Wednesday 4th September 2024

On behalf of Coach Annette 💚

Oh my, what a wonderful evening at Ebo track on Wednesday 4th September for the 800m replay, 40 years on!!!!

The atmosphere was electric, the nostalgia palpable and the performances were something to behold ❤️🖤 Just so grateful to Mel Stanford for capturing the evening with such wonderful videos and photos 📸 If you haven’t already, please do take a peek 👀

If you were lucky enough to be part of it, we hope you had an opportunity to natter with some of the club legends who paved the way for our wonderful club to thrive 😊 It was so splendid to share with them the current positivity of our club & reflect on past glory 🤗

Club founder Derek Wells’ daughter Lynn Wickham states ‘How Dad would have enjoyed the sight of all those black and red vests assembled on the track!’ We hope we made him proud 🖤❤️

You all took plucky guesses at the winning time for the 2 laps 40 years ago- the winner that night was one of our club legends and Derek Well’s son Mark-🖤❤️ we were so privileged to have Mark start all 4 races, we hope this was as poignant & meaningful for Mark as it was for  us 🙏🙏 His winning time was an impressive 2.10.08 & club historians Rob Chrystie and Bill Fraser guessed this to the millisecond, they really are HH swots! They were rewarded with a share of the penny pot 💰💰

We also had the incredible Gary Lambert join us at the track- he was nervously on the side lines wondering if his club record was under threat, no chance- this remains at a staggering 1.55!!!! 😯😯😯 Any challengers??? That is so swift 💥💥

There was also recognition to 2 utter club legends- not only were Bill Fraser and Frances Delves commited to Hailsham Harriers 40 years ago, but they still remain pivotal to our club membership and are frequent recipients of age category wins at local races, true heroes of the running community🤩🤩 Lady Delves was rightly rewarded with a ladyship 👑 and Bill a brand new club vest and HH fridge magnet!!! 🖤❤️ We are in awe of their dedication & tenacity 😍

Our 40 (😯) racers also had an opportunity to guessimate their own finishing time for the 2 lap race- here are their times with guesstimates in brackets- remember, we’re not sport systems- so if you spot any anomalies, we’ll happily stand corrected – but of course, it was a bit of fun!!!! 🤣🤣

Race 1

Jacob Coppins 3.04 (3.30)

Ryan Pocknell-3.06 (2.50)

John Gilkes-3.12 (3.20)

Finley Greck-3.16 (3.00)

Holly Bamford -3.18 (3.15)

Amie Coppins-3.25 (3.40)

Poppy Croucher-3.40 (3.39) 🎉

Oscar Croucher-3.58 (5.10)

Race 2

Geoff Depper- 3.40 (3.50)

Bill Fraser-3.44 (3.59)

Kevin Morris-3.47 (3.30)

Cathy Gilling-3.55 (4.40)

Frances Delves- 3.56 (4.00)

Alan Ruffle- 3.59 (3.59) 🎉🎉

Pete Daws- 4.06 (5.05)

Maria Stanford- 4.37 (4.30)

Graham Pearson- 4.49 (5.35)

Roberto Prioretti-4.58 (4.30)

Race 3

Mick Husarz-2.44 (2.45) 🎉

Arthur Collins- 2.45 (2.53)

Andy Moore-2.56 (3.08)

Helen O’Sullivan-2.58 (2.55)

Graham Purdye- 2.58 (2.59) 🎉

Tracy Erridge-3.09 (3.30)

Tina Macenhill- 3.12 (3.15)

Victoria Little- 3.30 (3.50)

Andrea Gilkes- 3.39 (4.10)

Louisa Geer-3.42 (4.15)

Race 4

Chris Doherty-2.14 (2.10)

Rob Chrystie- 2.28 (2.40)

Chris Shoult- 2.29 (2.44)

Alice Denning- 2.31 (2.45)

Carl Barton- 2.32 (2.30)

Mark Pope- 2.34 (2.47)

Tom Price- 2.36

Martin Bell-2.41 (2.39)

Oli Paterson- 2.41 (2.45)

Graham Woolley- 2.47 (2.41)

Simon Haddon- 2.49 (2.50) 🎉

Chris Little- 2.50 (2.55)