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January

The Club kicked off 2001 at the New Year's Day 10K in Hyde Park, with Kay Tarrant making the most of a small field to finish 14th in the 3K. One  week later Colin Aldous shaved 1min 19 sec off his PB to take the monthly 5K Handicap trophy by a huge margin, setting a new course record only to see it shattered by Greg Newman 60 seconds later.

In the Metropolitan Cross Country League fixture the heavy going at Wormwood Scrubs suited Matthew Wilkins in a race that proved to be a real test of character.

February

There was a good turnout at the Watford Half Marathon despite the heavy rain for this grueling event. The new, even hillier course plus localised flooding kept times moderate, but as Peter Furness proved the conditions could be mastered. The February 5K Handicap turned into the St Valentines Day Massacre as Clive Bonner knocked more than 1 minute off his PB to win the monthly 5K race by a 26 sec margin.

We completed the Metropolitan Cross Country League season at Welwyn Garden City on an high note by not finishing last in either the Senior Men's or Veteran's Leagues. We also unveiled an under 13 boys team which not only equalled the senior men in numbers but also out-performed them on the course - not a difficult task!

Foot and Mouth precautions had decimated the race calendar by the end of the month forcing the veterans team to travel to Malta to find a Half Marathon and be the first the wear the new Club kit in a real competition.

March

The Hillingdon Half Marathon was cancelled but not, quite every race was a casualty this month. Gary Fiddes entered the Camberley Half Marathon on the day only to  complain about snow and dodgy drinking water - is he every happy?. Meanwhile Globe trotter Peter Furness also managed to find a race ..... in  Paris.

Stockley Park was closed to reduce the risk of infecting the herds of err... umm? Thankfully Hayes Town remained unaffected allowing Colin Aldous to win the March 5K Handicap in fine style, recapturing the course record with a 16:54 run.

April

A lucky few managed to get places in a well supported, but wet Thames Towpath 10 at Chiswick Bridge. Meanwhile closer to home, Jac Aldous managed 2nd place in the BA Watersplash 5K race, but a good 2 minutes off the winning pace

Untroubled by the dearth of races Peter Furness entered three events in 6 days, the finale being the Victoria Park Open 5 against a quality field. After covering the first mile in 5:17 he settled into a slightly more sedate pace to finish 70th out of 232 and record a new PB over 5 miles.

In the build-up to the London Marathon an "easy 13 miles" on the Canal turned into a harrowing 15  when the Sunday morning jog from Little Venice to Hayes was forced to make a detour following the discovery of a body at Harlesden. As for the London Marathon itself; the loss of virtually ever warm-up race didn't make too much difference. Colin Aldous got closer to the 3 hour barrier - while the 5 hour barrier got closer to Ian Robinson.

We finished the month with the first of the Summer Time Series but the event dissolved into chaos when half the field got lost in the dark.

May

A great turnout at the Concorde 10K and a great result. The first of the 2001Road Race Championship events attracted a record Club turnout and resulted in unexpected prizes for both the Men's and Women's teams. One week later there was another shock result at the Sudbury Court 10K with Brian Matthews 2nd MV50 and yet another excellent turnout.

An in-form Tony Newman stormed through the largest ever Time Trial entry to claim maximum points and take control of the league table.

June

Now that's a comeback... two years after his last road race Jack Nisbet led home another large Club entry at the Wargrave 10K in 37:55.

One week after a Marathon PB in Stockholm, Peter Furness bounced right back with 2nd MV40 at Perivale. The team achieved 6th place with Lisa Binch is 11th Woman. On the same day Ernie Hall made his long awaited comeback in the Spelthorne 10K at Staines finishing 9th overall and 4th MV40 in 35:53

Franco Cohen won the U20 Men category in the Datchet Dash, with  Ernie Hall 6th MV40. A good run by Matt Wilkins boosted him to 2nd in the Championship with Jaz Matharu moving up to 3rd.

Some of the more mature members of the Club spent the weekend on International duties in Belgium.

Liz Ioannou ended the month on a high improving her PB  by 3 minutes to gain maximum points in the Time Trial and capture the lead in the series. Meanwhile no one could accuse Tony Newman of being over the hill when he admitted missing out the final hill in all the previous events.

July

Ernie Hall won the 20th Anniversary  BBC Running Club Canal Race by 1 min 21 sec finishing in 26:22 over the 4.7 mile course at Ladbroke Grove.

Tony Newman pulled out all the stops to build the highly popular Human Fruit Machine at the Hayes & Harlington Community Association Summer Fair. The photographer from the Gazette may have missed it but we didn't!

The onset of the holiday season had a mixed effect. Peter Furness took it easy in Cornwall at the Summer Turkey Trot 4 allowing a certain Dave Buzza to beat him over 4 country miles. Meanwhile Jac Aldous finished 10th out of 1,300 in the Imperial Cancer Research Race For Life 5K run at Harmondsworth Moor and  Ernie Hall ran his quickest 10K of the year in Elmbridge 10K to finish 30th in an unexpectedly popular event.

The month also saw the unforgivable clash of two high profile London City Centre 10Ks on the same day. In the British Open 10K Peter Ford out-sprinted Brian Matthews but bizarrely still managed to finish a minute behind while in the Nike Run London 10K confusion, and demonstrators failed to stop Kay Tarrant completing her first ever 10K amidst a sea of Fuchsia Pink in Kew Gardens .

In the Time Trial Liz Ioannou romped home more than 2 minutes clear of the chasing pack to take a commanding lead in the points table. One week later Kay Tarrant continued to uphold the Club's fair play ethos by out-sprinting an octogenarian Good Samaritan at the Stragglers' oversubscribed Wedding Day 7K in Bushey Park

We rounded off the month with a hectic weekend in France for the Le Touquet 10K followed by a lazy day on the beach

August

Erwin Losekoot made sure his trip down from Glasgow was worthwhile by cunningly hatching a plan to pull off a dead heat with Colin Aldous in the Target Zero, running against their own predicted finish times without the aid of a stopwatch.

Brian Matthews' Mexican carbo-loading experiment went belly up at the Bearbrook 10K in a monsoon near Aylesbury and we received a nasty rumour that Erwin Losekoot finished 368th in 1:28:53 in the Great Scottish Run ... wearing a Strathclyde Runners vest.

Torrential rain failed to stop Tony Betteridge finishing 6th MV60 Burnham Beeches ½ Marathon - his first race since turning 60. Meanwhile Jaz Matharu climbed to the top of the pile in the Championship table.

September:

Allez Vincent! Vincent Richardeau finally found some form in the Championship event at the Garden City 10 in Welwyn Garden City. An ankle injury prevented Tony Newman taking command of the Championship whilst Franco Cohen moved up to 3rd.

20,000 women chased Paula Radcliffe 5 km through Hyde Park for a bag of Basmati rice, but  Pam Swadling's sprint finish failed to upset the leaders of the Flora Light Women's Challenge. Meanwhile Liz Ioannou's 3rd place in the Time Trial was enough to secure the series winner trophy. Tony DNF Newman settled for runner up and Paul Evans took 3rd.