Forest 5

Wednesday July 28

After a  brief blast in what was once called Wythenshawe Garden Suburb, we were back to the hills and Macclesfield Forest. Sale, only 5k, flat and close to home, proved to be a points desert . Race 13, at a less easy-to-reach location, as we move into the main holiday period, should, we all thought,  offer richer pickings.

Tough course, ran OK,  added precisely zero to my points total, and far from alone in that.

I watched with disbelief Damian and Simon Bailey seemingly sprinting up the opening hill. On this type of course you expect Simon to beat everyone, yet Damian held him to two seconds, a remarkable performance and on my statistics¹ Damian's best performance since I started keeping records four years ago. Unusually, I did actually see them again. I was catching two slower runners as we came down to the reservoir, a burst worthy of Mo Farah and I had them;  Damian and Simon warming-down.  Tom was 4th. and 1st.M50,  Graham was 5th. and 1st.M40 , Mark 14th, James Wheeler 17th and Rob 20th. Nick, if he doesn't suffer a reaction, took a significant step towards recovery.

Damian now has 10 wins, 7 races to go, game over, championship retained.  

Graham MacNeil, Rob Gilbert, Andrew Dodd, Sarah Miles and, a badly blooded, Huma Rahman make it 30 names on the mug and T-shirt.

 Graham jumps up to 2nd. in the table pushing Tony to 3rd., Rob comes in at 4th., Richard drops to 5th. Andrew moves into the Top 30 at 19th., Huma at 22nd. and Sarah 28th . Points were few and far between for the 25 who had already qualified, only Tony, Nina and Trevor added to their best-seven total.  That was it, the rest had to settle for the novelty, this summer, of going home, or the pub, muddy. Of those who have yet to qualify, Tom needs one more race to get his foot on the podium and Steve Smith's seventh race could put him in the top 5.

It was Ladies' Day. Race2 and the Sandstone Trail was when Clare last picked-up the 60 points, it is even longer since Angela got 59, 58 points is Steffi's  best haul of the season and  57 Soraya's best.

Louise remains at the head of the Ladies' table with a perfect score. Clare pulled a little further away from the following pack.  Huma and Sharon, who's had more enjoyable evenings, move onto the leader-board at 7th. and 8th. with Sarah at 12th. Katy, who's been stuck on six races, is the most likely challenger to Louise.

Unusually none of our trio was the best oldie, Andy was 2nd.M60, Tony 3rd. and Mick 4th. This also gave Andy his second Group 3/4 60 points, followed by Tony, Steve, Pete, Don and Richard.

Tony strengthened his position at the top of the table, Don moved above Matt into 5th. Of the other qualifiers, only Ian improved his total but remains adrift in the relegation position. Steve and James Eyre have been the biggest potential threats to Tony, Steve maintained his momentum but James faltered. Andy Watts clearly hasn't gone for the pipe and slippers approach to retirement, leaner and fitter he's emerging as a real title contender.

James Gowin started the Forest 5 in the League 5/6 but finished it in 3/4.  Since his debut at Bowdon he has taken more than 10% off his times and has now worked himself  towards  the front of Group 4 and has formally been promoted.

Andy Dodd started a little earlier than James, at Sandstone, and has made slower but steady progress, now he has his first 5/6 victory. Owen was second, Steffi third (James' promotion now gives her the 60 points from Bollington) , Soraya fourth, Huma fifth. Nina was sixth with, in the end, Roy triumphing over Julie for seventh.

John has five 5/6 wins, Penny four, Andy, Owen, Chris and Steffi one each. John is likely to be out of action until Gawsworth, he needs a leg operation, Penny, having recovered from her broken toe, is also going to be missing because she's in the States, so 5/6 is building towards an interesting autumn. Five years ago we had a three-way tie. The Group is also becoming a hospital area. Huma has, hopefully, had the deep cut in her knee stitched.  Rod, just out after having his pacemaker fitted, he says it's a Group 1 pacemaker, hopes to be back in two weeks.  Chris is recovering from his eye operation.

Despite only one win in the 13 races, Owen increases his lead at the top of the 5/6 table. Andy jumps to third, Huma and Sharon come in at  fifth and six above Rod and Roy. Julie closes on Simon, Nina overtakes Monique, Sarah squeezes in between Trevor and Martin.

Ian

¹ The statistics compare each Wilmslow runners' time with the time of all the other Wilmslow runners in the race, weighting it by the times each  has achieved in recent races