Bedford and County AC's men were in action at the weekend in the first fixture of the winter season. They were competing in the Aldershot 6 Stage Road Relays which had been set up in opposition to the South of England Championships which have suffered a number of organizational issues over the last few years. Virtually all of the top 20 clubs in the South of England chose to go to Aldershot, with 80 teams entered in the Senior Men’s race, plus 35 teams in the Veterans races. The relays were held at Rushmoor Arena, Aldershot which had in fact been the venue for the South of England Relays Championships from 1988 – 2015.

The Senior Men’s race was run over 6 legs of 6k, using the same course as in the past. Leg 1 saw Bedford’s A and B teams getting off to a great start with Harry Brodie having a terrific run, hanging tenaciously onto the leading group and finishing strongly to finish 4th with a great time of 18:00. Meanwhile Ed Blythman for the B team was also having a great run working his way steadily through the field to come home in 15th with 18:34. A team runner Ben Davies slipped back slightly on leg 2, finishing in 8th place with a 18:52 whilst James Minter posted  18:46 moving the B team up to 13th. Ben Alcock on leg 3 wasted no time in charging through the field moving the A team up to 4th with a fine 17:55. Craig Emmerson kept the B team advancing forward as he brought them home in 11th ( leading B team) with 18:59. A team veteran Darren Deed who first raced on the course 20 years ago, performed as expected, gaining one place to 3rd with his 18:21 effort. Jack Goodwin running cautiously due to injury held the B team in 11th with his 18:54. Sam Winters posted 18:26 on leg 5 but slipped one place to 4th. John Eves for the B produced an excellent 18:36 moving up to 8th . Matt Bergin set off on leg 6 with the unenviable task of closing the 6 sec gap to Cambridge & Coleridge AC’s sub-4 minute miler Seb Anthony,  in order secure the bronze medals. Matt managed to close the gap but was unable to get clear and the finishing kick of Anthony was just too strong as he took bronze by 2 secs. It was still a great effort by Matt and he was rewarded with a time of 18:18. Meanwhile super sub Joe Strange, again brought into the squad at the last minute, battled round last leg for the B team finishing 14th overall and 3rd B team and posting a solid 20:14. The A team time of 1h 49m 51s was 30 secs quicker than Bedford had run in their 28 previous races on this course. Not be outdone, the B team’s 1h 54m 4s was quicker then any previous Bedford B team.
Both A and B teams qualified for the National 6 Stage Championship to be held at Sutton Park, Birmingham on 8th October where a hopefully slightly stronger A team will be again chasing a podium place.