JOHN Robson exorcised a 21-year-old ghost yesterday, but his club still continue to haunt their Scottish athletics rivals.

Mizuno Racing Club runners were the fastest on five of the eight stages of the Barr's Irn-Bru Edinburgh to Glasgow Road Relay, but it was Robson, 41 in January and already officially a veteran, who ran their key leg. He overturned a 30-second deficit, taking them into a lead which they never surrendered, and they won for a record seventh successive year, in a time of 3hr 44min 28secs. Racing finished four-and a-half minutes clear of Shettleston, with Kilbarchan snatching bronze from Cumbuslang by just two seconds in a sprint finish on Glasgow's Crownpoint track.

It is 21 years since Robson cracked in this very race, hurling the baton over a fence after just a mile and a half of the third stage, then walking off. Though he eventually picked it up and continued, his club's victory hopes were gone, and Shettleston took the title.

Yesterday he ran the fateful third stage for the first time in all the years since. Now 40, he took over in second, half a minute behind leaders Clydesdale, and 38 seconds ahead of Shettleston in third. He had already overhauled Clydesdale's international 800m runner Ewan Calvert and was in the lead by the time he reached the place etched so agonisingly in his memory, though it was more than half a lifetime ago. ''I just looked across, and thought: 'I'm not stopping this time,''' he confided afterwards. ''Perhaps now you'll let me forget it.''

His brother, Alan, was at the very spot, urging him on. Robson attacked the 4.7-mile uphill stage, shortest of the race, with a relentless savagery. When he crossed the line he was almost two and a half minutes clear of Calvert, while Shettleston, their most persistent rivals, were fourth, 2-44 down, their challenge broken.

Robson's pedigree has never been in doubt, but few can have thought that at 40 he could still be a match for Scotland's best. Perhaps it is an indictment of his successors that his time of 24-38 was the fastest of the day. Not one of the 19 other runners broke 25 minutes, and only two were inside 26 minutes.

The headwind was unfavourable for record breaking, but Robson came closer than anyone else on any stage, just 30 seconds outside the mark. Simply awesome - what a glorious postscript. They say revenge is a dish best eaten cold, but 21 years is a long time to fuel a hunger.

Yet fate can be cruel. Robson was a raw youth, running only his second road race when he blew up all these years ago. Matured, he went on to win Commonwealth bronze, and the Scottish 1500m record he set in 1979 still stands, yet the Kelso man never made more than #300 for any race, and now works as a swimming pool attendant.

It is worth recording that the time of 3-33.83 he set in September '79 was some five seconds faster than Coe and Ovett clocked in winning Moscow Olympic gold and bronze a year later - a race Robson watched with his leg in plaster.

Yet now he is the most durable of them all, while he and Davie Ross are the only members of yesterday's Racing team ever-present through their seven victories. Rivals who have tried to sign new talent to combat them have so far failed to come up to scratch.

Shettleston have now exhausted tactics for this event. Yesterday they played their weaker cards early, hoping they could catch up. This put Racing under no pressure at all. Running shoulder to shoulder, or on his heels, explores the depths of a rival's resolve and probes his weaknesses.

Kilbarchan won medals for the first time in their history, and would plead that injury to one of their leading men, Alan Puckrin, made it more difficult than it might otherwise have been, but one felt sorry for Ron Hill Cambuslang. Despite having lost three of their top runners in the final four days, they had moved from seventh with two stages left, into the bronze medal position, passing Kilbarchan with less than 1000m left.

George Gibson had no answer when Cambuslang's John Cowan went clear on the road, and the Kilbarchan man was fully 40 metres down as he came onto the track with just 300m left. The change of surface seemed to remind him he was once a nippy 800m man, and galvanised, he clawed back the deficit, going clear just 50 metres from home. Kilbarchan's Robert Quinn, second fastest on stage three, had not run once in five weeks, having trained every day wearing a flotation jacket in a swimming pool.

Fife, third at the final change, had the consolation of the most-improved team medals for their fifth place, having been ninth last year.

Clydesdale, in Billy Jenkins and Alan Adams, had the fastest on the opening two stages, and were still in the medal hunt with just two stages to go, but ran out of quality men.

Aberdeen withdrew on the eve of the race, and Pitreavie and the Bedford guests missed the chance to make history by fielding the event's first female, Trudi Thomson and Paula Radcliffe having been in their squads.

This was the fifty-ninth running of the event, which starts outside the gates of Fettes College. Edinburgh deputy convener Margaret McGregor, who started the race, offered some advice: Fettes old boy Tony Blair to start the sixtieth anniversary run. Details:

1, Mizuno Racing Club (J Ross 27-53, K Chapman 30-09, J Robson 24-38, I Brown 26-43, S Cohen 28-05, D Ross 34-58, F McGowan 26-31, G Stewart 25-31) 3hr 44min 28sec; 2, Shettleston (D Cameron 27-47, A Little 30-53, J Duffy 26-44, A Callan 27-08, W Coyle 28-53, G Wight 34-48, J Mackay 27-08, C Robison 25-37) 3-48-58; 3, Kilbarchan (T Herle 29-09, R Fitzsimmons 31-00, R Quinn 25-04, T Anderson 28-42, J Bennett 30-24, I McDougall 36-31, A Muir 27-53, G Gibson 26-45) 3-55-28; 4, Ron Hill Cambuslang 3-55-30; 5, Fife (most-improved team) 3-56-19; 6, Hunters Bog Trotters 3-57-04; 7, Clydesdale 3-57-19; 8, Falkirk Victoria 3-58-47; 9, Metro Aberdeen 4-00-55; 10, City of Edinburgh 4-01-21; 11, Bedford & County 4-02-54; 12, Dundee Hawkhill 4-04-29; 13, Livingston & District 4-07-29; 14, FMC Carnegie 4-08-09; 15, Springburn 4-08-57; 16, Dumfries 4-10-27; 17, Irvine 4-13-38; 18, Teviotdale 4-13-59; 19,

Babcock Pitreavie 4-20-30; 20, Victoria Park 4-34-33.

Fastest stages. First (5.5 miles): 1, W Jenkins (Clydesdale) 27-29; 2, Cameron 27-47; 3, Ross 27-53. Second (6.6m): 1, A Adams (Clydesdale) 30-03; 2, Chapman 30-09; 3, D Naylor (HBT) 30-31. Third (4.7m): 1, Robson 24-38; 2, Quinn 25-04; 3, T Mitchell (Fife) 25-40. Fourth (5.3m): 1, Brown 26-43; 2, Callan 27-08; 3, D Cavers (Teviotdale) 27-48. Fifth (5.5m): 1, Cohen 28-05; 2, A Moss (Fife) 28-30; 3, W Coyle 28-53. Sixth (7.0m): 1, P O'Keefe (HBT) 34-26; 2, C Thomson (Cambuslang) 34-28; 3, Wight 34-48. Seventh (5.5m): 1, McGowan 26-31; 2, Mackay 27-08; 3, Muir 27-53. Eighth (5.4m): 1, Stewart 25-31; 2, Robison 25-37; 3 equal, J Cowan (Cambuslang) and J Pyrah (HBT) 26-24.

qFIFER Trudi Thomson elected instead to run the Ronnie Kane Memorial Women's Cross-country at Kingspark, and won the national league event by 22 seconds. Eileen Cochrane, third, led City of Glasgow to team victory. They also won the under-17 team race and finished runners-up in three other age group races as preparation for next Saturday's West District Championships at Girvan. Details:

Seniors: 1, T Thomson (Babcock Pitreavie) 20-18; 2, C Miller (Aberdeen) 20-40; 3, E Cochrane (CoG) 20-48. veteran: S Aitken (CoE) 22-04. Team: 1, CoG 16 points; 2, CoE 39; 3, Babcock Pitreavie 48. Under-20: K Montador (EWM) 14-24. Under-17: C Fagan (CoG) 14-14. Team: CoG. Under-15: D Smith (Helensburgh) 12-22. Team: Helensburgh. Under-13: B Curtis (Banchory) 12-55. Team: Giffnock North. Under-11: M Wright (CoE) 5-52. Team: CoE.