From Ken Watterson/Marie Latham/Paul Jackson

James has broken a bone in his back but fortunately no spinal cord damage.

Spare a thought for James this weekend.

Just a week ago he was enjoying competition in the Bettacrete Patrick Fell Race (picture by Stan Hall).

I've just heard Bernie Quayle announce that he will be taking video pictures from the TT access road on Saturday morning to post on the www.manxradio.com website later in the day.

I understand that James Coulson had an accident on his bike during the 10 mile time trial this week. He has been taken over to the Spinal Unit in the UK. Let's hope he will be OK. I believe that he may have gone into the back of a parked car.

Mitch was apparently races around Ward 6 and Nobles Hospital on his Zimmer Frame after having an operation yesterday for a vein bye-pass in his leg.

It will be the second year in a row that I've missed my annual chat with Mitch at Bride Church. Get well soon Mitch.

Have we reached the end of the road for the road races at the above event?

Its the first time that I can remember that the above, which is the annual parish festival for the parish of Arbory, has not been included in the fixture list. Presumably the run and walk, which used to start and finish at the fair field, would not meet current risk assessment criteria.

Does anyone know any different?

I was listening to the weather forecast on Manx Radio a little while ago (11 pm) and its not too great for Saturday. The walkers (and officials) are likely to get wet on Saturday morning and pretty sticky in the afternoon.

If you look at the number of finishers (and the number to reach the intermediate points) when the weather is unfavourable, there is a noticeable decline (unsurprisingly).

I hope to have the full results available this evening. I understand that Ian Gale won for the second year in a row and that Tony Okell failed to finish but this came from an unofficial source.

The official results failed to arrive due to a technical difficulty yesterday.

Stop press - results received from John Watterson 7.30 this morning. Many thanks John.

This might seem obvious but some people forget that the Parish Walk is being held this weekend and then get irritated when they get held up by traffic jams.

Please remind your friends, family and work colleagues to make allowances for delays especially on the road to the airport on Saturday morning.

For more information about the Clerical Medical Parish Walk click here to the updated website.

Things are starting to come together but I feel as if I need a couple more weeks. I’m not in the condition I was in 2001 but I am progressing well each week and might have ‘caught up’ by the time the Games begin. I was pleased with my 400m at Trafford and both runs at Jarrow. Trafford was quite windy and I was cautious coming out of the blocks because the hamstring went in the first 40m at Blackpool. My 800m at Trafford was only 40min after the 400m and it showed. I felt good at Jarrow and ran even paced over 800m which was a surprise – there’s plenty more to come over the first lap and a few more sessions should clip a second off the second lap. The 400m in lane 1 was strange because the over-used track was so slippery and. I think my flat speed is a bit lacking so I’ll be working on this aspect for the last few days.

Based on my struggle over 800m at Trafford, my main concern for the Games - qualification assumed - is the fact that the 800m final on Tuesday is only 1hr 40m after the 400m semi. I’ll certainly have to run quite hard for the 400m semi looking at the PB times. The big problem for me is that no-one else is likely to double up over 400m and 800m so they’ll have a bit of an edge, not having raced Mon am (800m heat), Tue  am (400m heat), Tue 6.20pm, Tue 8pm. Still I’m used to it with the Northern League meets and I’ll be doing it again this Saturday at the North of England Championships. I very much doubt I’ll make a final so it’s a run out over both events and getting more races under my belt.  

Best of luck to the rest of the team.  Hopefully given the run of injuries we’ve had, we’re all on the mend and  can and will stay fit.

On the same day as Keiron wished everyone well in the hope that all the injuries would be behind them, I received news from Graham Davies that Gianni has been forced to withdraw.

This is obviously a great shame. Gianni has been dogged by injuries and at one time retired from serious athletics to switch to cycling. He did so well on his return to earn two further Island Games selections and is well known as the Sports Development Officer.

I was slightly surprised to see fell runners Tony Okell and Ian Gale in the field tonight, although I appreciate that no one other than them has won the event since 2000!

I was only able to stay for the first half of the race and they were setting a fine pace with Peter Hughes a clear third.

It was just as well that Tony & Ian were in the field as the numbers were drastically reduced compared to last year. It was a shame but despite my own attempts to publicise the event, the writing had been on the wall.

The event was well marshaled by Western AC and, something I always like to see, it started in good time.

I understand that all runners were due to tuck in to some sandwiches after the race and, provided the event can generate enough entries in the future to justify its promotion, I think that's the way things should be done.

I'm sorry that I don't have the result at the time of writing (11.30 pm) but thanks to Rosie Morrison for offering to get the results to me as soon as she can.

Unless there were any surprises in the second half of the race, I think you have the gist of the result.

As I always say, don't be shy to add the results to the forum.

With the best will in the world, I think I'm going to be struggling to provide as much coverage of the Clerical Medical Parish Walk as last year.

I am unavailable in the morning of the walk and on marshalling duties in the afternoon.

I had so many grand ideas for the website that have not come off this year - I think that next year, unless someone finally sees sense and slashes the number of fixtures, I shall have to change my policy and stop trying to cover the smaller events.

The Parish Walk is an absolutely brilliant event and during the past three months the PW information has been most in demand on this site. It's big meaningful events like this that therefore deserve the coverage so I shall do my best to get as much online as possible.

Manx Harriers B team pulled off a very pleasing result at the Division 4 west match of the Northern Men’s Athletics League at Lancaster recently. Of the 7 teams competing they finished 5th. with 129pts. ahead of Western AC and Warrington. The match was won by by the newly amalgamated Chorley and Preston AC from Liverpool Pembroke and Sefton B team (another amalgamation!!!). The local lads enjoyed the day and produced some good performances also. The pick of each individual’s afternoon was :-

Dave Newton -   3rd. in the A 5000m in 18mins 33secs.

Nick Percival -         3rd. in the A 1500m in 4mins 42secs.

Glenn Butterworth -     3rd. in the B 1500m in 4mins 43.7secs.  

Sam Cannell -   4th. in the A High Jump in 1m 60cms.

Paul Skillan -  2nd. in A Shot 11.77m and 3rd. in A Discus 31.45m.

The lads were ably supported by Bernie Shimell (timekeeping) and Mike Callow (Field judge) who officiated during the afternoon. The next match takes place at Wavertree on Sat. 5/7/03. The team should be twice the size as many youngsters will have completed their exams and be available for selection. If interested in competing please contact Andy Fox on 626415.

It was with some pleasure that I learnt from Mike Gellion recently that the Veterans Mile is to return this year, next Wednesday at 6.30 pm at the National Sports Centre. Although its organised by the Isle of Man Veterans Athletic Club it is being staged within the Manx Harriers Track & Field League.

I'm sure there will be a big turnout of veterans runners as there are not many times when the veteran athletes solely race each other on the track but its hard to predict who will take part.

With Andy Fox heading to the Island Games just a few days later and Tony Okell concentrating on the fells, I really have no idea at this stage whether the top athletes will be there. I think that Dave Anderson, Robbie Lambie and perhaps Richard Radcliffe have won it in the past but if anyone has a full list of previous winners that would be helpful.

If you are a veteran athlete and you or your friends intend to take part (or otherwise) it would help to build up the atmosphere if you could let me know whether you intend to take part or not.

Although I wasn't able to watch the whole race on Saturday, I arrived at Glen Maye in time to see the final stages of the Bettacrete Patrick Fell Race and jogged a mile or so up the course to take some pictures. The scenery was superb and a handful of hikers who were enjoying the peace must have been surprised to see nearly 30 runners legging it through the countryside in the heat.

I stopped to talk to a couple of people out walking and the man said "I wonder if my daughter's boyfriend is running today". When I enquired who it was it turned out to be Charlie Pass who finished second in his Manx racing debut, the Isle of Man Bank Peel to Douglas Run.

It seems that Charlie is going to work in Lancashire and maybe we won't see as much of him as we had hoped but if we can persuade him to join a Manx club he really would be an asset to Manx athletics.

Fell runners training returns to Douglas on Tuesday night.Meet in the car park at the rear of the TT grandstand at 6.30pm. All welcome no matter what ability.

Considering the number of races already held this week we were reasonably happy with our entry of thirty who signed on at the Glen Maye village hall. It was going to be a really hot day in the hills for everyone as the sun was beating down and there was little wind.

Defending champion Tony Okell returned to his winning ways in the Bettacrete sponsored race after a good battle with recent Carraghan victor Richard Jamieson. It looked for a while as if Richard was going to win his seond consecutive Managrakem League counter as he started like a rocket. He had opened a lead of nearly three minutes at the second checkpoint on Cronk Ny Iree Laa after the mind blowing ascent from the shoreline. Tony held his nerve  and kept to the pace he knew he could handle. 

As the leaders arrived at the foot of South Barrule the gap had halved  and as they reappeared on the summit of South Barrule he had hit the front. The final section of the 9.5 miles course is perfect for Tony being on public footpaths most of the way as the route drops back down to the finish at Glen Maye and he was able to use his speed to open a three minute advantage . His time was over five minutes outside his own course record set in 2000, no doubt caused by the hot conditions that had all the competitors clambering for drinks at every opportunity. Richard had a bad patch in the South Barrule section but recovered to hold his runner- up spot comfortably clear of Brian Osbourne. Ozzie had a race long battle with Ian Gale, pulling away on the climb to South Barrule to clinch third place.

We were pleased to be  joined by Southport runner Niel Adshead, his second race on the Island having taken part in last years Laxey race and he had a good run in unfamiliar territory to place seventh.

Many thanks to sponsors Bettacrete, to all the officialls especially Ian Callister for marking the course and to Margaret and Stephanie for the excellent refreshments at the presentation.

There was an interesting entry on the forum yesterday afternoon concerning the lack of credit for the Western AC officials who give up their time so freely to organise the Dave Phillips Memorial Road Races.  Normally it would have been deleted as there was no name attached to it and it is my policy that every contributor must be named. But I'll let it pass on this occasion as it was so obviously genuine.

It is certainly true that the officials put in a good deal of hard work and our £2 per race entry fee is a trivial amount to contribute for their time and efforts.  Thank you.

Its always dangerous to single people out for praise because undoubtedly there are lots of other contributors as well. But the reason I praised Chris Quine so lavishly for his role in the Steve Jacobs Memorial Mile was that he made it so easy for others to promote the event with frequent updates for all the media and the results were provided electronically (even though he doesn't have a computer himself) within hours of the finish.

You really had to be at the mile event to appreciate the atmosphere. There was such a great cross section of our society taking part and the mile handicap with nearly 70 is unique in a positive way.

True the handicap was not as close as in the Dave Phillips Memorial Road Race but there was no one complaining as it was so obvious what the result was. As none of the runners had competed in a previous race of this nature then the handicapper could have changed the results afterwards to what he thought they should have run and taken the credit for having everyone finishing in the same time! Get real!

Whenever we plan an event we should surely be thinking not just of the people currently taking part in the sport but also those who could potentially share that enjoyment and enhance our own pleasure. Despite the enjoyment that I derive from competing in the Dave Phillips Memorial Road Races (and I am one of only eight runners who have competed in all four of the four miles this year - another is John Watterson of Isle of Man Newspapers, who is one of the other critics of the unique handicap system where new runners are penalised for trying hard and randomly moved down the results sheet after the event) I feel it is hopelessly missing the potential market.

Last year I wrote the following in March: "I particularly hope that I can carry results from the Peel Commissioners runs this year. Back in the 1990s, the results used to be available within a few minutes of the finish. Now, with the exception of a few times read out on Manx Radio, we have to wait at least a week to see the results in the Manx Independent.

Other events have moved on big time. Combined with the unfortunate change of course due to road works last year, I cannot help but think it is the poor marketing that has resulted in smaller fields."

So this year, also in March, I made my own attempt to promote the series to some of the potential entrants - have a look at THIS PAGE  

I also wrote the following on the news page:"I make no apology for targeting female runners to the above series, formerly known as the Peel Commissioners races, on the front page tonight.

With 2,000 runners expected to take part in the Race for Life on 11 May, just imagine if just 2% of them could be attracted to take part in other events. A quick bit of maths will tell you that is an extra 40 runners, quite a significant number on our scale of things.

And the Dave Phillips handicap series has got to be one of the most suitable events for such runners to either have a practice run in or progress to later in the year. Everyone stands an equal chance of winning, the distances are not too harsh and the venue is pretty easy to get to.

Its up to each of us involved in the sport to let everyone know how much we enjoy the sport and I think it is the people who are fairly new to it themselves who can be our best ambassadors.

Sometimes we need to tell people what a good sport we have and not to assume that everyone knows the rules, the venues, the dates and the joys of running until you drop!"

Only one person commented on the considerable lengths I had gone to prepare the publicity on this site. Guess who? Chris Quine.

There was a tremendous turnout in the first round with lots of new faces.  It was helped by Manx Harriers leading athletes turning out in force to prepare for the Easter Festival Road Races 10 days later but somehow one or two other people had heard about the event and this helps.

Success breeds success and the series should have grown from there. Instead, 44% of the runners have been lost in the next three races.

So what is the answer? Shoot the messenger it seems! Instead the organisers should be considering the following:

1. Providing results to Isle of Man Newspapers is absolutely essential. To not do so for three weeks after an event is inexcusable.
2. The provision of results electronically is an expectation these days. The world has moved on. 80 cyclists take part in the weekly time trials and the results are online by the time the riders have had their shower.
3. The fixture list is chronically congested and seven events in this series contributes to that problem.
4. New runners should be positively encouraged with special recognition for their efforts. If they win the handicap first time out, good on them!

This site is intended to be completely independent of any club. After all clubs are only a means to an end. I don't intend to favour one club above another but some of the contributors actually appeal for me to give their publicity greater coverage as I rotate stories on the front page.

I wish I was bombarded with publicity for Western AC events. I asked for publicity for the Castletown to Peel Race and the Western 10 in March. I've still not received any and the Castletown to Peel is just three days away. I have naturally continued to generate my own publicity but the difference in the way that Peter Cooper promotes the Marathon, Richie Stevenson promotes the fell races or Paul Jackson, Bridget Kaneen, Andy Fox and Chris Quine promote some of Manx Harriers events is quite noticeable.

Western AC developed a good reputation for organising events when they started in the 1980s because they did things better than had ever been done before. Is this still the case?

I hope to compete in the remaining Dave Phillips Memorial Road Races this year and, although I won't be competing because I've still not run further than 4 miles this year, I'm also hoping to provide coverage on the Castletown to Peel Road and Western 10 Road Races. I hope that all these events are a great success.

Whether you agree or disagree with my comments, please use the forum to let others know your views.

If you need any last minute information about the above, contact Richie Stevenson on 629267 rstevenson@manx.net

What a difference a round makes. Three weeks ago the conditions were awful and the course dangerous. Tonight the conditions were near perfect and the view on the drive from Douglas stunning.

The only difficulty was the high pollen count that left everyone feeling a little dry and one or two hay fever sufferers performing below par.

As reported on the front page I believe that Moira Hall was the winner on the 4 mile handicap with Mike Garrett setting the fastest time of around 22.22.  Andy Bell and Peter Hughes were also thought to be under 23 minutes.

One thing that perhaps needs clarification before the next event is whether runners have to go around the outside of the tape at the bottom of the hill. Everyone I saw in the run took the inside line but to my embarrassment I discovered that both my companions in the car (son Robbie and Paul Curphey) both ran around the outside, adding several seconds per lap.

I don't have a lot of detail but I met Anthony Brand today and he mentioned that a party of Manx school children will be competing in the above this weekend, including his son Ben.

If anyone receives any results they would be welcomed but in the meantime lets hope they go well and remember the sun cream!

One statistic that jumped out at me when I compiled the stats on the Dave Phillips Memorial Road Races tonight (apart from the fact that the entries in round 4 were only 56% of round 1) was that Paul Jackson has only varied his times by 4 seconds in three races with 24.26, 24.26 and 24.22!

Manx Harriers came through their biggest test of the season so far in Division One to finish 6th. place in match two of the Northern League last Sunday. All of the squad gave their all and along the way the team experienced their first individual A win of this campaign.

In the sprints Chris Compston (100 and 200m A) and Stephen Halsall (200m B) ran well along with Darren Gray who competed in the B 400m which showed the local club were a little short of sprinters on the day. keiron Murray, however, produced a fine run to win the 400m A race. After his injury in the last match it was good to see Keiron competing again and this victory must fill him with confidence prior to the Island Games. In the Hurdles events Stephen Halsall ran well to come 3rd. in the A 110m event and 4th. in the A 400m race. Andy Fox supported in the B races with a 6th. and 3rd. respectively. Overall the Harriers held their own in this section of the match.

In the middle distances a number of fine performances were also achieved. Over 800m a season’s best and PB were recorded. The former was by Keiron in the A race with a time of 1min 57.1secs for 4th. place. This was an excellent performance with a very strong finish which suggests more is to come! Keith Gerrard, now fully recovered from the flu, came 7th. in the B event in 2mins 3.3secs which was a very promising run in a non specialist event. Over 1500m Keith ran a season’s best of 4mins 10.6 for 6th. in the A race. This was a fine performance when one considers he is only 17 and took on a difficult double against top senior competition. Darren Gray also made a come back from injury finishing in 8th. place in the B race. In the Steeplechase Andy Fox came third in the A race in 9mins 58.9secs with Tom Davies running well to fill in and come 5th. in the B race. The 5000m saw Chris Quine run a pleasing race in torrential rain to come home in 6th. place in the A competition in 15mins 57.7secs. (this was after 2 hours work in the field officiating!!) Andy Fox supported with 4th. in the B event.

It was the jumps where the club struggled most with all the regular jumpers missing. However, a number of athletes filled in and performed creditably to keep the club in touch with the teams in 6th. and 7th. places as the match progressed. Their performances were as follows :- Long Jump A Ste Halsall 7th, B Tom Davies 4th; Triple Jump A Ben Lloyd 5th, B Ste Halsall 4th; High Jump A Ben Lloyd 8th, B Tom Davies 5th; Pole Vault A Tom Davies 7th. in a new PB of 2.50m.

The throws was one of the club’s strong points again in this match. Glynn Hoosen-Owen was the A competitor in the Hammer, Shot and Discus finishing 8th, 3rd and 5th. respectively. His bests of 11.32 in the Shot and 35.54 in the Discus were excellent. He was ably supported in B events by Rob Keelan who did all four throws finishing as follows :- Shot 6th, Discus 4th, Hammer 6th and Javelin 3rd. This was a great effort by Rob and underlines his potential as a thrower. The icing on the thrower’s cake was added by Ben Lloyd who finished 2nd. in the A Javelin with 53.79m just 8cms behind the winner. A fine effort by all three lads had kept the club in with a chance of avoiding last place.

During the afternoon the Kenmac sponsored Harriers had fluctuated between 8th. and 5th. place. However, they had been mainly down in 7th. although the points were close. The final events, the relays, resulted in a 7th in the 4x100m and 8th. in the 4x400m as the athletes tired after a long day of multi event action!!! The final events to be added to the scores were the 5000m, Javelin, High Jump and relays. When the final scores were announced the position of 6th. place was very much unexpected but was no less than the lads deserved. Also it has to be said that this result shows that the Harriers squad is definitely capable of staying in division one. Special thanks must go out to Colin Halsall who officiated all afternoon yet again and also gained valuable points for the team.

The next match in the epic battle to ensure first division survival takes place in  Leeds on Sunday 6th. July, immediately after the Island Games. Rest assured the Manx Independent will carry the full story and results.

Overall League Positions after 2 matches

1. Derby                        15pts.

2. Liverpool Pembroke   13

3. Leeds City                   12

4. Blackpool                    9

5. Gateshead            8

6. Manx Harriers                7

7. Hull                         4

8. Rotherham            4

B Team at Lancaster.

The Kenmac Manx Harriers B squad competed on Saturday and were thought to have performed well in the match overall. Official results were not available at the time of going to press however valuable experience was gained by Sam Cannell and Nick Percival. Glenn Butterworth who has just returned from holiday had a useful run out while Dave Newton the team leader rolled back the years to compete in the 5000m. Paul Skillan used the match to prepare for the Island Games.  The squad were ably supported by Bernie Shimell and Mike Callow who acted as officials on the day.

28 women took part - it is certainly a while since we had that number other than the Parish Walk etc..

I think we tapped into some of the jogger market. Pity we did not have something else to promote as a follow up to keep them interested. Yes there are lots of events but these are probably perceived as being for "athletes".

The handicapping seems to favour the slower runners - probably because the fast runners have to unlap themselves and cannot run in lane one all the way.

I am so pleased for the Jacobs family - it clearly means a lot to them. They have been so keen to encourage the event through buying prizes and turning up, sometimes in cold weather, to watch and present the prizes.

£140 was raised through entry fees. With sponsorship for Arnie and money raised through the Monday night jogging group around £300 should be added to the fund in Steve's name. This money is used to help an up and coming athlete with equipment and travel costs so a worthy cause benefits too.

"Expect a bumper entry tomorrow and this is not hype!".  That was what I said to Chris Quine on Tuesday night. I was expecting about 50 runners but certainly not 67!

These comments are written after a few hours sleep - if you are starting here you will find I wrote quite a few things about the Steve Jacobs Mile last night as well.

I've got a further five comments to make:

1. The Jacobs family have been tremendous in supporting the event and for donating the prizes. I noted recently they also support a junior judo competition in Steve's memory.
2. I've never seen so many cars at the NSC as last night. Its fantastic that the event is held at the National Sports Centre which is sometimes underused by senior athletes. There are opportunities to train there regardless of where you intend to race.
3. Is the event unique? I've never heard of nearly 70 runners competing in a single mile race on the track let alone a handicap.
4. Didn't the officials do a great job to ensure that everyone was recorded and the results were available to everyone so soon after the race.
5. In my view, one of the reasons the event has been so successful is because it is an annual event. Nearly every type on event that is successful is damaged by repeating it too many times on the Isle of Man. The Island Cross Country League was replicated by all the clubs in the 1980s and every field declined; the format of the successful Douglas Fireman's runs was copied in the south, west and north and none of them have ever attracted even half the numbers compared to when there was just a single series; the fields for the long distance runs are depleted by having too many similar events close together. There is only one Clerical Medical Parish walk a year; there is only one Tesco Race for Life per year; there is only one Steve Jacobs Memorial mile race per year. Does that not tell you something?

Anthony was having problems uploading his photographs of the mile last night and they are not yet available therefore.  Don't forget to check out his picture site during the day in case he has had a chance to publish the pictures, or just to view some of the his earlier collections if you have still not discovered the facility.

THE ANTHONY BRAND PICTURE GALLERY

Peter Mathews, the co-editor of Athletics International (featured below) and main compiler of the www.britishathletics.info site (also featured recently), has welcomed the links from this site. I think its one of the great things about the internet that we can share our interests so well and Peter is so approachable. He is former editor of the Guiness Book of Records apart from so many other things including an IAAF TV commentator, former ITV commentator and Commonwealth Games stadium announcer.

Peter Cooper, of the Isle of Man Veterans Athletic Club, who were the first people on the Isle of Man to set up a website, has welcomed the inclusion of their site in the new Google Search facility on this site. We're all trying to provide information to the same group of enthusiasts and the more people become aware of the information that is available the better.

This wasn't the story I planned to bring about Chris today (I've held that one back for another day due to lack of time) but I think Chris deserves a further pat on the back for his efforts in promoting tonight's Steve Jacobs Memorial Mile.

With 67 finishers compared to 35 last year that represents a 91% increase.

Chris has used the media in every way to promote the event not least by continually giving me opportunities to refresh the publicity on this site.

No one has commented on why numbers were down in Peel last night.

Whilst the onus at the Steve Jacobs Memorial Mile is to allow everyone to enjoy the sport as much as Steve did, there is always a certain amount of interest in the fastest times so here are the top 10:

And just off the leader board, the Island's favourite comeback man, Dave Newton with 5.16.

And if you are a fast runner who didn't take part and not impressed with the times, bear in mind that we were running in the third lane for much of the way!

I could find something to say about each of the above but I'm afraid its too late!

If you were particularly impressed with anyone, sing their praises on the forum.

Before then we have at least six events including 3 track & field events and the following::

Fri -13th Ramsey Commissioners Park Run Road Race (Rd 3)                                

Sat -14th Bettacrete Patrick Fell Race

Tue- 17th Castletown to Peel Road Race

3 track league events

The Veterans Mile

Another round of the Ramsey Commissioners Park Run Road Races

And then the top athletes depart for the Island Games and the

top juniors compete in the Young Athletes League

What a few quiet weeks we have before the Manx & Northern AC Club Championships, the Western 10, the North Barrule Fell Race, the Isle of Man Marathon and the Road Running Grand Prix then!!

You'll have to forgive me if I can't cover every one of these in detail but its time for bed now!

ISLE OF MAN FIXTURES 

It turns out that the Guernsey organisers have refused my entry in the Half Marathon as a replacement for Tony Okell. No reason why was given. Could it be that this might be one way of ensuring the IOM men do not win a 5th. team Gold on the trot????? Graham Davies is going to try again. Meantime I am left wondering do I continue with slightly modified training to allow me to run well in a half marathon or do I go back to out and out Steeplechase training. I think it will be the latter. Personally I can see no reason to refuse the application as I am already an entry in an event at the games and so am purely a reshuffle of entry. If such reshuffling is not allowed then really we have as a sport to make the case for removing the early deadline for selection. It is not as though the IOM is trying to introduce a new name to the team after the selection deadline.

Although I didn't get a head count, a quick look around when race organiser Peter Kelly of the Western AC gave his pre-race briefing, suggested that numbers were well down at last night's Dave Phillips Memorial Road Races Round 4.

There are a number of possible reasons:

There are too many races this week certainly and people have to be selective. There is also a risk that the race was not very well publicised.  There was no coverage of the previous round in the papers because the press only received the results last night.  Of course, people who entered previous rounds may not have like the course or the way it was organised.

More likely it was a mixture of all the above.

Ever since the Island Games were first held I've heard arguments about the Island Games being the greatest thing since sliced bread to those who believe it detracts from other athletic focuses at national and international level or indeed that people don't support local championships and are only interested in the Island Games.

Throughout this period I've always been a big fan of the Island Games provided everyone recognises that there are other important events as well. For example, throughout the life of the Island Games Chris Quine has been one of the most consistent drivers of the attempts to improve Manx standards in National track & field competition. Together with virtually ever presents such as Andy Fox and Paul Clarke, he helped to drag Manx Harriers (and Manx AC before that) from the lowest to highest league in the North of England and the club is just one step away from National standard.

And yet every two years he has managed to achieve qualification for the Manx team at the Island Games, and some years the competition to earn a place in the team has been tough. Every two years he has noticeably peaked for the Island Games. Every two years he has won a medal for himself and the Isle of Man. It will be tough to repeat the latter feat this year at he age of 39 but his attitude towards overcoming illness and injury during the past year alone makes him a very worthy sportsman to carry the flag for the Isle of Man.

Details of his Island Games record are listed on the front page and will be moved elsewhere on the site when cleared front the front page. In his attempt to make the 1986 Commonwealth Games, Chris set a Manx record of 3.50.5 in the 1500 metres which still stands today. His 800 metre record set at the 1991 Island Games stood until the 2001 Games when Keiron Murray took the honour from him.

There will be further news of Chris tomorrow as his achievements have been honoured further.

Vol 12 No 12: June 11, 2003  Edited by Peter Matthews & Mel Watman has just been published.

Published 30 times a year by Athletics International Ltd, 13 Garden Court, Marsh Lane, Stanmore, Middx HA7 4TE, UK. Fax no: 020 8954 7497; abroad (44) 20 8954 7497.

e-mail: mel@gardencourt.fsnet.co.uk

pmatthews@macunlimited.net

Annual subscription: UK £70, rest of Europe £80 or 140 euro, outside Europe £95 or $160

e-mail version £60 ($100, 100 euro) anywhere

(cash or cheques drawn on UK bank, payable to Athletics International Ltd).

Here is just a taste of what is in the latest edition received overnight by email.

Bekele beats Gebrselassie in great 10,000m

For some time Haile Gebrselassie (30) has been singing the praises of the double double world cross country champion Kenenisa Bekele, predicting that one day he would succeed him as a world record holder on the track, but the two-time Olympic 10,000m gold medallist had not bargained on his young countryman getting the better of him at that distance just yet. Nor had Bekele, who turns 21 on June 13. He had hoped for a very fast time in his 10,000m track debut (he had run 27:40 on the road two years ago), but did not feel he was ready yet to beat the master. However, in a classic race in the IAAF Grand Prix meeting before 18,000 spectators at the Fanny Blankers-Koen Stadium in Hengelo, Bekele outkicked Gebrselassie, 26:53.70 to 26:54.58, for no. 13 on the world all-time list. It was only the third defeat ever for Gebrselassie at this distance, having placed third both in the 1993 African Champs and the 2001 World Champs. He had won his other 12 races starting in 1992. In third place Sileshi Sihine (20) improved from 27:26.12 to 26:58.76.

Running on a hot (26.3ºC) and sticky evening, the pacemakers reached 3000m in 7:58.40 and by 4000m (10:39.72) it had become a three-man race. Talk of a world record (Gebrselassie’s 26:22.75 on this track in 1998) was forgotten as Sihine led through 5000m in 13:22.72. The 7k mark was reached in 18:49.55, 8k in 21:36.38, 9k in 24:23.21, and it remained a three-way battle until Sihine dropped back when Gebrselassie struck with 300m to go. However, Bekele stayed close and surged past in the finishing straight, covering the last kilometre in 2:30.5 with a final lap of inside 56 sec.

Quoted by the IAAF website, Bekele said: “Had conditions not been so warm I am sure we three could have run a lot faster. Before the race my aim had been 26:25, and I think in cooler temperatures we could all have gone that fast. The conditions were so hot that before the race we agreed to help each other after the pacemakers had dropped out, and that was the reason why I briefly [for one and half laps] took the lead shortly after the midway point was reached. It was the only time I took the pace because I am not that experienced, and after that short time period in front I became afraid because I did not know what might happen after 7 or 8k. That is the only reason why I did not take up Haile’s offer to come to the front again later on. I just simply made the decision that as I had never run this race [10,000m] before I would not risk anything. So I decided to just hold on and wait until the last possible moment before making my move. I did not know if my tactics were putting any extra pressure on Haile. All I knew was that Haile is quite a tough guy and that made me afraid of what he could do. I had assumed that Haile’s sprint speed might not be quite what it had once been but I was still afraid that even that pace might be too much for me.

“At the moment I do not know for sure where I will race next but my plan is to compete in Oslo and Rome, and then for the Paris World Championships I have yet to decide what distance I will run. I have the qualification time now for the 10,000m but the 5000m I have yet to get. Then there is also the schedule of races to look at to see what is possible; also they will be my first World Championships, so I have to be careful not to do too much.”

In addition to the 10,000m there were world-leading marks by Wilfred Bungei in the 800m (1:43.05), Paul Koech in the steeple (8:06.68) and Marina Kuptsova (2.02 high jump), while Troy Douglas (30.11.62) took his world masters 100m record from 10.47A to 10.42 and Kenya’s James Kwalia (12.6.84), who ran 7:37.18 for 3000 and 13:14.34 for 5000 last summer, trimmed the world junior mile record from 3:50.41 (Noah Ngeny in 1997) to 3:50.39.

I added a front page link to the www.britishathletics.info site today and the feature on the decline of the county championships caught my eye. The Isle of Man supports the Lancashire Championships in strength every year and it appears its just as well we do.

For the full stats on the Lancashire Championships (and links to other counties) click here.

Same time, same place, same handicap, same publicity but I still enjoy it!

Tuesday evening at 7 pm from Peel Camp Site.

With the experience of organising this big event on a new course last year, the Isle of Man Veterans Athletic Club look like making this year's Ramsey Bakery Sponsored End to End Walk bigger than ever.

The publicity started in last month's Race Walking Record and is sure to include the Clerical Medical Parish Walk and gather momentum during the Summer.

Enquiries and entry forms from Judy King on 628156.  Entry forms were also available online last year.

Richard managed to get to the Pen Y Gent race at the weekend although his travel arrangements were far from straightforward.

The race was the latest round of the British Champs. and the English Champs. So as you can imagine the competition was of a very high standard. Richard climbed to the summit of Pen Y Gent in fine style and arrived at the checkpoint in 25th position ( there were about 300 entrants ).

He set off down the descent and quickly passed 5 runners and was heading for his best position to date when disaster struck as his foot disappeared down a big hole and he went down very heavily.

Despite being quite shaken he managed to continue altough at a very much reduced pace.,As anyone who has done one of these races knows, if you lose any time at all you plummet back down the field as the racing is so close and unfortunately he dropped back out of the points to around 60th place.

Disappointing  but he is now showing he can get in with the best and put up a good performance. I think there is still a lot more to come from Richard yet and it would not suprise me if he breaks into the top twenty in one of the remaining British Champs. races this year.   

The following is compiled from two emails from Graham Davies (phone calls from Thomas were his source) and my own phone call from Andy Fox.

Keiron Murray won the A race 400 mtrs (seasons best) 51.3 in addition to clocking 1.57 in the 800. 

Match won by Derby with Gateshead runners up.

Ben Lloyd 2nd in a cracker of a javelin event 53.79 mtrs

Chris Quine 15.57 in 5K 

Rob Keelan 38.79 mtrs in Javelin B

Andy Fox ran 9.58 for Steeplechase

Keith Gerrard 800 mtrs PB in 2.03.3 and 4.10 in 1500 mtrs

Darren Gray returned after serious injury with 4.43 in B 1500 mtrs

Only 11 athletes of the original 14 turned out, so a great result.

Andy Fox ran the 110 hurdles, the 400 hurdles, the steeplechase, the 5,000 metres & the 4 x 400 metres. Oh well, he can take it easy now. He only has a long road journey from Gateshead to Heysham, an overnight ferry journey and work tomorrow morning straight off the boat!

Full details later in the week but well done to all concerned.

Thanks to Graham and Andy for getting me the news.

The fellrunners training sessions will recommence after the TT break this Tuesday 10th June. Meet at Bradda Glen, Port Erin at 6.30pm. All welcome 

I mentioned on the front page that Ian Turnbull is a former winner of the End to End Walk. I knew that fact without checking as 1974 was the first year I took part and remember it well. I couldn't remember his full record however and on checking my records it appears he retired at the top. He clinched his win after 2 second places.

Incidentally he took part in the very first walk in 1961 and also in the first walk on the new course in 2002. Did anyone else?

We are expecting a reasonable turn-out in next Saturdays Bettacrete sponsored Patrick fell race, round 7 of this years Managrakem Fell League.  Paul Jackson has done a great job of encouraging people to have a look round the course and a number of runners will be tackling the race for the first time. The only problem I can forsee is that due to the crazy fixture list our race is the fourth in five days, absolute madness. A tremendous race is in prospect with all our top runners expected to enter. I would not like to predict a winner but I would think Ian Gale, Richard Jamieson and Tony Okell are obvious favourites.

To watch these guys in our squad training sessions is impressive to say the least, and they are all on top form at the moment. Richard was aiming to compete in the Pen Y Ghent race in Yorkshire today ( Saturday ) the latest round of the British Championship but I am not sure if he has been able to arrange his transport. Another to watch out for is Brian Osbourne who was a bit disappointed with his performance at Carraghan but who is capable of mixing it with the best when on form.

New dad Simon Skillicorn is also going well in training and he could be a dark horse on the day. The team or teams to run for the Isle of Man at Snowdon in July wil be selected after the race. If there are any runners who think they should be considered then they have the ideal oppurtunity to race next week and show their worth and maybe gain selection to a top class International race.  

After the race we will be presenting the awards for the recent Carraghan race as well as Patrick and we will be providing refreshments for everyone. Its worth doing the race just to sample Margaret Quirks home made cake afterwards. Please sign on at Glen Maye Village Hall no later than 1.15pm and transport will be arranged to the start at Dalby. 

Manx Harriers embark on an epic journey this weekend as they continue the battle to stay in Division One of the Northern Men’s Athletics League. The second of the four match series takes place in Gateshead on Sunday and due to injury, GCSE and A level exams sees a weakened side turn out for the Kenmac sponsored squad. A party of 14 will make the journey up North which for the bulk of the team will see them off the Island for 46 hours with only one night’s accommodation. Dedication to sport is about more than training and competing when you live on the Isle of Man!!!!

In the last match the locals were surprised at the standard and finished 5th. out of the 8 squads competing. The Manx team’s strength is of a similar standard this time, perhaps a little weaker in the Jumping events due to the injury of Phil Riley so some points will be lost there. However, Ben Lloyd will score highly in the Javelin in his season’s debut for the club.  Hopefully, the return from injury of Keiron Murray will also see some valuable points gathered over 4 and 800m this time. Any team position higher than 8th. will be seen as a success.

The B team are competing in Lancaster on Saturday and a mixture of youth and experience makes up the team. Some under 17s will enjoy the outing as will veteran campaigner Dave Newton in the 5000m. Paul Skillan who is unable to make the A team match due to work commitments will be throwing as he hones his preparation for the Island Games.

The teams are :-

A Team - keith Gerrard, Chris Quine, Chris Whitlow, Chris Compston, Darren Gray, Rob Keelan, Ben Lloyd, Stephen Halsall, Glynn Hoosen-Owen, Andy Fox, Keiron Murray, Tom Davies, Colin Halsall and John Whitlow.

B Team - Dave Newton, Paul Skillan, Nick Percival, Mike Callow, Glenn Butterworth and Sam Cannell.

www.manxathletics.com will carry full results next week.

ISLE OF MAN ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION

Hon. Secretary Graham Davies

Thistledo, Ballafesson Road, Port Erin, Isle of Man, IM9 6BT

Telephone 01624 836865        Facsimile 01624 666419     E-mail roadrunner@ Manx.net

Sunday 1^st June 2003

The Secretary

(all Manx) Athletic Clubs

Dear

I regret to inform you that the Inter Club match down in the fixtures list for Sunday 15^th June is postponed, till later in the year. This partly due to my failure to hire the NSC track earlier this year, and after contacting Clubs to move it to Saturday, was stopped again due to a fixture clash and one Club involved in a sponsored event.

It is very much hoped that this very exciting and popular event will be held probably in August?

Yours in sport

Graham

Hon secretary

As Manx Harriers Team manager I have worked very hard to ensure the A team has a pretty full squad of 14 athletes and officials on Sunday. Well as the report above shows we will be away for about 45 hours in fact so the logistics were against us but at least the team is large enough and good enough to have a fighting chance in a competitive first division!!!!

The B team will compete in Lancaster in Div. 4 west, so will Western AC. Also at the same venue is Northern AC in Div. 3 west. All clubs will have booked group tickets on the Steam Packet, however, if the booking were combined the ease of getting seats etc at a better price would be much greater. All 3 will have booked mini buses, cars and taxis for travel in the UK. All of this could have been done more efficiently if the efforts were combined. All will be struggling to get officials which also could have been done more efficiently with a combined effort. Then of course I guess all would have a more successful afternoon as teams if they were combined as well as having a good and enjoyable day out. Is there a better argument for having Team Isle of Man????? Probably, but this one seems pretty good to me!!!!

After the meeting to discuss the IOM AA Dev. plan in April I thought headway would be made. I am beginning to wonder if the trail is being allowed to go cold. It would be a great shame if we missed this opportunity. I hope the powers that be move things forward so we can try to make the most of the opportunities discussed about 2 months ago.

Waterford Crystal Senior Grand Prix Events

10.00am     50km   Senior men          

12.40am     20km   Senior Women  

                  10km    Senior Women     

13.00pm    20km    Senior Men      

                  10km   Junior Men         

Connaught Gold Nihil Shield Match (IRL v GB)

10.10am     1km     Girls U13             

10.20am     1km     Boys U13              

10.30am     2km     Girls U15          

(includes Emma Latham selected to represent England)    

10.50am     2km     Boys U15              

11.05am     3km     Girls U17               

11.30pm     3km     Boys U17               

01.45pm     5km     Boys U19+open     

02.10pm     3km     Vets Men+Women

If anyone (like me) is concentrating on the handicap events this Summer they have an epic week next week.

Round 4 of the Dave Phillips Memorial Road Races in to be held on Tuesday

The seventh annual Steve Jacobs Memorial One Mile Handicap is staged on Wednesday

Round 3 of the Ramsey Park Runs is to be staged on Friday.

Steve Taylor was quick to analyse last night's 10km track walk (and support events) for Manx National Records, which are all subject to ratification by the IOMAA.

I think someone may have mentioned this before, but James Coulson is in the frame of the picture used on the poster to promote this year's New York Marathon on 2 November.

James has very kindly supplied me with a copy on CD which I shall be using on the front page in the next couple of days.

Its only 10 days until the Inter Club meeting is scheduled at the NSC. Can anyone please confirm that its still going ahead.

There were mixed results for the Irish in Russia.

Gillian O'Sullivan was disqualified at 14km while fighting for the lead with local favourite Yelena Nickolayeva.

However there was a huge pb for Olive Loughnane who clocked 1.30.29 to finish 8th.

In the mens 20km race Robert Heffernan had a rare off day an droped out at 13km. Colin Griffin took over 2 minutes of his personal best time to record 1.25.20 to finish 23rd. David Kidd finished 45th with 1.33.57.

In the mens 50km Jeff Cassin took 4 minutes of his best time with 4.01.01 to finish 13th. In the junior girls race Anne Loughnane finished 12th with 49.46, while Catriona McMahon finished 15th with a pb of 50.53.

Eight Fell runners enjoyed a 'practice lap' around the Patrick Fell Race route on Mad Sunday. A number of us have agreed to meet again this Sunday 8th June same time 8am at Glen Maye Village Hall, if anyone else would like to join us for a final look over the course before the race on Saturday 14th June.

The above will be held on 16 June and 14 July at the NSC from 6.30 pm to 9.00 pm with special events on 18 & 25 June and 9 July.

Entries close just one week today. Details from Amanda Macnair, 5 Arbory Road, Castletown. I'll try and scan and entry form.

Manx Harriers Northern Men's League team are off the Island again at the weekend. Full preview Thursday night.

The 10k track race is on Wednesday evening, starting at 7.pm.  Anyone wishing to come along and race, will be made most welcome.  There will also be races for the younger age groups to enable them to get a track ranking time at their appropriate distances.

IOMVAC stalwart Peter Cooper hurt his foot training on the fells on Sunday and is out of action. "Oh to be young again" he said tonight.

My former work colleague from Nampak days, Gerard Diepeveen, who spent five years on the Isle of Man living at Lonan, has just completed a half marathon back in South Africa, the same one he did some 18 years earlier. His time had slowed a minute for each year!  It was still five minutes faster than the 2 hours five minutes he ran in the Isle of Man Half Marathon in August 2000 however.

Former Boundary Harrier Tony Forryan, who lives at Earl Shilton in Leicestershire, phoned me last week to check out some news of the TT and we had a good chat.

When I got around to asking him how his running was going he said he wasn't really doing any training. He is competing in the East Midlands Road Running Grand Prix and by the time he recovers from one event its time for the next.

His like of motor sport shines through. Not only has he run at Silverstone but also at Rockingham.

Tony will on the Isle of Man next month to watch the Southern 100.

Thanks to Chris Quine for pointing out that the web page containing last year's Steve Jacobs mile was incomplete. I've now republished the pictures I think I must have taken off line to save space.

AON Under 21 Sportsman of the Year, Martin Aram, was in consistent form yesterday (Sunday 1^st June) at the Bedford International Games.

The Manchester Commonwealth Games finalist cleared 2.10 metres and took the Gold medal after a jump-off with Mark Crowley, who cleared the same height and was level on count-back.

This high profile competition was the second round of the UK Athletics Domestic Series, which Martin now leads with 15 points out of a possible 16, with Mark in second place on 13.

The next round is the regional championships on June 21^st.

That will be his final warm up for the NatWest Island Games in Guernsey, the following weekend, where he will be hoping to retain his title and improve on the championship record he set in the Isle of Man in 2001.

Sponsorship for Martin to attend the Bedford International Games was provided by Britannia International and British Airways CityExpress.

Take a walk from Summerland up to Port Jack and on your left you will see a number of bill board size pictures of various parts of Douglas. On your right attached to the railings you will find the text telling you about the photographer responsible for taking the pictures.

The pictures will no doubt take some of you down memory lane and I think it always interesting to see something through the eyes of another.

Why do I take particular interest? Well the photos are interesting but my interest is more in the photographer. He is London based artist Cian Quayle and we have some of his paintings upon our office walls here at Friends Provident in Castletown.

Cian was born and raised in the Isle of Man and is the son of top 1960's cyclist Reg Quayle. Cian followed in these footsteps and was a more than competent cyclist in his time. They lived (and I think the parents still do) on Finch Road next to the hairdressers (a funky jewellery shop) and this is the subject of one of his photographs.

Cian was a self modelled punk rocker and although I didn't share his passion we still knocked about together and were in the same classes between 1978 and 1981. I feel sure that Steve Brennan and fellow artist Steve Partington shared classes with him also.

Murray's note: Didn't Cian compete in some of the old Fireman's runs or has my memory let me down?

My younger son Ben, who surprised me a couple of years ago by taking up athletics after previously being uninterested (he is being coached for the discus by Mike Callow), has again surprised me this week by taking an interest in the TT after previously lacking interest. He has been helping the scouts with the state of the art scoreboard (not) at the Grandstand and held the flag on the podium at two of the prize presentations yesterday.

There was an excellent picture of him on the Men & Motors TV coverage  yesterday standing next to Ian Lougher in the 125 fearful of getting soaked by the champagne. He commented on the interesting conversation between the three prize winners in the 400cc race with most words beginning with "F"!

Ian Gale pulled out just 2 hours before I had to input the team into the Guernsey administration web site, this was a privilege given to us due to the lateness of our team being selected. Stuart Corrin had already withdrawn due to him taking exams at the same time as the games.

Chris Quine and Gianni Epifani had both been pre-selected having gained the A standard in the 5,000 metres. We asked Chris if he would be willing to move up to the 10,000 metres he agreed allowing us to give young Keith Gerrard a run out  in the 5,000 to hopefully prepare him for future Island games. The same has to be said for Chris Whitlow, Darren Gray, Helen Sheen, Kerree Kermode, Rachel Croft and Glyn Hoosen-Owen no disrespect to our older athletes but we have to plan for the future, so the team is a blend of youth and experience. The withdrawal of Tony Okell from the team is a major blow, but one we have to respect we couldn’t guarantee Tony a run out in the 10,000 metres due to the fact that Paul Clarke had qualified much earlier in the year and had proved over the winter months that he was on top form, he was therefore given the other 10,000 berth well before we discussed it with Chris Quine. It’s something the selectors will have to think about for the Shetland games, pre-selection or altogether I personally think they made the correct decision.  Another point I have found very difficult to get my head round was the fact that we had to pay a deposit up front last year for every member of the team. So do we just select a team of 16 and lose the deposits or do what we did? Another point raised with me is the walk.

Why didn’t we select 4 race walkers Steve and Cal Partington and Peter and Bridget Kaneen? (I believe they top each events stats) Remember you have to have 6 countries entered before that event can take place, we had already sounded out other teams and knew beforehand that the walks would be withdrawn, (Can anyone honestly say that the IOMAA is stupid enough to turn down the chance of certain gold and silver medal chances) so you see we would have lost four places in the team which meant that no others could have been named as replacements.  As with Tony Okell we lose the deposit and if the plane seat cannot be re-sold that as well.  I can honestly say the last three months have been a nightmare, but if our athletes prove again to be the best at the games then it will have been well worth it and if I still hold the office of Secretary by the time the Shetlands come round I will be very much the wiser.

Friday June 13^th 2003

A meeting of the whole Isle of Man team to compete in the Natwest Xth Island Games in Guernsey.

Ronaldsway Aircraft Company Social Club 7.30pm (couple of hours)

Don’t let athletics down BE THERE.

FINAL INSTRUCTIONS.

All Team Isle of Man based athletes.

UNION MILLS FOOTBALL CLUB HOUSE BALAMONA BRADDAN

Friday 20^th June 2003 7.30 to 9.30.

Team  Isle of Man Athletics kit

The new kit will arrive on the Island on the 23^rd of June; date for pick up will be made during the meeting of the 20^th.

This was what I wrote on the website on 19 April. The team was picked a few days later including Ian Gale. Something must have gone wrong with the communication channels.

"Half marathon qualifier Ian Gale is another athlete who, after achieving the qualifying time for the Island Games at the National Sports Centre last month (when he ran 1.12.35), was adamant he was not available due to family commitments."

There were lots of athletes at the downpour at the Villa Marina tonight to see Paul Carrack. My music includes a number of albums with his vocals including Mike & the Mechanics, Squeeze & Ace and after drying out when I got home from an excellent concert I looked up his CV on the internet.

Try this link -  PAUL CARRACK

I saw Squeeze as a support act in 1979 to Lindisfarne with Chris Rea also supporting. My sister Margaid, who I think had seen Lindisfarne about 30 times at the last count, had an interview at Keele University and stayed at my student house in Stoke and somehow managed to time it on the day of the Lindisfarne concert. I remember thinking that both support bands were pretty impressive and of course Chris Rea went on to be pretty huge. I had always assumed that Paul Carrack had been in the Squuze line up so its taken me nearly a quarter of a century (How Long?) to realise he wasn't in the line up at that point!

I didn't realise that he had also been in Roxy Music or the Undertones or several other acts listed in the above link. He certainly got around the music business before hitting the big time at tonight's umbrella gig.

As I typed all the times from the opening rounds of the Ramsey Park Runs (as printed in the papers) into a quick spreadsheet this afternoon I realised straight away that I had hit on some interesting statistics.

The top 3 to finish in the second round did not compete in the first round. In fact 5 out of the top 7 or 8 out of the top 12 were newcomers to the series.

Does this support Peter Kelly's view that it is impossible to handicap people who have not previously competed until after they run because they will always under estimate their times?

Personally I don't think it matters although, yes, very few people do give a "fair" indication of their ability and form to the handicapper. Next time out they will surely be given much harder marks and if they win again good luck to them.

I was totally surprised to see that Ian Callister had improved by the biggest margin. Ian has never been known to run slowly in the scratch race of a handicap series before!

The most consistent were Wendy Ross, who improved by 3 seconds, and Alan Bagley who was three seconds slower than the first race. Alan would surely have been the other side of his opening time if he had not fallen over on the last lap in the wet and slippery conditions.