Dunbartonshire Relays

Most of the interest at the Dunbartonshire Relays at Garscube yesterday related to events away from the actual race. Why did Ian Struthers decline to race? Why did Archie miss the start? These questions will be answered later.

The race itself was rather predictable. The weather was perfect and the trail dry and fast. In the women's race, Christine was fastest for the second week runnning , handing over toe Liz in the second stage. She is turn ran well to finish over half a minute faster than Muffy who has been using her earache excuse to explain her relative slowness. Any clues as to how earache slows one down will be gladly welcomed. The more obscure the better. Westies women ended up third team overall, and it was good to see Maureen out running againin her Westies vest (albeit as the sole member of the second team), holding off Garscube at the end of her stage.

In the men's race, Don Reid, clear of injuries sustained at the Two Buchailles, had an impressive first stage before declaring that he was going to "whip the ass off Blair" this season. How many times have we heard that refrain? Captain Charlie took over for the second stage but lost a couple of places before handing over to Gibson, who had another fine run. Mark McColl was easily the fastest Westie on the anchor leg, extending his league lead to 3 points. Brian Edridge, running for Clydesdale(boo, hiss!!), managed to complete the course 16seconds faster than Charlie and so picked up 3 position points in the league, same as last week.

At this stage, both Christine and Mark look unbeatable in the league, but then again, there's nothing that can't be fixed by an appropriately positioned spike down the calf, as one anonymous rival mused.

So how about Ian Struthers? He turned up before the start, but took fright when told he would have to do a first stage, claiming fear of humiliation! Is this the Struthers we all know and love? A man who quite happily would spend 12 hours in Rannoch Moor in the middle of November in complete darkness, with wind and hail blowing in his face. I think he needs to see a doctor.

And as for Archie, he turned up about 2 minutes before the start of the race, claiming he thought it was a 3 o'clock start. A likely story? Remember this is the guy of the mysteriously fast time and brown envelope mystery last week. Rumours are abound that the brown envelope was declined this week. Looks like he'll have to double the contents for next week's National Relays!

Finally, many thanks to the marshalls who turned out to help yesterday; Helen, Fiona, Karen, Isabel, Laura and Ian.

Results - Women

Christine 17:45

Liz 18:20

Muffy 18:56

Maureen 20:26

Results - Men

Mark 14:33

Don 15:36

Gibson 15:56

Charlie 16:39

Brian Edridge 16:23

Posted by Dave Calder on Wed 30 Nov -0001 | comments are closed

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