A report of events from the Mens Captain.

First thing this month it is with great sadness I report the loss of a friend and club member, Eric
Dunne. A few newer members will not know Eric; he hadn't been to the club for some months
and hadn't run for over a year - with what at the time was thought to be a series of injuries, but as reported elsewhere in the mag, the answer was much worse than mere injury .Eric was very supportive of all members and after retiring last year, was looking forward to leading a life of leisure, unfortunately this wasn't to be and we have all lost a good friend. Our thoughts at this time can only go to Eric's family.

Onto less important things - Ekiden relay - again we did well, this year with 5 teams in action -
a record for the club and it might have a few committee members frothing at the mouth thinking about expenses as we cover the teams -good news for them is I want 6 or 7 teams next year - the men were 9th (A team) while the women retained the vets trophy again. Our other teams were also very well placed despite some juggling of runners on the day (not literally of course!!).

Friday night series - apparently there was a team event in this, we came 6th of 30 plus teams - brilliant, considering we never were at full strength, we could do really well in this, however, unless members want to, l am not really bothered about taking it seriously - just all enjoy your own runs in these. Fred was easily the best over 60 in the competition, but didn't do enough runs to qualify for the prize, Geoff Tomlinson was highly placed in the over 40's (I wasn't highly placed by the way - must try harder).

Try as hard as I can, I just can't avoid the next topic - cross country.

Now, it appears some people don't like it - all right - it can get a bit muddy - but it can be fun and competitive and is very good training for everyone, and its nothing like the rubbish we all must have done at school - I hated that too, mind you, I didn't run at school either if I could help it, but that's another story.

We are in pool A this season and our main rivals in a relegation tussle will be Harwich, Colchester and Tendring. I believe we have much more depth this season and firmly believe we will beat both if we get good support all round. Already many people are actually interested and asking about these runs - and we haven't a lengthy injury list before the season starts, which must be a first. I scored on 3 occasions last year - despite only just coming back from injury, I am running much better than that now but do not expect to figure at all in the scoring - but I will definitely still be running all of these. First one is 10'"October - which
should be done and dusted by the time you read this and I expect us to have a 2 pt advantage
over Harwich as we read. October 31st event at Tiptree is off - cancelled - but a road race in
Clacton is on that day so we won't be missing out, November 7th see's the second XC fixture at
Landseer Park (I think).
Some "discussions" are taking place as we read this, regarding future XC events, seems C&T and Witham are getting on their high horses about these and maybe trying to spoil the friendly, relaxed atmosphere of these. Seems some people like rules and regulations, but as an old punk, I know what I think about rules and regulations. Anyway, we will see what comes out of these meetings but I think that the important thing is that people enjoy the league and we encourage as many as possible to run.

Predictions?
Well, Harriers must take the pool A, I believe if we get everyone out, we can take 3rd (YES - third, that's how highly I rate our club).
Pool B-1 tip Tiptree to beat Grange Farm, though newcomers Haverhill will be a mystery for a while, glad we aren't directly up against them, having been beaten by newcomers the last 2 times we entered against them. Shame we can't go for a 5th successive runners up spot in pool B though as that must be a record.

Finally, very displeased with my computer at the moment, if I wanted a Stranglers site to direct
me straight to a search engine, I would just find a search engine to start with. Whoever started
viruses should be maimed for life for the bother they cause. Please anyone, know any solutions to this?

Half the item on cross country, I knew I could keep it to a minimum!!

Regards,

Jon

November 2004

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