Writing about the club magazine from the 1995 season above, the comments about the club winning the men’s relay in Lenzie in 1995 came back to mind. Shettleston were the favourites and talking to their team manager on the way from the changing accommodation to the start, he was fairly sure that his club were going to win. Our team had three GB internationalists (Grant Graham who was AAA’s indoor 1500m champion, Des Roache who was AAA’s indoor and outdoor 1500m champion and Ewan Calvert who had been third in the AAA’s indoor 800m) and one Scottish internationalist (James Austin). The B Team had Shane Daly (an Irish internationalist) and Kheredine Idessane (Scottish internationalist and 1:48 800m runner), John Hanratty and Derek Halpin. The picture above shows Ewan Calvert, Shane Daly, Grant Graham and a bit of Des Roache preparing before the race started.
On the first stage we had Ewan Calvert (A Team) and Shane Daly. Ewan (below) was first at the end of the stage, Kilbarchan second second with Shane in third place.
On to the second stage and Des Roache (below) extended the lead with Kheredine Idessane in third. Kheredine had the fourth fastest time of the day, quicker than all of our first team.
Third leg and it was Grant Graham (below) taking over with a nice cushion of a lead and adding a bit more for luck with John Hanratty ran a very good competitive stage but was being hunted by some of the best and dropped a little for the second team.
Grant handed over to James Austin (James liked running last!) for the last stage. The photograph is below, and John passed the responsibility to Derek Halpin for the second team. James led the field home despite being chased by such as Bobby Quinn and Graeme Wight. The second team was ahead of Cambuslang, Irvine and Springburn. A superb performance by both teams.
The club record in the event was good: 1996 – second (Allan Adams, K Idessane, J Austin, D Roache); 1997 – fifth (D Halpin, J Austin, R Rossborough, K Idessane); 1998 – fourth (Calvert, Adams, Murphy, Austin). In 1999, with a weakened team, we dropped from first (Ewan Calvert) to thirteenth. We finish this with a photograph of Shan Daly running into third place on the first stage in Lenzie in 1995. The short relays are important events because they start the winter with a more or less graded series of competitions and let the runners and the club see how they stand relative to other clubs and to their own performance the year before.
