| Surrey Walking Club’s 7 mile championship, honouring former President Alec Potton, is the first in the November series of historic 7 mile races held at various clubs in the South East. The winner for the 27th year running, which must be record in any event in the country, was Mark Easton a few seconds outside of his target of 8 minute mile pace. This was achieved in a race which started in cool damp conditions and worsened to very cold, hard rain. The field was rather smaller than recently but there were several good performances besides Mark’s. The handicap event for the Alec Potten Salver was won by David Hoben in his first handicap win while second claim Paul King seemed not to be affected by the conditions and finished ahead of 5 or 6 who regularly beat him. At the rear of the field octogenarian Jack Fitzgerald was determined to complete the whole distance and was started before the rest. He plugged on despite the conditions to achieve his goal – and he had to walk for twice the time of the winner finishing in the worst of the weather. The warm showers and tea back at the Monks Hill Sports centre, Surrey Walking Club’s race HQ, were more than usually welcome. |