Many congratulations to Stacey Ward who celebrated her thirty-first birthday in style at the Horsenden Hill Metropolitan League fixture by winning the senior women’s race. reports Gavin Collett. Although a first-claim member of Herne Hill Harriers, Stacey is a regular at the clubhouse where she trains with Gerry Archer’s group.
She has been in outstanding recent form having finished second in both the previous Metropolitan League fixture at Wormwood Scrubs and the previous week’s Essex Championships at Claybury, as well as sixth in the prestigious South of England Inter Counties Championships at Shuttleworth in December.
Stacey now joins a select band of five Hillingdon AC women that have won the senior race since its inception in 1994:
Maria Sharp 7 January 1995
Susan Miles 2 January 1999
Jill Christie 4 December 1999 & 19 February 2000
Sally Bigham 26 November 2005
Stacey Ward 16 January 2016
For the record, nine Hillingdon AC men have won their race since the League started in 1966:
Stuart Buchanan 28 October 1967
John Brown 6 February 1971
Peter Francis 30 October 1971 & 20 November 1971
Anthony Moore 22 January 1972 & 5 February 1972
Martin Philpott 14 January 1984 & 22 December 1985
Tony Jackson 9 January 1993
Paul Martin 20 December 1997, 3 January 1998 & 7 February 1998
Scott Tompsett 14 October 2000, 13 January 2001 & 1 December 2001
Daniel Dalmedo 11 February 2006 (guesting as second-claim members were non-scoring then)
Hillingdon AC have won the men’s title twice, 1970/71 & 1997/98, and the women have won three times, 1994/95, 1996/97 & 1997/98.