Training partners Liz and Alison were both putting in the pre-marathon miles this weekend with Liz placing third lady in the Bury 20 with another excellent pb of 2:14 and Alison winning her age group with 1:31 at Tunbridge Wells.

With no local fixture this weekend TH&H members were in action over the local 5km time trials. David Symons placed third at Bushy Park and Anna Garnier placed second lady at Wimbledon Common with a pb. Lorna also showed huge improvement with a 57 second pb. Interestingly, TH&H men and women filled three of the top four "age graded" performances, the table headed, of course, by Keith Spacie.

Congratulations to Lucy Hassell for winning the ladies marathon by over 7 mins with an excellent new pb of 2:36:26 prompting the Texas news headline "London teacher Hassell hustles to 1st marathon win".

See more at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm_BXkmJAJU

The TH&H ladies were in fine form this weekend, with Naomi Warner winning the Brighton Half in a great time of 1:18:31.

Steve Pollard foxed the handicappers to win over the 7.5mile course, just ahead of Liz Stavreski with Andrew Simon taking third spot. Nick Altman was fastest man. Full results to follow.

		Finish time	Position	Actual time
Steve Pollard	3:22:41 PM	1	47:41
Liz Stavreski	3:22:48 PM	2	47:48
Andrew Simon	3:23:55 PM	3	03:55
Andy Stainsby	3:24:49 PM	4	51:19
Maddalaine Ansell	3:25:11 PM	5	56:11
Michael Johnson	3:25:21 PM	6	51:51
David Walsh	3:25:39 PM	7	56:39
Chris Hutber	3:25:41 PM	8	49:11
Tim Nightingale	3:25:50 PM	9	51:50
Jon Salmon	3:26:02 PM	10	52:02
Nick Altmann	3:26:11 PM	11	41:41
David Symons	3:26:19 PM	12	41:49
Alison Carpenter	3:26:24 PM	13	52:24
Anna Garnier	3:26:28 PM	14	52:58
Ric Turner	3:27:37 PM	15	49:37
Andrew Johnson	3:28:47 PM	16	59:47
Rhodri Davis	3:28:54 PM	17	50:54
Keith Spacie	3:29:51 PM	18	56:21
James Justins	3:33:11 PM	19	56:11
Andy Lea-Gerrard	3:33:54 PM	20	73:54
Alastair Caisley	3:34:26 PM	21	61:26
Maureen Poole	3:36:50 PM	22	71:50
Al Gibbons	3:37:47 PM	23	65:47

Dan Pescod, new member Antonia Burt and Jeff Armitage enjoyed the delights of an early morning 10km race with Antonia placing fourth lady.

29   Dan Pescod       38.11
61   Antonia Burt     41.42
112  Jeff Armitage    44.32
 

Lorna and Maureen lined up for their second race in two days, and this time it was Maureen's turn to cross the line ahead of Lorna. Apparently a THH man won the race - but as yet remains unidentified.

John McFarlane and Gavin Yeats were in action in the first of the pre London half marathons. John's time of 1:07:19 secured fifth spot and Gavin ran 1:31:22.

Naomi Warner had another great league race to take second spot. Liz, Kate, Alison and Vikki ran well to make up the scoring A team and secure third spot in the league a position matched by the ladies B team.

HHH

1    Emily Nelson          E&E A  	20.50     
2    Naomi Warner          THH A  	21.02     
17   Elizabeth Stavreski   THH A  	22.50    
30   Kate Symons           THH A   	24.03     
34   Alison Carpenter      THH A   	24.09     
37   Vikki Filsell         THH A 	24.27     
47   Anna Garnier          THH B   	24.57     
65   Rachel Haining        THH B  	25.42     
97   Lorna Celiku          THH B   	27.44     
100  Maureen Poole         THH B   	27.53 
125  Jane Brtenshaw        THH B   	29.15
        
Teams for fixture 4:
1.	HHH:	86
2.	SLH:	91
3.	Ran:	104
4.	THH:	120

Teams after all 4 fixtures:
1.	Ran:	369
2.	HHH:	425
3.	THH:	540
4.	SLH:	560     

A bumper turnout of runners this week, with Keith Spacie showing a good turn of speed, and Ian Higgins suprising the assembled runners with news of his wedding the previous day. Congratulations to Ian and Jill!

A fine performance from the TH&H men was not enough to hold off the charge of the men in black and red. It was a case of so near yet so far. A lead of 27 points over Herne Hill proved to be not quite enough, who won the final fixture and the League overall by a mere 6 points, or an average of 1 ½ points per race! It has been a long time coming, but Nick Talbot’s first outing in a saltire proved to be a memorable one, finishing 2nd in a high quality field. Nick was closely followed in 5th by Neil Chisholm, who has improved in every race and completed a superb series of races in his debut season for Thames. The younger and more beautiful Talbot (?) also produced a fine run to finish 10th, with James McMullen producing another impressive run in his debut season in 15th. There followed Thamesmen at very short intervals after that, with Toby Pearson finishing in a very impressive 20th, the ever reliable Dave Symons in 24th, and Simon Wurr, Tom Kingsnorth and James Cordwell grouped together in 27th, 28th and 29th respectively. The ever youthful Chris Daniels closed the team in 36th, but it was not quite enough. Thanks to all who ran and turned out to support. Particular congratulations go to Huw Lobb, for winning all 3 fixtures in which he competed, a feat unchallenged in the history of Thames.

Thanks to everyone who turned out in all 4 fixtures and contributed to a magnificent team effort, in which 18 runners scored over the 4 races and many others also ran well. Particular congratulations go to Huw Lobb, for winning all 3 fixtures in which he competed, a feat unchallenged in the history of Thames. We were of course missing a number of top runners on Saturday, and if any number of little things had turned out differently, we could have regained the title, but we gave it our best shot, and lost narrowly to a very impressive team. Hopefully we will make it even harder for them next year.

1	S.Sharp           BEL    28.10  
2	N.Talbot          THH    28.44  
5	N.Chisholm        THH    29.11  
9	D.Talbot          THH    29.43  
14	J.McMullan        THH    30.01  
19	T.Pearson         THH    30.18  
23	D.Symons          THH    30.32  
26	S.Wurr            THH    30.40  
27	T.Kingsnorth      THH    30.44  
28	J.Cordwell        THH    30.46  
32	C.Daniels         THH    30.57  
40	J.Woodthorpe      THH    31.07  
48	N.Altmann         THH    31.22  
53	A.Howse           THH    31.41  
55	A.Gaskell         THH    31.45  
58	A.Robinson        THH    31.53  
68	I.Harkness        THH    32.13  
73	M.Lynas           THH    32.27  
86	A.Kennis          THH    33.04  
94	A.Doolittle       THH    33.34  
106	S.Molden          THH    34.12  
123	H.Arnold          THH    35.18  
126	L.Mathews         THH    35.30  
131	M.Farmery         THH    35.52  

Lorna Celiku ran well for a pb and Ian Higgins was back to his usual ways with a second spot. Colin Price and Steve Pollard were also in action.

Congratulations to Anna Garnier for a V50 silver medal in the SOE vets cross country and to super vet Keth Spacie for winning gold in the V70 race. Well done also to Rachel, Maureen and Vikki also in action over the tough course.

1	Clare	Elms	Dulw	V40		21.58
22	Vikki	Filsell	THH	V40		25.24
25	Anna	Garnier	THH	V50		25.38
34	Rachel	Haining	THH	V40		26.34
62	Maureen	Poole	THH	V55		29.08

Many thanks to the Stragglers for inviting us to race over their new 5 mile riverside course. As billed, it was flat but pretty muddy in places. David Symons took an early lead, before being overhauled by Straggler Graham Brook and Liz Stavreski ran well for first lady. A mob, well more of a select crowd, of TH&H runners completed the course, with Stragglers easily winning the match, before returning for the traditional mob match tea.

Photos courtesy of Nigel Rothwell can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rothwell_nt/sets/72157603850393676

1	Graham Brook	Stragglers	00:31:24
2	David Symons	Thames H&H	00:31:52
11	Chris Hutber	Thames H&H	00:37:18
12	Mike Farmery	Thames H&H	00:37:21
13	Liz Stavreski	Thames H&H	00:37:23
15	Bernt Erik Roeed	Thames H&H	00:38:42
21	Kate Symons 	Thames H&H	00:39:57
22	Al Gibbons	Thames H&H	00:40:02
30	Dave Walsh	Thames H&H	00:42:51
44	John Bryant	Thames H&H	00:52:10
45	Richard Weston	Thames H&H	00:57:24