Stags Galore at Victoria Park in the Chingford League
Saturday 3rd February saw the sixth Chingford League race of the season at Victoria Park and it was a great occasion with much for the Stags to celebrate so don’t expect this report to be brief.
This race, two laps of a figure of 8 loop, is the most popular in the Chingford League calendar because it is on tarmac, flat as a pancake, and a measured 5 miles making it perfect for Power of 10 friendly PBs. As a result all clubs turned out in large numbers and we were no exception. 48 Stags started the race but remarkably that number included 5 new members making their Club debuts; Dinesh Kadam, Anne Wood, Karen Bickerstaff, Gill Over and Pear Brown (who was smiling throughout the race and probably talking too!) and they thoroughly enjoyed the experience so thank you everyone for making them so welcome! This is why new members are keen to race for the Club at the earliest opportunity.
It was good to see Scott ‘Taxi’ Fraser was well enough to race after his recent injury woes and just as importantly he delivered son, Ed, to the start line in good time. Well done on both counts Scott! Ed Fraser proved once again what a star he is by leading our (very strong!) men’s team home and there was an epic tussle between Rajesh Patel, Callum Sydenham and Charlie White (a great PB on the day) to be our 2nd man home. Well done Raj and great racing all of you. Andy Welsh and Andy Shepstone had fine runs too.
It was great to see Karen Murphy, who led our women’s team home, and Jo Kent, both making their debuts in this season’s Chingford League, at the ‘pointy end’ of the race while road racing specialist, Steph Harrison, seemingly as part of a Half Marathon training run! was our 3rd finisher and very quick too. Both Kathryn Ellis and Steph De’Ath continued their fine form from Epping Forest and are getting quicker and quicker and both secured well-deserved PBs too. Annabelle White not to be outdone by husband, Charlie, also secured a PB. Di Godin demonstrated the Team Spirit we are renowned for by accompanying Gill Over on her debut race and a number of Stags, who had completed the race, formed an entourage for Anneli Sydenham as she approached the finishing line. Brilliant! Needless to say Charlie reprised his role from Epping Forest as the Club’s finishing straight cheerleader and encouraged many of us to overtake other competitors in the ‘sprint’ to the finish. We did!
There were many other great performances including lots of fierce but friendly competition between club mates and lots of personal achievements. Well done all! Special thanks are also due to Steve Holmes for his help with the numbers on the day; there were a lot.
Richard McCormick for the 6th race in a row! was first M60 finisher and has needless to say won the M60 category by a country mile. Simply the BEST!
The large turnouts meant this fixture proved to be the season’s most competitive but our teams performed very well in the Division 2 contest which our men won on the day while our women came an excellent 3rd. After 6 races both our men and women lead Division 2 while our Vets, and B teams are close to the top of their respective league tables which consist of all 21 teams in the League.