Finally, Hank handed me the Ingatestone 5 report, a crumbled piece of paper with beerstains on it and incomplete information, while muttering something about the Rose and Crown, Clarkey and Ray! I was about to replace him as the field correspondence with Carolina Chuck when he also handed over the Pleshey report. Hank stays for now!

Ingatestone 5
15 September

Ilford AC athletes took part in this annual roadrace at Ingatestone in Essex. Best of these was Steve Philcox in 9th place in a a fast time of 28 mins 24 secs, just 1 second outside his personal best for the distance. Bree Nordin also had a good race placing 6th in the ladies race in 35m 09s and taking the W55 category prize. Carol Muir was 29th lady, Pam Jones 38th and first in the W65 grouping and Julia Ridley 48th. In 106th spot was Graham Williams in 42m 24s for 1st in the M70 age group. A little further back and in the same category was a rare appearance by Graham Pells placing 132nd with 53m 19s

Report by Hank in the Pub

Pleshey Half-Marathon
22 September

For the second consecutive year the Essex County Half-Marathon Championship was held in the picturesque village of Pleshey, near Chelmsford. On a overcast, humid but still Sunday morning over 400 runners set off for the 13 mile race over a testing, rolling rural course. Ilford AC put in another strong team performance being led home by Malcolm Muir in 6th place in 1hr 14mins 35 secs. Next over the line for the club was Spencer Hempstead with 1m 18m 14s for 13th and the bronze medal in the M40 division, with the scoring team completing by Kevin Newell, now back to full action after a summer injury, in 19th with a year’s best time of 1h 19m 14s. The team placed 3rd in the county Championship.

Sam Rahman was just a few seconds away from his personal best with 1h 21m 10s in 22nd, with Kevin Wotton one place and 13 seconds behind with a years best of 1h 21m 23s. Terry Knightley recorded 1h 23m 22s in 37th to place 5th in the M50 category and 6th in the same group was Neil Crisp with 1h 26m 42s for 49th. Further down the order Graham Williams took the Essex bronze medal for the M70 age category in 2h 6m 57s.

Bree Nordin established herself as the leading F55 endurance runner in the county taking another Essex title in the grouping pacing 8th lady in the race with 1h 35m 54s, her best time for the distance this year by over 2 minutes.

Also ran: Bradley Brown (1.31.00 70th) Rob Sargent (1.42.52 168th) Declan Cullen (1.49.40 227th) Dianne Crisp (220th 42nd lady 1.48.41) Carol Muir (375th 2.18.23)

Report by Hank in the Bushes

Pictures courtesy of Kim The Blur and Ralph Nordin

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After all these years it’s finally emerged that an Ilford AC member’s T-shirt crossed the finishing line at an Olympic Games in a silver-medal position.

PAUL NIHILL MBE HAS revealed he wore Ilford AC member FERGUS MURRAY’s T-shirt when coming 2nd in the 1964 Olympic Games 50 Kilometres’ Walk. Paul said that as he warmed-up it turned very cold and rain started teeming down. He realised his error in turning-up wearing just a GB representative singlet. Ilford AC’s 2nd ever Olympian – 10,000 Metres’ runner Fergus Murray – was at the start to cheer on UK walkers. Paul saw Fergus and asked for his white t-shirt, which he quickly put under his singlet seconds before the “off”. Just under 4-and-quarter hours later the vest of Fergus sped over the finish line, in pouring rain, for a silver medal. The finish line was on a cinder tack – Toyko 1964 was the last Olympics held on cinders…and in 1964 a “traditional tape” was across the finish line, so winners knew they’d reached the end (unlike in the recent 2013 World Championship Women’s walk).

Result : 1. Abdon Pamich (Italy) 4.11.12.4
2. Paul Nihill (GB) 4.11.31.2
3. Invar Pettersson (Swe) 4. 14.17.4

Essex-born Paul has a connection with Ilford AC as he was guest speaker at our Annual Dinner & Dance when the late Pam Phillips was President and “Crazy Martin” provided one of the best disco displays ever seen. Sadly that year an Ilford AC training weekend was at a Norfolk Holiday camp, so many were away. Paul enjoyed his evening so much, he bought 2 tickets to attend our following year’s D&D!

DA

Essex County Relays – Colchester
Saturday 31 August

Ilford AC entered a male and female team in the 3 x 1600m which were staged
for the first time at the Essex Relay championships at Colchester on a sunny
afternoon.

Young Krystle Balogun lead off the ladies with a fine opening leg of 5mins
45 secs, passing on the baton to Breege Nordin who ran a solid leg of 6m
14s. On the anchor leg was Dianne Crisp who took the team home in first
place to win the Championship and the gold medals in a total time of 18m
45.6s.

The men’s team were led off by Kevin Newell in 5m 23s, with Sam Rahman on
leg 2 running 5m 04s. Neil Crisp anchor leg of 5m 30s completed the race in
a time of 15m 57.0s, which was just off the medal place with the team
finishing 4th.

Report by the Warrior in the Stands

VAC 10000m Championship – Kingston
Wednesday 4 September

Kevin Newell was the sole Ilford AC representative in the latest Veterans AC
Championship held over 25 gruelling laps of the Kingsmeadow track on a hot
evening. Newell was in good form and ran consistently throughout the race
finishing 4th overall in 36m 30.1s, to take the gold medal in the M35
category, his third VAC title this season.

Report by the Warrior in the Stands