• Press Report 9th February 2009

    Over 700 runners toed the line at the Essex Half Marathon Championships held at Great Bentley near Colchester on Sunday where Ilford AC's Robin McNelis made the most of a flat and scenic course to lead the club home in a time of 1hr 20 mins 4 seconds for 25th place. The Ilford man was more than happy with his performance which was his 2nd fastest ever over the distance and reckons he is on course for a 2.50 marathon clocking later this year.
    The dependable Neil Crisp followed him home in 1.24.45 (51st) with Abdi Berleen 1.28.18 (89th) completing the men's scoring squad. Chris Togwell 1.31.17 (147th) and Iain Burdin 1.31.49 (149th) also had excellent runs in a race dominated by Billericay's Crispian Bloomfield who stormed home in a very fast 1.08.53 from Paul Molyneux of Springfield 1.09.46. 
    In the women's race Bree Nordin was the first over 50 home overall in a time of  1.31.31 which also earned her the Essex over 45 silver. Dianne Crisp broke her PB with an excellent 1.40.11 and Nicola Hopkinson was not far behind in 1.43.13.
     With many of the Cricklefields Club using the race as Marathon preparation others performing well were:-
    Steve Parker 1.34.29 (183rd), Terry Knightley 1.38.01 (241st), Tony Partridge 1.37.52, Sally Gillam 1.50.33, Vanessa Burns 1.53.09, Carol Muir 2.07.19, Steve Port 2.40.21 
     
    The previous weekend the Essex Cross Country Relay Championships took place on Hadleigh Downs with weather conditions closing in and temperatures rapidly dropping to sub-zero as runners struggled to keep warm whilst waiting for their respective leg. The first traces of the imminent snow were beginning to fill the air as Malcolm Muir led the Ilford A team off coming home in a brilliant 4th place(16.40). Unfortunately Peter Clinch (18.47), still struggling for form  was unable to maintain this position dropping 2 places to hand over to Iain Macdonald on leg 3 . The U20 year old, still gaining experience in this type of event ran well to come home in 7th with 19.05 before handing over to Neil Crisp, 19.45, who maintained his position before handing over to anchor man Matt Maple for leg 5. Maple was unhappy with his run bringing Ilford home 10th out of 24 competing teams.
    The men's "B" squad enjoyed an eventful race with Ben Jones,Chris Togwell, Ray Rawlinson, Andy Catton, and Peter Whiting making up a scratch team On more than one occasion a changeover was missed but didnt seem to dampen the spirits of the participants.
    The womens squad were led off by Bree Nordin(22.52), followed by a strong run from Mel Jones (23.11). Dianne Crisp took (23.42) over on the 3rd leg before handing over to Nicola Hopkinson (24.02) to bring the team home in 10th position. 18 teams completed. The "B" squad had Vanessa Burns (28.59) in the van who unfortunately missed a left turn off the big hill but recovered to hand over to Karen Sindall (25.16). Sindall picked up a few places before tagging Pam Jones (28.44) on the 3rd leg. Mel Jones (23.54) doubled up to run again on leg 4 clocking a time only 30 seconds down on her first effort.  
     
    Team manager Malcolm Muir  had also been in action on the Friday when he posted a fine run in the Serpentine 5K finishing third in 15:55, 22 seconds faster than his best last year.