| The first of the winter season’s Surrey Walking Club races – the 4 mile Gazette Cup – was held in late summer temperatures with little wind and a good field of almost 30 including a dozen club members. We were pleased to see the return to racing of Club Captain Nolan Simmons after a long lay-off with successive non-walking injuries together with several others in the field who are coming back to competition as the cycle begins. It was also an auspicious day as England saw their first ever women’s Commonwealth gold medal with Jo Jackson’s win in Dehli earlier the same day. The winner of the Selsdon event was SWC’s Mark Easton who had himself competed in the Games four times, earlier in his career. He had already won the Gazette Cup several times, although he had been unable to be present last year and was up against the holder, Stephen Crane. With Stephen himself returning after a break, it was no competition and Mark was away from the gun and some 50 metres up in the first half of the first one mile lap. This is not an easy course with two short sharp rises and falls joined by two long inclines, one up and one down so fast times are only for the fittest and Mark’s sub 8 minute mile pace no mean achievement. His eventual victory was over 3˝ minutes over second and 8 minutes over Stephen who was next home for Surrey by a small margin. The best handicap result and so receipt of the Jubilee Cup went to frequent racer David Hoben. He was almost halfway up the field this time easily breaking his 11 minute mile target and linking his form to his several recent ultra events. Although the first three were well separated the next 10 saw small gaps and good competition the two under 15s include SWC’s Andrew Statter had plenty of company to encourage them. |