Results to come? (these could be a secret and may never be published)
Old Boys Memorial Results (WHAC)
The Tanadees Cup has been around a long time and over the
years the location of the race and the course has changed.
Look at this article from 1929 when it seems the event was held on Mt Victoria and clearly over
cross country.
And in 2014 the race was held on the waterfront.
Along for the ride today were members of Vic Uni Athletics
who were competing for their own Sherwood Cup trophy.
This joint race arrangement seems to work well
and should be done more often. I have
been bleating on for a long time to anybody who will listen that clubs need to
work more closely together and as often as possible, so today is very positive.
Also operating from the same start/finish area were
Wellington Harriers which held its Old Boys Memorial trophy race which like the
Tanadees and the Sherwood is a handicap road race. My photos include the “blues” finishing which
is only proper.
The Tanadees is an open handicap race meaning that
competitors start off progressively at known intervals which represent their
handicap.
The slower runners start first and the fastest last. The theory is
that everybody should finish at roughly about the same time.
And this year they
roughly did. In fact I don’t think I
have seen an open handicap race where the bulk of finishers were so closely
packed.
This means a job well done by
James Turner the Scottish handicapper and whoever has this role for Vic
Uni. Check out the times to see what I
am talking about. That is if and when they ever become available.
The hectic finish probably
put a bit of pressure on timekeeper John Turner and the others controlling the
finish line, but JT has seen it all before.
This year’s Tanadees winner was Nigel Roberts, who got one up on Bob Stephens.
Nigel joins a long list of prestigious winners including colourful Fred
Silver (F. B. Silver) who won several times way back.
If you want to hear stories about Fred and
close rivals Les Sinclair, and Alf Stevens (Todd’s grandfather) then bail up
Alan Stevens who has lots of anecdotes about these gentleman along with many
others involved with Scottish and athletics in general.
Winner of the Arkwright Cup was Serena Rudge. This trophy was donated by Margaret and Paul Arkwright back in the late
1970’s. Their son Peter was a talented runner and a valuable member of the A
team. Last I heard Peter was living in Northland somewhere.
Today’s event will help the selectors pick teams for the
National Road Relay (Takahe to Akaroa) to be held in early October.
The A and B
teams have already picked themselves but believe it or not picking the C and D
teams becomes quite tricky which is why getting as much info about performances
on the road is so useful.
The other thing that selectors and team captains need
to figure out is what lap to put their runners on.
I suspect this will be
subject to interesting discussion on long training runs when the usual chatter
includes assessing the threats from other clubs, like Dunedin’s Hill City.
Observations:
Eric Speakman is back on the road but being careful as he recovers from injury
I like this snippet from the WHAC Old Boys Memorial results about the kids race.
"Jag ran part of the way with one shoe and then with none. He's on sock laundry duty!"
Who does that remind you of?
Observations:
Eric Speakman is back on the road but being careful as he recovers from injury
I like this snippet from the WHAC Old Boys Memorial results about the kids race.
"Jag ran part of the way with one shoe and then with none. He's on sock laundry duty!"
Who does that remind you of?
