three lap race in 24th spot out of 174 finishers in 18 mins 05 secs, with Sam Rahman recording 18m 21s in 32nd. Further back was Rob Sargent placing 137th with 24m 21s

At the previous week’s Friday’s Serpentine Last Friday 5K race Ilford had John Batchelor and Kevin Newell in the starting line-up.
Most notable for 23C temperature and brilliant sunshine on 31st October, the race was run over the two-lap Christmas course (caused by the ghastly “Winter Wonderland” construction on the normal start/finish place). The start was very congested and resulted in Kevin Newell taking a painful tumble early on. Despite this and the fact that he was recovering from the Dublin Marathon only five days earlier, his highly creditable run round in 17:46 gave him 18th place out of the 240 runners, though on fresh and unbloodied legs a top four or five would have been achievable.

In his own words John Batchelor “plodded round my first road race since last February in 21:09, placing 94th, though 4th on the age-graded rankings as leading M70. Not great, not a disaster, but hopefully an indication of better races to come, though unlikely to be in better weather! “