Club championship

2007 results

Thursday 12th July 2007 - 7 miles.

Finishing Position	Name	Handicap Time	Race Time	Rate per Mile	Difference
1st	Paul Smith	53.40	53.09	7.36	-0.31
2nd	Kevin Anholm	58.35	58.44	8.23	+0.09
3rd	Tony Carter	47.50	48.50	6.59	+1.00
4th	Matt Anholm	49.35	50.59	7.17	+1.24
5th	Angie Swift	55.40	57.05	8.09	+1.25
6th	Dino Verrecchia	49.00	50.48	7.17	+1.48
7th	Gordon Harker	59.30	61.51	8.50	+2.21
8th	Tina Anholm	76.00	79.10	11.19	+3.10
9th	Jeff Copping	58.10	62.35	8.56	+4.25
10th	Andy Watson	42.35	47.59	6.51	+5.28
11th	Pete Hadgraft	58.35	66.33	9.30	+7.58

With hardly any time to draw breath we were straight into the next race the following Thursday which was The Club Championship. This race has a unique course and at 7 miles is the longest handicap run of the season. Those competitors who had missed Burton Pidsea could have a slight advantage, as they would be fresher and ready for the off. The bookies certainly thought so with a lot of punters money going on Tony Carter. The reasoning was sound. He is the current Championship leader, missed Burton Pidsea, in excellent form and he employed Andy Watson to pace him around the course. He couldn’t go wrong!!! Err… well not quite. After a good start, he struggled to keep up with his pace man and ended up finishing third. Not much of a pace man eh!!! Fancy leaving him behind!!!

So who else had the tools to be Club Champion? A lot of smart money went on Matt Anholm. This is a fellow who has just run a PB in the Humber Bridge ½ marathon and is second in The Championship Table. A man in form although he did run at Burton Pidsea, he knows his way around the course and not a bad each way bet. However, Burton Pidsea perhaps took too much out of him and he finished a gallant fourth.

One person who no one was putting any money on was the defending Champion Kevin Anholm. Last season Our Kev suffered a terrible season as one injury after another took its toll. His one and only good run was last year’s Club Championship as he romped away to an impressive victory. However, this season has seen very little upturn in Kevin’s fortunes as he has limped from one race to another. Kev has had more injuries than an entire series of Casualty. In fact things were so bad that 2 days before the race he had virtually ruled himself out. Yet once again this event seemed to inspire Our Kev to produce another vintage performance, not seen since 1998. With all the aches and pains forgotten the 200/1 rank outsider stormed around the course, finishing only 31 seconds outside his handicap time. A marvellous run and yet so near, so far. Our Kev had to settle for second place.

So who has become this year’s champion? Well as the saying goes, you never see a poor bookie and once again they cleaned up. A 12/1 outsider was the winner. Paul Smith methodically plotted his way around the course and as the only runner to finish under his handicap time rightly became Club Champion for 2007. Congratulations to him. I must give a quick thank you to Sue at The Plough Inn at Hollym for providing a splendid buffet afterwards.