When they embarked on their first season in the Hampshire Road Race League, the Bournemouth AC men could never have dreamt that they’d win their division in each of their first three consecutive years and become league champions as soon as it was possible to do so.

Head honcho Rich Nelson had steered the ship to success though after some barren years in the Dorset League where interest had began to wain somewhat and the squad needed something to revitalise their spirits. They found that in the Hampshire League though as it brought a whole set of new races to put on the calendar and a new focus that came with it.

A lot of the races in the Hampshire Road League are flat and fast which makes it easier to find willing racers and the fact that only four scorers are required for a team has helped Bournemouth AC massively as they often struggle to get big numbers out for races and that hurts them in the Dorset League and makes it difficult for them to be competitive.

They began the 2025 to 2026 campaign as defending champions and that was a great position to be in. With Winchester Running Club also having achieved back-to-back promotions though and now being in the top flight as well, it could be tougher this season to come out on top.

The yellow and blues are ready for the challenge though and are relishing the prospect of some higher quality opposition. Recording seven wins in the league last season, they won it at a canter in the end. That will undoubtedly give them confidence for the campaign ahead.

The new season started with the introduction of a new race to the schedule. That was the Totton 10k. The Totton 10k is a race that was resurrected last year and Chris O’Brien competed in that first edition which was organised by Totton Running Club to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their formation.

They said if it went well they’d consider bringing it back as a permanent fixture and it did, so they have. Rob McTaggart remembered the race from its previous incarnation as he had done it before, back in 2007. He finished 18th back then in a time of 33:51.

Tag was back again along with a whole host of Bournemouth AC teammates including Rich Brawn, James Hulbert, Alex Knauf, Louis Suggett and Jack Davis.

Mark Richardson was competing as well in his first race for the club and David Crowther, Jud Kirk and Geoff Newton were also in the squad. Chris O’Brien was returning to the race after his appearance the previous year and Helen Beddoe and another debutant, Janine Pattison, were the BAC ladies in action that day.

Rob McTaggart came into the race in pretty good form, clocking a 15:34 at the Standard Chartered Great City 5k in London. He’d struggled to come away with the times he would have wanted in the recent track meetings but in road races, he tends to deliver more often than not. He’s been consistently under 16 minutes at Poole parkrun lately as well.

Although he started off with a super quick 5:04 split, Tag wasn’t quite feeling on top of his game and with the leader and the second placed runner being quite far ahead of him, he realised quite soon that 3rd place would be the best he could offer.

One he realised that he sort of went into cruise control and that made it seem more like a tempo effort rather than an all out race. That meant going along at around 5:26 pace for the rest of the race.

The only incident that did happen was when Ryde Harriers runner Gary Marshall almost caught him up near the end. He hadn’t actually realised that Gary was getting close until they were nearing the finish and someone shouted to Gary that he was 15 metres behind.

That forced Tag to pick the pace up a bit to ensure he sealed that 3rd place. Tag’s finishing time was 33:41 and he was four seconds ahead of Gary Marshall, who finished runner up in the men’s individual standings last season.

The second placed man, Joshua Price of Vectis Academy got round in 32:55 so he was quite a way ahead of Tag. Bournemouth AC also had the first placed runner and he was way ahead of anyone else. He was almost so far ahead that it seemed like he was in a different race and he completed the course in an astonishing time of 29:21. That was an average pace of 4:45 per mile.

Clocking a 5:15 for his first mile, Alex Knauf then registered a 5:27 for his second mile before going on to complete the rest of his miles at just over 5:30 pace. It was a really strong run from Alex and was enough to see him take 6th place in 34:05.

With three runners on the top six, it was turning out to be a spectacular day for the yellow and blues and it looked like a win in the opening fixture of the season was coming their way. All they needed was one more finisher.

They got it when James Hulbert reached the line in a time of 36:26 which put him in 15th place. His average pace for the run was 5:50. That sealed a fine victory for the Bournemouth AC men in the A1 division.

Winchester Running Club had David Gaskell finishing 9th in 35:13, Henry Edwards 12th in 36:07 and Justin Corrie who was 20th in 36:41. Then they had Nick Wood in 30th and Tom Hansen in 32nd. That was only enough to put them in 3rd place.

It was Alton Runners who took 2nd place in the end. They had Dylan Poulton finishing 5th in 34:02, Richard Webley coming 10th in 35:40 and Alex Hall taking 11th in 35:46. Steve Drysdale was 28th and Christian Coles was 34th.

Going out really hard on the first lap, Jack Davis began to suffer and slow down as the race went on. Rich Brawn had paced his run a bit better and very nearly caught Jack up in the end.

Jack just had enough to get over the line ahead in the end though, clocking a time of 36:57. He’d rolled the dice by attacking the race in the way that he did and it hadn’t quite worked out the way he would have wanted but he’d shown a lot of courage to go out so hard.

Having run quite well in the Bovingdon 10k the previous weekend, Rich finished 4th and received a small shield for first M40. He’d clocked a time of 37:25 in that one despite the course being quite hilly so that gave him confidence for the Totton 10k.

The night before the race he’d had to take his cat to the emergency vet in middle of the night and sadly the cat had to be put down. That meant that Rich hadn’t had any sleep at all but he was taking a couple of his teammates to the race so had to go anyway.

He wasn’t sure if he’d be mentally ready to race after all that but decided to go for it anyway and it panned out well and he felt quite strong. Going over the line in 36:58, Rich went down in the results as finishing 22nd, although something had gone wrong with Jack’s time as it should have been him in that position.

After performing really well at the Stur Half four weeks earlier, Louis Suggett didn’t have one is his better runs at the Totton 10k but he still managed to get round in 37:22 which put him in 25th place.

Taking 50th place in a time of 38:58, Mark Richardson was technically the fourth man in for the Bournemouth AC Men’s B team, although Jack’s time was wrong so he was listed in 85h place. It didn’t matter though as that was still good enough to easily top the standings in the B2 division.

That showcased the tremendous strength in depth that the Bournemouth AC squad now has and that will be a huge plus for them as they aim to juggle resources to cover both road race leagues, along with the cross country fixtures as well.

The good news for Chris O’Brien as that he’d finally recovered from his long covid affliction that had effected him for probably the best part of four years. The bad news for him was that, he didn’t have any excuses now and knew that it was all in his own hands. He needed to knuckle down and train hard in order to bring his form and fitness back to where he’d like it to be.

That’ll be something that happens over time though and he’ll have to be patient and look for those marginal gains. His first lap went okay but in the second lap, his lack of fitness showed and he struggled to maintain the pace.

Completing the course in a time of 42:52, Chris had taken 118th place out of a total field of 620 and was 17th out of 80 in the MV50 category.

Helen Beddoe was running 10ks at just under 50 minutes earlier in the year. She then managed a 46 minute time at Round the Lakes in April. Then by the end of July, she’d got under 44 minutes at the Lordshill 10k.

This time, at the Totton 10, she improved on that again, registering a time of 43:29 which put her in 130th position overall. She was 13th female out of 267 and 4th FV40 out of 77. That was a magnificent outcome for Helen and again highlighted the progress she’s been making since joining Bournemouth AC.

Clocking a time of 45:47, David Crowther finished 183rd overall and was 55th out of 104 in the MV40 category. That was probably around a minute off the sort of time he would expect to produce at his best on a fast, flat course, so given the undulations, it was a decent effort from him.

Completing the course in a time of 50:17, Jud Kirk came 301st overall by virtue of gun time, so he was in the top half of the field. He was also 31st out of 64 in the MV60 category. It was a couple of minutes slower than the time that he’d produced at Lordshill in July but was still a reasonable run from Jud.

Finishing 316th overall and 80th lady, Janine Pattison went over the line in a chip time of 51:25. That put her 3rd in the FV60 category. That was a solid PB from Janine in her club debut. She’s mainly into triathlons or duathlons so the concept of just doing a run seemed a little strange to her.

Getting round in a chip time of 53:31, Geoff Newton finished 354th in the overall standings by virtue of gun time. He was first out of three runners in the MV80 category though. The other two were Hugh Bethell of Alton Runners who finished in just ovet an hour and David Chillingworth who registered a time of 1:24:23.

The prize for first female went to Tamsin Anderson of Winchester Running Club and she got round in 38:31 which put her 46th in the overall standings. Her teammate Anna Morris was 2nd female in 39:15 and she came 55th overall.

Susie Hill of Lonely Goat was 3rd female in 39:56 and she finished 67th overall and was just two seconds ahead of Rachel Walsh of Alton Runners who crossed the line in 69th place.

Winchester RC easily topped the standings in the Women’s A1 division, with their first four all finishing in the top 19 ladies. Liss were 2nd and Lordshill 3rd.

New Forest Runners topped the standings in the Women’s A2 division, just ahead of Vectis Academy and third division club Hamwic Harriers did well, comprehensively beating all the other teams in the Women’s A3 division.

Vectis Academy were the best team in the Men’s A2 division but 3rd division team Havant AC recorded a very good score to top the standings in the Men’s A3.

Winchester Running Club topped the standings in the Men’s B1 division but they didn’t get as good a score as the Bournemouth AC men’s B team, even with the error on Jack’s time.

After the conclusion of the race, the trophies for the previous season of the Hampshire Road Race League were handed out so Rich Nelson went up to collect the Men’s First Division Champions trophy for Bournemouth AC.

There wasn’t much respite for the squad as it was straight into the Overton 5 on the following weekend. Most of the club’s top runners couldn’t make it on that date though so it turned out to be a bit of a last minute, makeshift line-up.

Katie Gunn was in for it though and the day of the race was actually her birthday as well. Her partner Luke Bentley was there as well and Jack Barwick had also signed up. They then got James Hulbert in after discussions at Totton and Luke Martin also signed up.

Jud Kirk was racing as well which meant that they would at least have a team of four and Julia Austin was also a welcome addition to the team-sheet. Rich Nelson even ended up getting involved, feeling like he needed to earn his post race ice cream.