UK Area and National Relays and no comments yet?

Leighton Buzzard AC have recriuted some hot talent - could surprise alot of people. Yeah right! Im prob running chiltern in 2 weeks - wheres the party???

Returning to Bristol/Mike Down. Mike works hard to produce good athletes BUT I think that as a coach HE STINKS. Whatever qualities a good coach has its probably true to say that Mike doesnt possess many (if any ) of these. Its a pity.

BIRCHFIELD 1:48.24

NOTTS 1:48.34

BRISTOL & WEST 1:49.06

COVENTRY 1:51.39

OWLS 1:51.58

No real surprises. Nick Talbot almost caught Tom Penfold on the final leg, but the stags held on.

Bristol and West were there in huge numbers and had some fine triathletes out there working hard for them too. Glad to see Rob Whalley getting a decent run out too, hope he has a few good years left in him still.

Mike Downs is obviously doing something right guys, that was an impressive get-together today.....he doesn't need to coach them all to be a good team manager. It will be interesting to see what kind of structure the club has in 6 months time when it comes to the track season.

Any results from the north/south yet?

Well Done to all those who ran the Midlands-Great Day all round.

Particularly impressed with both winners of the fastest legs-Excellent run by Chris Davies who ran a blinder of a leg! Lets hope he can continue it throughout the season.

Congratulations to our own Kate Reed who equally did herself and her club proud.

First and second mens team had a good battle and Bristol were clear in third-Well done Mike Down-Great to finally see a mens team in the medals!

Bristol Stalwart wrote:

First and second mens team had a good battle and Bristol were clear in third-Well done Mike Down-Great to finally see a mens team in the medals!

Was definitely a good day today, and well done to Bristol & West. But to ensure everyone is aware, a Bristol club won a medal as recently as 2000 when Westbury Harriers took the bronze, with a team that we could still turn out today, with the exception of Mick O'.

We'll have you next time guys.

Simon

Better still swallow your pride, come and join us and we can make one super team for the south west!

Ringer, great run today mate! Only saw you in that final 600m and it was good to see you gaining revenge on Josh Lilley....that was still a good run by him of course!

Corin had a complete shocker for us on Leg 2 today and it really put a few of the other lads off the race after seeing him come in at a shade under 22 mins! Nevermind, roll on the Nationals, we should have Tom Lowe back and i am hoping to have a new signing in there too. We should definately be back up with you by then so will see you there.

It has nowt to do with pride mate. I just left Bristol & West to re-join my old club Westbury. Loyalty, as well as winning, has a valuable role in club running.

Saying that though, I would still love to see a merger...maybe one day.

Well done to all yesterday.

Charlie.

Don't know about pride, pleased to see Bristol & West getting some good runs out of various people.

I must say that 'one super team' for the south west doesn't appeal at all. What's the point? If everyone ran for the same club, why would we need championships? Bristol is big enough for two serious running clubs, and the south west certainly is.

Cheers for the shout yesterday Dave, was pleased to just beat Josh, but not so happy about being outsprinted by Simon Lees after 5 1/2k.

Was very pleased with Westbury's performance. 19.00 by Jules Hatcher when he only runs twice a week was a real boost. Glad we finally got Steve Watterson out as well, even if he is about a minute and a half slower than he's capable of. Hope we can build on that for the National.

Simon, I hear where you're coming from with the anti-super club thing. I'm still in two minds about it in truth.

Anyway...I think it's about time that your dear wife joined Westbury though! Tell her I'll buy her some Flumps if she does ;-)

1 Morpeth Harriers & AC 'A' 2:00:24

Daniel Samuels (9) 20:19

John Mooney (1) 19:42

Nick McCormick (1) 19:14

Neil Wilkinson (1) 20:20

Terry Wall (1) 20:41

Mark Hudspith (1) 20:08

2 Leeds City Athletic Club 'A' 2:02:20

Simon Deakin (2) 19:51

Scott Mitchell (3) 20:31

C Birchall (3) 20:09

Martin Hilton (2) 20:37

Gregory Hull (2) 21:18

Darran Bilton (2) 19:54

3 Altrincham & District AC 'A' 2:02:45

Nick Leigh (6) 20:16

Matthew Barnes (4) 20:16

Paul Smith (4) 20:50

David Norman (6) 20:49

W Crowther (5) 21:00

Andrew Norman (3) 19:34

4 Derby AC 'A' 2:03:04

Luke Gunn (4) 19:55

Richard Weir (5) 20:38

Kevin Farrow (2) 19:38

T Lawrence (3) 21:27

B Radbourne (4) 21:28

Jonathan Gilby (4) 19:58

5 Sale Harriers Manchester 'A' 2:04:26

Richard Haman (12) 20:23

D Agustus (6) 20:25

Stuart Bailey (7) 21:21

Gareth Raven (4) 19:47

Simon Mills (3) 21:02

James Bailey (5) 21:28

6 Salford Harriers 'A' 2:04:39

K Chapman (16) 20:41

C Winward (7) 20:16

P Leybourne (8) 21:40

Andrew Jones (5) 19:24

James Kovacs (6) 21:31

Duncan Mason (6) 21:07

Fastest of all legs

1 Nick McCormick MorpethH&A A 19:14

2 Andrew Jones SalfordH A 19:24

3 Andrew Norman Altrincham A 19:34

4 Kevin Farrow Derby AC A 19:38

5 John Mooney MorpethH&A A 19:42

6 M Buckingham HolmfirthH A 19:44

7 Gareth Raven SaleHM A 19:47

8 Simon Deakin LeedsCAC A 19:51

9 Alan Buckley GatesheadH A 19:53

10 Darran Bilton LeedsCAC A 19:54

----------------------------------------------------

Morpeth's team proved to be a winning one and pretty convincingly too. Leeds put in a very good performance to finish 2nd, with Darran Bilton running a very good last leg.

Andy repeated his heroics of last year to bring us up into the bronze medal position for the second successive year and recorded the third fastest leg of the day. Maybe next year it will be a different colour medal?

Any detailed Southern results (link)?

Simon, i cant believe that you were outsprinted by Lees either.....i thought your finish was better than that mate;)

Do B&W have to start their lives in Div 2 of the Midland T&F lge now then?? Bristol did get relegated this summer didn't they??

If Hatcher is 'really' only running twice a week, then he is not training very well for the Tri/duathlon either! He races a lot in the multisport events, so this is obviously a good workout for him....but only 2 runs a week? possibly, but i would like to think that he does a little more than this......bloody good run by him though, looked good!

Any news on Gary's mile race? he was 2nd to Costello....who was awesome this summer.

Off for a long run then back down to Bristol tonight....pub quiz at The Inn on the Green, what a crazy social life....er, i meant 'sad'.

Dave

Results available on AFD Website.

Just a thought that after looking through the results from the midland womens 4 stage, 'Not Bristolian' who claimed Charlie Coffey, Heidi Moulder and Sam Gray were no longer competing should perhaps take a look at the results. All three girls ran superbly! Well Done.

Perhaps Charlie should come back to Bristol? As Bristol isn't big enough for two clubs!!

Stalwart..reveal yourself!

The Bristol colours are red & white....red doesn't flatter my complection I'm afraid ;-)

Charlie.

p.s. Dave...that pub is about 500m from my house! Hope you did yourself proud on the quiz.

You looked good in the Blue and White.

Never change.

Can't speak for Not Bristolian or Charlie, but can answer that bit about Bristol not being big enough for two clubs.

Between Westbury and Bristol, we finished 5 mens teams and 4 womens in the seniors. We were without 5 of our top 9 men for various reasons, and I'm sure Bristol could have turned out another couple of teams if pushed. Plenty of numbers there.

I can see an argument for some kind of link up for track competition - Bristol men's and much vaunted women's teams were relegated this season so are now not even on a par with Yate. Yate are doing well but an area the size of Bristol should really have British/UK league representation.

Keep the road and country separate though, a bit of local competition is good for both of us. Glad you finally beat us on saturday by the way, must have been a painful wait ;). We will make sure we raise our game a bit now.

Paul Wilson seems to have had a good run in the relays for Clevedon. Hear he was once a good runner in South Africa-Can anyone enlighten me on this any further?

Paul Wilson used to run some great first leg efforts for Clevedon. This year was not as good though. He raced the first Glos xc lge fixture last winter and ran a really good first half before being caught on the hills by Tom Lowe....our 6'4" mountain goat/duathlete. Anybody who has raced at Dursley in Glos will appreciate how his fast start could well have been his undoing.