There was a rather different feel about the start of the 2026/27 Hampshire Road Race League season for Bournemouth AC.

Twelve months ago, the yellow and blues arrived at the opening race with plenty of good intentions, but the season rapidly turned into something of a logistical disaster. The club only managed to field a team for three of the 12 races, which inevitably resulted in relegation from the top flight.

So, with the new campaign getting underway at the Totton 10k, the objective was quite simple… Get promoted straight back to Division One.

Fortunately, there was considerably less danger of a no-show this time around.

The Totton 10k was added to the Hampshire Road Race League calendar last season and proved to be a memorable occasion for Bournemouth AC, with the men taking victory. Unfortunately, it was also the only league race they managed to win all season.

This time, however, there was a much stronger squad assembled, and there was plenty of reason for optimism.

The Totton Running Club 10k is a two-lap course around Copythorne, with some mild undulations but also plenty of opportunities to run quickly. Totton themselves describe it as a course that “can be fast” despite the hills, and it certainly produced some rapid times.

Cole charges to second

Leading the Bournemouth charge was Josh Cole, fresh from winning the Blackmore Vale Half Marathon and only two weeks removed from another quite spectacular performance in the Isle of Wight Half Marathon.

Josh had conquered the multi-terrain course in 1:14:32, finishing a minute clear of Hampshire Road Race League individual champion Joshua Price of Vectis Academy.

So he was very much a man in form.

Josh initially tucked in with the leaders at Totton, but after around 200 metres, Ryde Harriers’ Chris Newnham decided that discretion was the better part of valour and went on the attack.

Josh settled into a group with Southampton’s Jack Hemmatpour and worked hard through the opening mile and a half. Once he sensed the pace was beginning to drop slightly, he decided at around two miles that it was time to go.

There was a feeling that runners would come through strongly later in the race and Josh didn’t want to be caught up in a tactical affair.

He went through the 4.7km checkpoint in 15:30, averaging 3:18 per kilometre.

From the three-mile point onwards, he consciously started emptying the tank. By the time he reached the climb towards the end of the lap, before the final descent towards the finish, he was definitely beginning to feel the effects.

Newnham, who had won the Lordshill 10k, was having another excellent day and duly took a comprehensive victory in 32:01.

Josh came home second, covering the remaining 5.3km in 18:03 at 3:24/km pace.

That gave him a finishing time of 33:30.

It was a cracking run, even if Josh felt afterwards that the clock should probably have been showing something a little lower. The course’s undulations may have had something to do with that.

Either way, he was absolutely shattered when he crossed the line.

Hemmatpour completed the individual podium in 34:12, although his lack of a Southampton vest meant that he wasn’t included in the HRRL scoring. That was rather handy for BAC, as it meant the yellow and blues had two of the first three league scorers.

Stu left pleasantly surprised by his result

Another Bournemouth man in excellent form was Stu Nicholas.

Stu blasted through the first mile in 5:17 before following that with 5:26 and 5:37 for the second and third miles. The third contained part of the course’s awkward incline, so there was inevitably a bit of a slowdown.

He reached 4.7km in 15:46 before recording 5:30 for mile four, 5:40 for mile five and 5:38 for mile six.

Then came a very quick final fifth of a mile.

Stu crossed the line in 34:17, earning fourth place overall and averaging 5:31 per mile.

It was a particularly pleasing result because finishing that high up in a Hampshire Road Race League 10k isn’t normally something Stu would expect.

It was made even more useful by the fact that Ant Gritton of Southampton, who finished fifth in 34:45, was also not wearing a club vest and therefore wasn’t included in the league scoring.

That meant Andover’s Alex Rudge, despite finishing sixth in 34:44, became the fourth league scorer.

And, importantly, Bournemouth AC had two of the top three scorers.

Davis shows just how far he’s come

A year ago, Jack Davis had a rather different experience at Totton.

He started very quickly, looked excellent through the first lap and then spectacularly ran out of steam on the second. To add insult to injury, the results subsequently awarded him a time considerably slower than the one he’d actually run.

Fast forward 12 months and Jack is a much stronger runner.

He started with a 5:29 mile, followed by 5:35 and another 5:35.

There was a slowdown on the second lap, but nothing remotely approaching last year’s implosion. Jack recorded 5:37, 6:07 and 5:56 to finish in 35:52.

That put him 18th overall out of 607 finishers and 14th league scorer.

It wasn’t quite the vintage performance of his 35:23 at Lordshill, but it was still a solid sub-36-minute 10k and another indication of how much progress Jack has made over the last year.

The next Bournemouth man home was Jack Barwick, who finished 28th in 36:57.

Jack had actually been 20th at the 4.7km checkpoint but lost eight places over the second half as the pace dropped.

Nevertheless, he was 21st league scorer, and that was enough to seal the victory for Bournemouth AC.

They’d even managed to get a slightly lower score than Winchester Running Club, who topped the Men’s A1 standings in the opening round.

Not bad for a team that was supposed to be rebuilding in Division Two.

Akers and Kingston add valuable depth

Mike Akers paced his race particularly well.

He went through the opening three miles in 5:51, 6:00 and 6:05 before recording 5:57, 6:08 and 6:09 on the second lap.

Interestingly, Mike actually gained eight places during the second half of the race.

He finished in 37:42, averaging 6:01 per mile and taking 35th place.

Just behind him came Patrick Kingston, who perhaps had the most unusual preparation of anyone on the Bournemouth start line.

Patrick had only recently completed the Crazy Mountain 100-mile race in Montana.

That particular race involved around 23,000 feet of climbing, but Patrick somehow conquered the whole thing in 1 day, 8 hours and 48 minutes.

Compared with that, a relatively flat 10k in Hampshire should have been a doddle.

Except, of course, that it isn’t.

The shorter the distance, the higher the intensity, and there is nowhere to hide for 10 kilometres when you’re trying to run quickly.

Patrick produced an impressively consistent race, recording 6:04, 6:14 and 6:17 for his first three miles before following those with 6:14, 6:21 and 6:18.

He finished in 38:53, just 11 seconds outside his PB and considerably quicker than he’d managed at the Purbeck and Lordshill 10ks earlier in the year.

That gave him 55th place overall and 12th out of 83 in the MV40 category.

Paddy McCalister was next, finishing 60th in 39:07.

Paddy’s first four miles were 6:03, 6:12, 6:21 and 6:12 before he dropped back slightly over the final two miles, recording 6:28 and 6:22.

It wasn’t the time he’d have wanted, but he still played his part in a very successful team performance.

Bentley begins married life with a race

The women’s race had an altogether different feel from previous years.

It was the first time ever that the Bournemouth AC’s women had fielded a scoring team of four.

This time there were enough runners to produce a genuine scoring team, with even a spare scorer available.

It was also Katie Bentley’s first race since getting married.

Her teammates would therefore have to get used to not calling her Katie Gunn anymore.

Katie had spent the previous three weeks doing very little running while wedding celebrations took priority, so perhaps unsurprisingly she wasn’t quite at her best.

She nevertheless completed the course in 41:25, finishing 12th female and 103rd overall.

That wasn’t a performance up to her usual standards, but given the circumstances it was perfectly understandable.

Meanwhile, Helen Beddoe was continuing her excellent recent form.

Less than two months after setting a new 10k PB of 43:21 at Lordshill, Helen managed to improve it again.

She crossed the line in 43:18, knocking another three seconds off her PB.

She was 21st female out of 253 and sixth out of 65 in the FV40 category, finishing 152nd overall.

Her pacing was particularly impressive. She averaged 4:18/km for the first 4.7km and 4:24/km for the final 5.3km, meaning there was remarkably little deterioration over the second half.

Hudson makes her HRRL debut

It was a Hampshire Road Race League debut for Lara Hudson, following her first Dorset League appearance at the Stur Half.

Lara had knocked three minutes off her half marathon PB at the Stur Half despite having to contend with intensely hot conditions, so she arrived at Totton with plenty of confidence.

She spent much of the race running alongside Aston Simpkins, with the pair ticking along at roughly 7:15 pace for the first four miles.

Aston then ran 7:20 for mile five while Lara recorded 7:24.

Aston managed to find another gear in the final mile, clocking his fastest split of exactly seven minutes before covering the final quarter-mile at around 6:30 pace.

That rapid finish got him under 45 minutes on chip time, with a 44:59 finish which put him in 183rd place

Lara’s pace dropped slightly over the final mile to 7:30 but she still secured a PB of 45:46.

That made her 35th female and 198th overall, as well as the third scorer for the Bournemouth women’s team.

Pattison gets agonisingly close to 50

Janine Pattison came tantalisingly close to breaking the 50-minute barrier.

She crossed the line in 50:04, so there was inevitably a little disappointment at missing out on the milestone.

But there was also plenty to celebrate.

Janine had been 1:21 slower at Totton the previous year, meaning she had taken a huge chunk of time off her previous performance.

She finished 76th female and third out of 37 in the FV60 category.

Most importantly, she completed the four-woman scoring team for the first time ever.

And what a scoring team it was.

The BAC women comfortably secured top spot in Women’s A3, with only Portsmouth Joggers recording a lower score among the teams in A2.

That’s quite some way to open the campaign.

Plenty more yellow and blue

There were several other Bournemouth AC runners out on the course.

Chester Clarke was racing for the club for the first time in years and, after starting well, found it difficult to maintain the pace on the second lap. He finished in 41:33, taking 105th place.

That was enough to seal victory for the BAC men’s B team in B3.

Indeed, their score was lower than every other club’s B-team score, including the winning Hedge End score in B1.

Tom Sclanders paced his race very nicely, particularly on the second lap, recording 6:44, 6:46 and 6:46 for the final three miles.

He finished in 41:43, placing 109th overall and 31st in the MV40 category.

Emma Biggs completed the course in 1:01:22, finishing 162nd female and 481st overall.

And Ian Graham produced remarkably even pacing across the two laps before crossing the line in 1:11:16.

That placed him 15th in the MV70 category and 574th overall.

A winning start

There was a lot to like about the first Bournemouth AC Hampshire Road Race League outing of the new season.

The men’s A team won their opening A2 race, the men’s B team won B3, and the women won A3.

The official HRRL results confirm Bournemouth’s opening-round victories in both Men’s A2 and Women’s A3, with Bournemouth also taking the first-round B3 win.

Last year’s champions, Winchester Running Club, made a typically strong start by topping Men’s A1 and Women’s A1, while Lordshill, City of Salisbury and Liss were closely bunched behind Winchester in the women’s top division.

But Bournemouth AC’s immediate concern is rather closer to home.

After last season’s relegation, the mission for 2026/27 is to get straight back into the top flight.

One race down, and the yellow and blues couldn’t really have asked for a better beginning.

The challenge now is the bit that proved so difficult last season and that’s turning up with a full scoring team.