Mid June, must be time for Welsh Castles Relays, the best running relay event of the year (I’m obviously biased). Friday afternoon and Saturday morning 61 Serpies made their way up to Wales to brave the 20 stages from Caernarfon to Cardiff, taking in some of the best scenery (and mountains) of Wales.

Not sure if it’s third time lucky or the threat of three strikes and you’re out, but in his 3rd year as men’s captain, Andy Davies finally managed to lead the team to overall victory, building on our consistent placing in the top three over the last 3 years. There were a few arms twisted and hopeful applicants for team places disappointed (he told me some time back in January that I was way too slow to be even considered for the reserve list), but after a few last-minute re-shuffles of the team and stage allocations, the boys’ team looked strong going into the weekend. Following last year’s narrow defeat to organizing club Les Croupiers, who had way too many strong runners on the 2nd day and came back to reverse a narrow 3 minute lead of our men’s team after the first day to win by 16 minutes, the boys were a bit nervous, but very focused; some of them were even seen with non-alcoholic drinks in their hands and the weak excuse that they had to run the next morning. Consistent places at the top of the field saw the men’s team build a reasonably solid 20 minutes lead overnight and discussions in Saturday’s night pub focused on how much Les Croupiers might have ‘back-loaded’ their team. However, some strong performances (and the odd overall stage win) saw the boys build on their lead and less text messages than last year were necessary to update current team standings. Andy Reeves was slightly surprised when told at the start of stage 14 that strong runs by Martin, Hugh, Darren & Eric had given him a lead in the ‘Kings of the Mountain’ trophy to defend, but pulled out all the stops to come third at the top of that little hill up Drover’s Arms, so that all Richard had to do was jog uphill from Brecon to secure a rather unexpected win against Thames Hare & Hounds over the 6 mountain stages. It was (almost) all downhill from there, two more stage wins saw Paul Hayman concluding proceedings in style, coming in first on the last stage into Cardiff castle and setting the new record for stage 20. Well done to the boys for the first ever overall win of Welsh Castles for Serpentine and sealing the double with the ‘Kings of the Mountains’.

Too many words about the boys’ team, obviously our lovely ladies’ team was not to be outdone by them and ably defended their double from last year in style, making it a lot of Serpies to have to pick up their prizes at Cardiff castle. Since Louisa couldn’t make the weekend this year, the honour (or not so honour) of captaining the team fell to Jane Fanning, who tried to resist for a while until Becky Glover stepped in to help co-captaining the team. Team selection seemed to be going smoothly and not too many reserves had to be called up, so there was a strong team travelling to Wales. Audrey kicked things off in style by winning stage 1 and passed on a nice lead, which was well defended and extended by consistent good places, even though there were less ladies’ stage wins to celebrate than in previous years. Catherine finished off the first day with a win on the mountain stage into Newtown, consolidating a lead in both categories. The girls never looked back from there, Helen, Jane and Wendy finished the business over the mountain stages and extended the lead passed to them by Claire, Becky and Catherine to make it bit less tight than last year and seal the victory in the ‘Queens of the Mountains’ over Team Bath. The ladies’ event record (set in 1988 by Bath) again proved elusive, but the girls were well clear of the field and defended the overall title against Les Croupiers ladies, making it 5 out the last 6 years.

Last, but not least, the vets. Two significant changes saw the age for male vets lowered to 35 years, and Serpentine given a vets’ team again (Thanks, Richard & Les Croups!), so Ian Hodge as team captain went to work to make it a worthy entry (and more importantly, I actually got to run). Obviously some of our strongest vets were needed for the men’s and ladies’ teams, but our surprisingly strong vets’ team came back from behind to work its way through the field and place 4th vets team and 2nd in the Monarchs of the Mountains. With a 40 minute margin I’m sure the men’s team could have given up a few of the vets, at least those who got a yellow sweater as first vet on their stage …

Thanks, as always, to all of those who made it happen. Obviously, the organizing club, Les Croupiers from Cardiff, who put in an enormous effort each year and make it such a great event, so thanks for having us and all our teams. On our side a special thanks must go to Lisa for sorting out accommodation in her usual efficient and seemingly effortless way, even though she couldn’t make it this year. We couldn’t do it without our minibus drivers (Ian, Gavin, Richard, Helen, John, Jo, Ian, Sally, Jane, Paul), thanks for getting us there in record time (note to self: next year give race numbers to someone not living in South-East London, it’s a bit of a detour on the way to Wales to pick them up). Who did I forget? The team captains obviously, who pulled and held together such strong teams, it made my job so much easier, thanks and well done. Hope everyone enjoyed the weekend as much as I did.

Paul Fromme