Week Ending - 2019/08/18

BADGERS SECURE LEAGUE TITLES WITH TWO RACES TO GO

A week ahead of their home club race, the Badgers Atherstone 10K, the north Warwickshire based outfit received confirmation that they now have unassailable leads at the top of their divisions in the Leicestershire Road Running League programme. The ladies’ side, led by the inspirational Sarah Jane Chetwynd, romped to the top of division two early in the season and have never let their guard down, extending their lead further and further as the year wore on. The men were already in the top-flight and were hoping for back to back titles and a string of top-quality team performances have led to them being crowned as county champions and as a result, have avoided the drama of a final race shoot-out as was the case in 2018. The men’s vets’ team have been boosted by some key members hitting 40 in the last twelve months and they too are uncatchable in the league as well as in the races themselves. The men’s B team have not been toppled since the third race of the season and they too have won their league by a country mile, even with two races still to go. All this means is that now, next week’s trip to Launde is somewhat academic, allowing more members to participate in their home race, with a somewhat depleted team travelling over to north Leicestershire although with a number of runners including the brilliant Becky Harris, Neil Russell and Helena Rean amongst others, all in serious contention for individual honours.

Chris Horton is another in contention for a league award this season and he continued his rich vein of recent form, this time over the half marathon distance in Lancaster in the Riverside Half. Battling strong coastal winds for large chunks of the race, the 44 year old found himself leading the race for the first three miles and had to dig really deep as the race wore on finishing in 6th place overall and picking up the V40 prize as well as a season’s best time of 80:48. Richard Hill was in action at the Massey Ferguson Corporate 5K race, clocking 27:13. Becky Kinson was in fine form at the Bosworth 10K as she finished first Badger back in 53:35 and Yvonne Faulkner ran 26:02 at the Beat The Sunset 5K in Kettering, accompanied by Carl Savage.

During the recent transfer window, big-hearted Badgers Chairperson Karen Thompson has been splashing the cash in a summer spending spree to land a number of impressive new recruits. One of them, Gordy Smith, finished a superb 5th in the 30K Belper Rover trail race at the weekend. The 48-year-old journeyman pro enjoyed a successful loan spell at the club in 2018 and has been on the club’s watchlist for some time. He was drafted in this summer as cover for key man Glyn Broadhurst in the veteran department and already looks to be a shrewd signing with his time of 2:11:23 here showing exactly that in a race that saw Nivette Chester and David Grant also feature.

In Blackpool, Sharon and Ian Jackson clocked a shade over 55 minutes in the Run The Lights 10K race but they were no match for son Matthew who sped home in 44:26 to take 4th in his age category. Vicki Fowler also got round safely in 92:38. At the Kimbolton half marathon, Yvonne Faulkner and Carl Savage both dipped under two hours in 1:59:02 and at the Mudnificent Seven event, David Craig and Paul Bruce both starred.

There was plenty of action at parkrun once again this week. At Conkers, Chris Baxter was in fine form as he zoomed round in 16:45 to take second place at one of his favourite hunting grounds. Leon Millership was next through in 22:46 while John & Anne Devenney, Zoe Cope, Nicola Stanley and Dave Bailey were also in action. Over at Bedworth, Adi Payne was in great shape as he managed a course best, but again like Baxter had to settle for second. The lion-hearted Dave Jackson chased him hard in third place clocking a trim 18:38 while new boy Ryan Handley also starred in the top ten with his 7th place finish of 19:14. David Craig was in good form once again as he worked hard for his 22:15 as he continues to improve while the highly impressive Becky Kinson was the star turn in the ladies side of things as she finished 4th female thanks to her terrific run of 25:26. Janet Crumpton ran a course best of 27:32 with top local registrar Gail Gunn going well ahead of Anne-Marie Matthews and Richard Hamblett.

Karen Missen was running at St Mary’s parkrun while Katrina Dawson starred at Tewkesbury. The genial numbers man Alan Argyle led the way at nearby Gloucester in 24:22, closely followed Richard Hill, Jared Karim, Yvonne Faulkner and Eamon Thawley. Matt Green clocked 22:08 at Hockley Woods and Charlotte Phillips managed 38:40 at Leamington. Long Eaton saw five Badgers giving it a good go, Mark Repton smashing it out of the park in 6th place with a huge PB of 18:38. His brother Wayne got in on the action too in 21:50 (PB), one second behind in-form coach Nivette Chester. Ladies skipper Sarah Jane Chetwynd made a superb PB of 24:00 as she continues to amaze all at the club and Richard Chester ran a brisk 25:49 on the famously fast Derbyshire course.

Several Badgers turned out at the new Babbs Mill course in Chelmsley Wood with Cameron Barnes leading the way in 10th place in 21:22. Colin Lees ran well as did brotherly duo Paul and John Restall. Sister act Sam Klucis and Lisa Barnes were tearing it up as was Adam McElhone and Jo Hardy. Kingsbury Water park saw a healthy turnout after a recent washout and it was the industrious Bill Gutheridge who set the tone in 21:47. Mick Bailey is on fire right now and he hared round in 23:06 with Paul Wallace, Darryl Johnson and the legendary John Hanson all getting round. Rachael Shelton and Sharon Jackson both finished in the top ten females while Pip Weston made a welcome return to action after a period out with injury. The experienced Liz Peel ran as did Lil Souter, Amanda Gould, Michael Ball and Merv Jones. Other runners included Leesa Dennis, Lesley Palmer, Peter Black, Jason Husselbee-Orwin, Justin Haywood, Mandy Hanson and Helen Morgan.