Royal Signals Relays – NECAA Road Relay Championship 2023

18 February 2023 – Hetton Lyons Country Park

I look forward to advertising this event as I can be rest assured that interest will be high. The event appeals to those who refrain from cross country for fear of injury and those who’ve done all the cross-country races and are yearning to run unhindered on smooth tarmac surfaces. Add to that the bonus that it’s a relay and you can compete with the comfort of knowing that you have your team-mates to rely upon.

Race 1 is the four-leg relay for senior and veteran women, and veteran men over 50. In the interests of safety, the start line was doubled in width, taking in a section of the grass adjacent to the pathway. This meant that the rows of competitors on the start line were only one to three deep. In addition, there was a staggered start for the veteran women’s teams whose race began two minutes after the main start. The feedback on this was positive – the veteran women were glad to avoid a congested start line with its typical jostling for position.

We had five teams in Race 1, so there were lots of athletes to keep an eye out for, with the added confusion (for the spectators) of the two-minute delay to the start of the veteran women’s race. We got off to a fabulous start with Mark Turnbull finishing fourth in the V50 men’s race and new joiner Sophie Pikett leading the entire field. Felicity Smith also finished the first leg in fourth position in the veteran women’s race with Rachel Dodds putting in a confident leg for the senior women’s B team. Alan Thompson was revelling in taking on the first leg for the V50 B team, feeling fitter and fresher than a year ago. Recovering from a lingering chest infection and a sore hip, Imogen Bungay ran bravely in the second leg. She was up against very tough competition from former international athlete Charlotte Penfold of North Shields Poly. Imogen finished in second position, with Sara Blight and Cath Lowes overlapping in the second leg for the senior and the vet’s team. Jason Old looked sprightly in the second leg with Rob Lambert bringing in our second vet V50 men’s team.

Bella Russell took over from Imogen for the third leg and held onto second position. In her first appearance at the Signals, Poppy Old took on the anchor leg and easily secured silver medals for our senior A team. Another first timer at the event, Hazel Bough in her trademark blue headband, maintained first position for the vet women handing over to Justina Heslop who brought the team home to take gold. Jayne Cuskern was delighted to be running after a bout of Covid and took off a whole minute from her previous time on this course. She handed over to me to bring the senior B team home in 41st position*. Even more delighted to be running than Jayne, Malcolm Liddle had an amazing come-back relay race – his first relay since 1989! He ran third leg for our second V50 team and handed over to Peter Sloan who brought the team home in 47th position*. Martin Connelly was also glad to be racing again after a few injury niggles and was rightly pleased with his performance, handing over to Mike Russell who was spurred on by the presence of 15-year-old Poppy Old hot on his heels. His efforts were rewarded with a bronze medal position for our first V50 team.

Race 2 is the six-man relay for senior men and V40 men’s teams. Like last year we had two senior teams in this race, this time consisting of a mixture of under 17 men, seniors, V40s and V50s. Making his debut in this senior event, Adam Robinson (age 15), took on the first leg for our second team, alongside Lewis Liddle in the first team. It’s always a very fast start but both Adam and Lewis kept their cool and paced the two laps well. Dave Jones and Steve Horn ran the second leg for the second and first teams respectively, handing over to Bailey Shore and vice-captain Scott Brady. Another 15-year-old debutant, Bailey was nervous at the start, but quickly settled into a comfortable pace.

For the fourth, fifth and sixth legs, we had an abundance of experience in our first senior team with Jonathan Rewcastle, Andrew Ball and Andrew Ball. They brought the team home in 11th position out of 54.

Thrown into the deep end, we had new joiner Luke Pikett racing for the first time in a few years taking the fourth leg for our second senior team. He even had to borrow a vest for the occasion. Impressive V50 runners Simon Allen and another new joiner James Douglas completed the line-up for the second team. They finished in an impressive 33rd position.

There were quite a few problems for the organisers in relation to time recording, hence the presentations didn’t occur until after 3pm. I’ve excluded reference to our runner’s times as there have been many anomalies noted. *Both Peter Sloan and I overtook runners in the last leg of Race 1 and yet our teams are ranked several places behind the teams those runners were representing. I have raised queries with the organisers, but such were the number of errors, I doubt we’ll ever see an accurate set of results. I have also enquired about whether the times can be supplied to Power of Ten.

That said, it was successful day for Elswick. Great to have juniors participating in our senior teams; new joiners; Elswick stalwarts, some returning from injury, as well as a haul of medals. The support crew was excellent too – thanks to Kim and Harry Matthews, Ken, Jan and Marissa Heslop, Rosa and Liliana Geremew, Mary Avery, Eric Liddle, Michelle, Aiden Jones, Paul Robinson, Kerrie Old, Ayla Blight, George Russell (spectating from the bike course) and to Ben Hall for the many photographs. Lovely to see coach Tom Hanson back to good health and manning the finish line.