Press Report 9th 2007

The weekend’s return to more seasonal weather brought out nearly 400 runners to contest the Felsted 10k, near Dunmow, on Sunday morning. Once again it was Ilford AC’s top road specialist Malcolm Muir who led the club home with an excellent display of power running finishing in 2^nd place to Billericay’s Crispian Bloomfield. Muir was delighted with his 32min 32 sec time which was only 43 seconds down on the winner. Yet it was former club President John Platt who provided the most unusual statistic of the day when he completed the course in a very respectable 45.16. Nothing too remarkable about that you might say yet it heralded a personal best for the Ilford man being the first time Platt had ever run the 10k distance in some 37 years of competitive running.

 

Andy Catton had an excellent run in the over 50’s competition clocking 38.12 which was good enough for 3^rd place behind Keith Wilkinson of Chelmsford and Ray Steven of Harlow. Nicola Hopkinson placed highly in the women’s over 35 category and her time of 45.45 shows a significant return to form. Prolific racer Pam Jones provided yet another formidable display finishing in an unbelievable time of 50.37 for a woman recently celebrating her 71^st birthday

 

Elsewhere the versatile veteran Rohan Alexander continues to enjoy his athletics with yet another personal best, this time set over 5 miles at Totenham marshes. Alexander’s time of 32.17 was over 1 minute quicker than his previous best.

On a warm Sunday morning  in Victoria Park Ilford had 4 athletes take part in the London Chest Hospital 10k and accompanying 3k run. The star of the show was Lydia Hall running the 3km and although this is now 10 times her recognised distance she ran exceptionally well to take home the trophy for 2nd woman. In the 10km race Ian Burdin suffered in the warm weather and was disappointed with his time of 46.00. Stephen Cheal was hot on his heels with 46.52 and Sukhbindar Jandu finished in 51.57.

 

The previous Monday the Ilford AC veteran men’s squad completed their 2007 SCVAC league program at Copthall, the home of Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers. Despite being somewhat depleted on the evening missing the nucleus of their established field eventers the team rallied well on the track to finish overall 4^th on the night and 3^rd over the four rounds of competition. The highlight of a very wet and stormy evening was a 200/3000m double by distance star John Batchelor. Although instructed by his manager to only stride the 200 due to his later 3000 commitment Batchelor’s competitive spirit got the better of him as he assumed the crouched starting position like a seasoned sprinter. Sure enough as he entered the home straight he unleashed the power of a demon to pick off a couple of male 60 stragglers and all for done for the greater glory of the team. It goes without saying that later John easily won his M60 3000m in 11mins 2.4sec.

 

Matt Maple was up against the class of Larry Mangleshot in the 800 but pushed him all the way for 2^nd spot. There were also runner up positions due to pleasing runs by Any Catton and Rohan Alexander in their 3000m categories with both easily breaking 11 minutes. Henry Ricketts was unlucky not get higher than 3^rd in a very well contested 200metre event.

 

Results were as follows:

2000m (walk) MV40 Micky Sutton (4^th) 13.53.9

                       MV50 Steve Uttley (1^st) 9.50.4

200m              MV40 A Henry Ricketts (3^rd) 25.5

                                 B Matt Maple (7^th) 30.2

                       MV50 Ray Rawlinson (6^th) 29.3

                       MV60  John Batchelor (4^th) 32.3

800m              MV40 A Matt Maple (2^nd) 2.10.1

                                 B Micky Sutton (5^th) 2.49.1

                               n/s Henry Ricketts 2.29.5

3000m            MV40 A Matt Maple (4^th) 9.57.6

                                 B Rohan Alexander (2^nd) 10.52.5

                       MV50 Andy Catton (2^nd) 10.40.8

                       MV60 John Batchelor (1^st) 11.2.4

Javelin            MV40 Pete Whiting (6^th) 22.58,  MV50 Ray Rawlinson (4^th) 14.72.

LJ                    MV40 Henry Ricketts 4^th 5.10

 

Match Score 1 Barnet & D 126, 2 Enfield & Hgy 122, 3 Herts Phoenix 117, 4 Ilford 88, 5 Trent Park 80, 6 Dacorum & T  42,  7 Harrow 30, 8 Shaftesbury B  26    
Final Positions                 

1 Barnet & D    32, 2 Enfield & Hgy 27,3 Ilford 23,4 Herts Phoenix 22, 5 Trent Park 16, 6 Dacorum & T  13, 7 Harrow 9, 8 Shaftesbury B  4.