Cash for mentions scandal? Few of you will know that Rob Downs has been a member of a special and illustrious group including only Sir Geoff Hurst, cricketing legend Darren Gough and darts hero Eric Bristow. They probably take tea or a glass of something in secret hideaways and discuss their sporting feats, enjoying a special bond and unity. It was a sad day for Rob today as his special belonging was ended. Through no fault of his own he is no longer welcome at this special union. Not just for a day, for a week or two or even a year, but forever…..he will never be allowed back…..banished. You see, Rob, Sir Geoff, Dazzler and The Crafty Cockney had one thing in common. Sir Geoff is the only person ever to score a hat-trick in a World Cup Final, Darren Gough is the only Englishman in 100 years to get a hat-trick of wickets in an Ashes test and Eric is still the only person to win the BDO version of World Darts championship 3 times in a row. Rob ‘was’ the only person in the world that has ever scored a hat-trick of ‘outright’ wins of Bramhall Parkrun since its very beginning. Today, unlike in last week’s referendum, where 1.6million Scots failed to break up the United Kingdom, it was a solitary Scot who successfully ended Rob’s membership of the elite hat-trick union. Iain Murdoch won the illusive ‘three in a row’ to become only the second man in Bramhall Parkrun history to achieve this great accolade. Rob stood and watched innocently, perhaps not even realising what had just happened, resting after some mad cycling caper in the week. Also on the podium today was Charlie Batho, clearly not impacted by an arthritic little finger which he was telling me about beforehand as we swapped injury woes. In fact he was only 3 seconds off his best run in 4 years of running the course. In third was Louis Peters who just held off junior Flynn Walsh who was returning after a break with a new hairstyle. Now before you pick me up for not mentioning the ladies….there have been a number of hat-trick heroines, the girls like to share it around a bit more, but perhaps the standout run of victories in the modern era was Jill Tavinis, four in row in 2013. No Jill on the podium today though as junior Hannah Richardson continues her improvement with a 20.03 PB in first, followed by Eve Gibson, also with a PB and then Claire McNeil. Other notable performances today include the continued march of Phil Evans and Rob Cawley with more sub 19 PB’s, they probably pushed each other around today, Phil puts his success down to little or no training apart from riding his bike. There were quite a few PB’s from old hands such as Sam Evans, Paul Plummer with over 80 runs to their names and in particular from James Hall on his 104th run with another best with a time of 20.44. It was a confusing morning for those who like to dress appropriately for the temperature. It was both warm and cold at the same time if you know what I mean. Many runners saw sun and came down in a shirt. The more ‘experienced’ runners such as Mr and Mrs Gibbons who turned up ready to trek to the pole. Mike was seen dutifully lugging their big parkas away at the end….but then this week was a mere cool down for Christine, who normally wins her age category in elite triathlon events and was recovering from competing with the Brownlee brothers last weekend. Have you ever tried to fix something and made it worse? Like trying to get red wine out of the carpet or trying to patch up some paintwork and having to do the whole wall? Well it happened at Duck Poo corner this week. Attempts to remove the offending matter resulted in it being smeared evenly with a nice sheen across the whole area. I hope it was ‘shoes off at the door’ on your return home……I am always in trouble for trailing most of the park through the house on a Saturday morning. There are some big races coming up. Tomorrow sees Macclesfield half which many of you are doing….good luck on those hills. Next week is Chester Marathon…..it’s a nervy time in the lead up to a marathon and there were a few runners today taking it easy and feeling every little niggle like a major potential life threatening injury. Allow me to indulge myself for a few lines seeing as there is a mention of injury. I am hurting all over and I have decided to step back off running and concentrate on ……you’ve guessed it…..the golden shoe. Yes I am analysing the stats, weather patterns and using supermarket techniques to assess behavioural patterns and I am now pleased to report I am up to 5 shoe wins in total with my victory last week. However what went wrong today…..numbers were very low for good weather with only 368 runners showing up and I was way off? Whilst I had factored in the Macclesfield half effect I had totally forgotten about the Schools Cross Country so therefore our juniors were thin on the ground. Incidentally, the Murdoch’s were at it again and hogging the podiums at these events with Freya winning her race and Cameron coming third. Lastly and importantly Andrew Tomlinson came 19th today. Richard Hall
Posted on: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 19:43:34 +0000
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