Rother Valley Relays
12 May 2022

This year’s innovation at the Rother Valley relays was a baton for each team containing the timing chip. This prompted the question of whether or not the men’s A tea—unlike many GB sprint relay teams—could get the baton round safely.

Cameron Bell set off at a fast pace and opened up a winning lead on the opening leg, running 14:06. Connor Milnes, after a panic at the first turn and a locked gate, used his legendary navigational skills to complete the course in 14:16. Jamie Hall, fresh from his recent pb, strode found the course to equal Cameron’s time of 14:06. Euan Brown, despite his unassailable lead, checked his watch 5 times in the opening 100m before bring the team home to retain the men’s title. The other major question was how were Cameron and Jamie going to split the bottle of fiz as the first prize for the fastest leg of the night.

The B team finished 7th overall with Matt Craig leading off with 15:41. Christian Battersby ran well to record 15:27. Phil Radford, making a rare appearance, ran the fastest leg  with 15:25. Gareth Phoenix ran 18:15 to bring the team through to a fine 7th place finish.

The V40 team were led off by their team manager Jon Slate who go them off to a fine start with a time of 17:04. James Hartley maintained the momentum with 17:14. The team was completed by legendary names from the past with Adam Dyson running 18:50 and Dave Nolan bringing the team through to 23rd overall and 7th V40 team.

The senior women continued their remarkable record with another 2nd place finish from another completely different team. Laura Robertson got the team off to a great start winning the opening leg in 17;34. Lucy Farquhar kept the team in contention, running 19.30. Hannah Whitelam picked up two places on the final leg to bring the team home in 2nd place in the senior race with a time of 18:55.