Teddy Hall Relays 2006
By Owain Bristow
On the back of Cambridge teams placing third in both the men's and women's events last year we set off to Oxford with hopes of pulling off similarly good performances. For those who are unfamiliar with this event, it is essentially the Selwyn Relays but on a bigger scale, entry being open to all-comers, even Cambridge! The course, which seems to change on a yearly basis, or even on a leg-by-leg basis in some instances, comprised 3.6miles of road and river paths, taking in paving, puddles, mud and an "optional" extended route for those who were unsure of what the organisers had envisaged.
Thanks to a fleet of cars, the X5 bus and some insider knowledge of Oxfords streets, we arrived in time to size up our opponents. While there was no sign of a strong Oxford alumni team, our nemesis from 2005, the addition of the event to the national series of university relays meant that some of the big guns had rolled into town. This included BUSA champions Birmingham, an Ed Jackson-strengthened Nottingham and Bristol. With Oxford putting out a strong team as well, things looked set up for an epic battle of vests.
Pat Ward led off the Cambridge A team, running a swift time of between 18.17-18.35, depending on whether his watch or the Oxford timekeepers are to be believed. He handed over in third place, not that far behind the leaders. Owain Bristow took up the running on Leg 2, quickly passing the Oxford economics team who had had Fraser Thompson as their first runner. As the course snaked into Christ Church meadow Owain overtook Warwick to assume the lead… momentarily. It was at this point that a slight snag became apparent; all the lead runners had gone down the wrong path and run an extra 1200m or so. After much confusion and playing a rather large game of catch-up Alex McIntosh took up the imaginary baton in around third place. Unfortunately Oxford still hadn't got their marshalling sorted out (this would never happen at the Coe Fen or Selwyn!) and he was to suffer the same three-sides-of-a-rectangle misfortune as Owain. This gave ex-captain Ben Hope a rather large task on the last leg, and despite running a scintillating 18.40, he came home in sixth.
Meanwhile the girls were coping better with the concept of right turns and such like. Claire Day had a very good run on the first leg to complete the tour of Oxford city centre in 21.58. Catharine Wood suffered from a mystery stitch on leg 2 but braved the agony to get back to Iffley Road to the changeover with Charlotte Forbes. Charlotte proceeded to storm through the field to give the team a fifth placed finish. Her recorded time of 21.36 was the eighth fastest of the day and less than thirty seconds down on that of Varsity champion Courtney Birch.
Some members of the B teams also enjoyed a bonus trip around the grounds of Oxford's equivalent of Trinity but they nevertheless performed admirably. Sarah Kummerfeld ran a solid first leg for the women to hand over to an under-the-weather Helen Mort. Helen showed exceptional grit to make it round, having had all of two hours sleep the previous night and a warm-up spent making the acquaintance of the trackside toilets. On the final leg Claire Day went again and showed impressive stamina to run less than a minute slower than her A leg time. The team finished in 14th place.
The B men also put on a good show to finish 11th overall. Andy Bell (19.14) led them off making a welcome return from the realms of injury-land. The only problem with his run was that he put the team high enough for Pete Leek to be led astray on the next leg by the faster runners' interpretation of the route. After Pete came Ulrich Paquet (20.13) and Steve Benson finished the job with a fast time of 19.01, taking full advantage of the short, flat nature of the course.
With the races over, the Hareys went their separate and diverse ways. Si and Sarah stayed for the OUCCC annual dinner; Steve went to watch some kind of (organised) fight at the Town Hall and the rest made their way back to Cambridge. Despite the navigational issues, rain and lack of prize receiving (we had a great chance of winning the overall event, but that can be straightened out next year) everyone ran really well and had an enjoyable and, in some cases, informative day at the Other Place.