Round Arran Relay

27 July

Westies Wimmin were crowned Round Arran Relay Champions yesterday following a ruthless display of clinical finishing in the 56 mile circuit.

The Westies team, including new signing Naomi and debut performance by Lilian (yes, really!) were too strong for the opposition and easily took the first place which narrowly eluded them last year. Strong performances came from old-warriors Muffy, Jane, Elspeth and Pat, but victory was sealed by the young and inexperienced Lil and Naomi (well, so say Chris and Crispin, anyway)!. Naomi , in her first real competitive outing, showed true grit in the opening leg in the south section, whilst Lilian showed a real competitive edge on the final south stage, thundering through Brodick to an impressive 10th place. Lil also managed to finish 3 minutes ahead of the Westies Man Drew, a similar margin to Jane’s finish ahead of Pete on the first stage north! Muffy and Pat took fastest stage prizes for their respective legs. Westies Women will be able to don their prize-winning t-shirts with pride the next time they are accused of a lack of competitive spirit.

The Westies Men’s performance wasn’t quite so successful, and our failure to make the medals rostrum (we finished 7th overall) was clearly nothing to do with latent lack of talent and everything to do with the unseasonably warm temperatures. Crispin had the best performance of the day, on the hilly second northern stage through Lochranza, but as most clubs had put their good guys on this leg, Crispin’s 6th place belied the fact that he wasn’t that far behind the stage winner. Good performances also came from American Steve and Tony ( although the latter wasn’t that far ahead of Pat), whilst yours truly struggled heroicly through the tropical conditions with a stinker of a cold to finish reasonable well up the field ( though admittedly thanks in part to passing a couple of hyperthermic corpses en-route).

Still the glory all belonged to the Wimmin; even Pat was moved to buy a round of ice creams on the way to the pub.

Oh, and let’s not forget the valuable contribution of Keith, who cycled round to Lagg in order to babysit Steve’s daughter Ellie, whilst Steve set off on his stage. A good team performance all round.

Results

Women

1st Team Westies 7:17:04

2nd Team Lothian 7:41:56

3rd Team Giffnock 7:54:54

N1 Jane 80:57 13th

N2 Elsie 79:24 14th

N3 Muffy 74:24 12th

S1 Naomi 58:32 18th

S2 Pat 70:50 13th

S3 Lil 63:01 10th

Men

1st Team Irvine 5:17:30

2nd Team Lothian 5:54:07

7th Team Westies 6:39:38

N1 Pete 84:34 14th

N2 Crispin 65:06 6th

N3 Dave 64:35 4th

S1 Steve 53:40 9th

S2 Tony 65:32 9th

S3 Drew 66:11 12th