Week Ending - 2019/02/17

BIG DOG IS HALF MARATHON TOP DOG

Lightly-raced Damo Taylor re-wrote the Badgers record books on Sunday with a stunning performance at the Village Bakery Half Marathon in Wrexham. The Beijing-born Badger, affectionately known to team mates as The Big Dog, set off at a blistering pace in the fast and flat wilds of north east Wales. With cramping calves towards the end, he hung on bravely to eclipse Ryan Bennett’s previous mark by 58 seconds, narrowly missing out on a Championship standard time. Despite setting a new club best at 75:13, the Polesworth based athlete hopes to go even better in four weeks time when he takes in the Stafford half as part of his build up to this year’s London Marathon. Taylor was not the only one dipping his bread in the race as 12 of the 21 Badgers in the race returned home with personal bests. Keir Hardy is another runner London bound and he ran a terrific 90:54. Ian Orton took three minutes off his best with a time of 1:42:34 and Lorna Jackson proved why she is one to watch as she smoked home in 1:56:50, the first female Badger back. Sarah Vine broke two hours for the first time in 1:59:06 as did John Dulson (1:59:11) and ladies captain Sarah Jane Chetwynd, who performed heroically in 1:58:36.

Kerry Clover ran an impressive 2:03:34 (PB), Terry Argyle could not beat his elder brother Alan in 1:53:54 but ran a superb 2:04:15 (PB) to put the icing on a cake first made by Darren Moore’s stout Albion men. Jo Hardy made it a double PB in the Hardy household thanks to her determined 2:04:07 while Jenna Davies (2:07:17) and Zoe Cope (2:07:22) helped themselves to well earned PB’s too. Other runners to feature included the dependable Rob Crow (1:47:53), Pete Coogan (1:53:39), stalwart Serena Baker (1:57:22), Jason Clover (1:57:56), Jo Davies (2:06:10), Hannah Coogan (2:06:57), Claire Bradford (2:52:47) and Paul Cooper (2:53:34).

Despite a such a high turnout in Wrexham, the bulk of the Badgers were in action near Thringstone in the penultimate round of the cross-country season, where 30 hardy souls braved the rutted descents and tree-root rich woodland trails, not to mention the occasional stream crossing as they battled it round the 4.7-mile course in otherwise favourable weather conditions. The men’s team were looking to consolidate their lead at the top of Division One going into the final race but nearly endured a terrible start to proceedings as three runners ended up getting lost on their warm up. Ryan Bennett, one of these aforementioned, was in typical belligerent fashion as he ran aggressively from the start, ending up a fantastic fourth overall in a field of several hundred. Birthday boy Jason Molloy also made the top ten with a classy run to take 9th spot, his highest yet in a Badgers vest. With key-man Glyn Broadhurst missing through illness alongside 2018 Badger of the Year Aaron Chetwynd, it was left to veteran duo Chris Horton (11th) and Neil Russell (14th) to assume the mantle of key-men which they did with great aplomb. London bound skipper Adi Payne ran brilliantly in 17th place while the in-form Mark Cox cemented his place at the top table with a rabble-rousing run of his own to secure 28th. Danny Warren returned from honeymoon and dug deep despite a heavy cold and finally Simon Gilbert, now a vital cog in the Badgers machine, scored his first XC points for the club as he powered home strongly in 72nd place. Jimmy Dewis and Neil Clemons both made the top 100 while Graham Engley continues to impress as he ran strongly ahead of the experienced Stefan Martin. Others included Cameron Barnes, Matt Green, Roland Bulgington, Andy Orchard, Paul Grubb, Dave Earp, Simon Currier, Chris Upton and the godfather of cross country Eamon Thawley.

The ladies’ team were somewhat depleted this week with only nine runners making the race but there was certainly no shortage of effort on show as Cheryl Dewis led the side home in typical forthright fashion. Her 19th place was a tremendous achievement in such a good field. Monika Lampart took a fine 22nd place with veteran coach Nivette Chester just one place behind her in 23rd and long-serving club stalwart Steph White gutsing it out to become the final counter. Pip Weston again impressed with another quality run with Maggi Savin-Baden battling hard to finish ahead of the ageless Gail Gunn who shot round like a bullet. Sisters Lisa Barnes and Sam Klucis rounded up the action for the girls in great style. In the juniors’ race, Charlie Molloy was again in good form, giving his dad Jason something more to smile about on his birthday.

Badgers men secured maximum points once again which means they can afford to finish as low as third in the final race at Market Bosworth next month and still win the top division, but with cross country specialist Dave Jackson threatening to make a return to action, it seems that the team will want to finish in more appropriate style. Sarah-Jane Chetwynd’s ladies seem to certain to finish second in division two behind Poplar RC which should earn them promotion to the top tier, while the club’s mixed team will enjoy a straight shoot out at Bosworth with just one point separating them from second placed rivals West End Runners.

At the Railway Ultra in Coalport, London-bound popular club Chairperson Karen Thompson ran a staggering 38 miles in 6:56 to clock up yet another notch on her way to what would be a magnificent 100 marathons. Anne-Marie Matthews ran 2:31 in the Hampton Court half marathon and Lil Souter managed 96:59 in the Rugeley 10-mile race, a season’s best for her. At the Prestwold half marathon near Leicester, Ron Mahoney squeezed into the top 50 with a tremendous run of 87:04, second in his age group too. Team-mate Justin Haywood performed brilliantly too in 96:19 after a less than perfect build up. 58-year-old John Hanson clocked a quite remarkable 99:24 as his new lease of life continues apace, while Stuart Youngs put in a good performance in 1:53:11. Mandy Hanson and Helen Morgan also ran.

With such a plethora of action, it would be easy to overlook the performances on Saturday morning at parkrun, yet this Saturday saw some of the most stellar runs in the history of the club. At Kingsbury Water Park, Chris Baxter was out on his own from the start but put in an unbelievable stint of time-trialling to smash his own club record by 16 seconds, a quite magnificent display of distance running. Meanwhile over at Bedworth, Ryan Bennett managed to equal Baxter’s old best of 16:43 which incredibly was only good enough for second place as Leicester Coritanians star Chris Jordan held a narrow edge over the Chapel End kebab-house mogul. Dave Jackson made an emotional return to action after ankle surgery, the hard-drinking dynamo running a quality 20:54 to make the top 20. With the event celebrating it’s one-year anniversary, it was no surprise to see several Badgers in attendance, namely Gavin Crockwell, Colin Lees, Merv Jones, Becky Kinson, Judy Parkes, Stuart Walton, Karen Missen, Gail Gunn, Peter Black, Mick Judd, Nicki Bowman and Anne-Marie Matthews.

Kingsbury too had its fair share of club runners tackling the 5K behind Baxter. Young Mat Jackson romped to a stunning new PB of 19:23 in 6th place as he goes from strength to strength in 2019. Matt Green missed a PB by just a single second in 20:08 – his time will surely come soon. Tim Gould rolled back the years in 20:26 with Jake Bradford hitting new heights with his PB time of 21:37. Rachael Shelton was first female back for the club in 5th place (23:01) while David Craig, Darryl Johnson, John Restall and Glen Thomas all followed behind. Amy Stredder ran a cracking new PB in 25:22 while youngster Evie Whitehead followed up her best from a couple of weeks ago by knocking over a minute off in a jaw-dropping performance of 26:06. Other runners included Fiona Meldrum, Yvonne Feasey, Liz Peel, Nicola Stanley, Paul Restall, Sharon Jackson, David Bailey, John Dulson, Sue Green and Amy Wakelin.

On the road, David McGowan took fourth place at the Milton Keynes parkrun in 17:59, Charlene Dunn also running. Ian Orton bagged himself a top ten finish at Ellesmere Port as he made 21:57 to take 9th place there. Lee Millership ran a speedy 23:20 at Conkers ahead of Chris Upton while Lil Souter was first Badger back at Shipley parkrun in 27:43. Jonathan Davies featured at Worcester Pitchcroft and Sam Starkey ran a brick 18:28 at a fast and flat York parkrun. Alan Argyle led the way at Walsall Arboretum in 24:14 with Eamon Thawley in his slipstream clocking 24:45. Richard Hill, the popular Jared Karim and Yvonne Faulkner also in attendance. Finally, Holly Matts and Andy Smith both ran 34:39 in the Isabel Trail parkrun event.