Week Ending - 2019/09/22

BADGERS OUT IN FORCE AT DAVENTRY 10K

Some twenty plus Badgers turned out at the popular Daventry 10K on Sunday with no fewer than six of them managing to come away with impressive new personal bests. Rising star Graham Engley led the black and white charge with a quality performance and new PB of 41:36. Carl Savage was another hitting new heights as his increased workload bore fruit in the form of a time of 45:30. Kay Whitehead continues to set new standards for herself, the popular palliative care nurse powering home in 49:32, her first time under 50 minutes. Lil Souter was another lady to return with a new best, her 51:16 enabled her to finish a second behind her experienced team-mate Emma Masser. New boy Michael Ball clocked 58:00 for a new best of his own and veteran Lisa Barnes ran 67:31 to make it “six of the best”. Amongst these notable performances, fellow Badgers poured through like water flowing freely from a jug, and what a jug. Cameron Barnes ran a solid 45:12 with Bill Gutheridge in close pursuit in 45:46. The effervescent Becky Kinson looked good once again as she crossed the line in 53:38 and Jo Davies grafted hard for her time of 56:33. The steady Jo Hardy was next through in 57:37 and the highly regarded Paul Restall clocked 58:10 as he successfully completed the tricky course with all its ups and downs. Newcomer Averil Caton broke the hour mark with an impressive run of 59:22 on a day that also saw Nivette Chester and Paul Cooper running. Young Matt Jackson took first place in his age group with a brisk run of 43:22 while Terry Argyle, Richard Chester, Nicola Stanley and Janet Crumpton all got the trip. All this meant that the club were awarded with a shield for the most represented side at the race, yet more silverware to add to their burgeoning collection.

Chris Horton was back in action at the Brewood 10K race near Wolverhampton on Sunday, looking for a repeat of his victory in the race in 2018. Heavy overnight rain left parts of the course ankle deep in water but despite sharing the lead for the first two miles, his race was soon blown apart by the eventual winner, Wolverhampton AC’s Jack Pickett, who blazed his way to a resounding win as well as a new course record. Horton held on bravely doing just enough to take third place in a respectable 36:15.

In Snowdonia, Wales, former men’s captain turned loose cannon, Adrian Payne finished a gallant second in the Maverick X-Series trail marathon. The one-time poster boy of New Street chased hard, maybe a little too hard, as he completed the challenging 26.2 mile mountain course in 5:40:35, less than 12 minutes behind durable race winner Joachim Cassel. Dave Jackson did not run.

Saturday saw the club field two sides at the Midland Counties Autumn Road Relays at Sutton Park, a hugely popular event attracting the very best clubs from across the Midlands. The men’s super sextet of Ryan Bennett, Matt Tonks, Carl Holyoak, Mark Repton, Neil Russell and Dave Hill gave a great account of themselves as they made 56th place out of well over 100 sides while the ladies fielded a fabulous foursome of Becky Harris, Esther Holyoak, Cheryl Dewis and Katy Clemons and by pure coincidence also finished in 56th place in the event!

Elsewhere, Karen Missen was the sole Badger in action at the Stafford 10K, running 64:14 while Si Gilbert was part of a team taking part in the 24 hour Equinox Race, clocking up an eye-watering 60km for his side. At the T’Owd Man Trail half marathon, Holly McClay and Andy Smith were back in action getting round together in 3 hours 22 minutes.

Parkrun saw a hive of activity yet again and the club had double winners as at Cleethorpes, Chris Baxter bounced back to his best to finish first in 16:48 and closer to home at Bedworth Aaron Chetwynd clocked a speedy 17:13 on the testing 5K course there to take first place. Ryan Handley must be cursing his luck however, the veteran Badger is in fine form right now and he finished second this week in 18:47, his highest ever finish. Colin Lees (22:38) and Michael Ball (26:14) also ran while Anne-Marie Matthews went too.

There were seven lone wolves at the weekend as Mr Kingsbury parkrun himself, John Hanson showed up at Leamington running 27:15, Terry Argyle featured at Walsall in 25:57, Kerry Clover ran Conkers in 28:38 and Matt Heap was top of the Badger pile at Lyme Park in 26:25. The hardworking Lesley Palmer ran 30:57 at Stratford upon Avon and Paul Grubb popped over to show his skills at Sutton Park the day ahead of his beloved Albion’s resounding success against Huddersfield Town. Alan Argyle ran 27:35 at Alvaston parkrun which just left the remaining runners out in force at Kingsbury Water Park. Sarah Reynolds was celebrating wildly as she bagged herself a new PB in 26:27, the only one of 22 Badgers to achieve the feat on a beautiful morning for running. In form Graham Engley was first back in 20:36, closely followed by the twinkle-toed Tim Gould ten seconds later. Bill Gutheridge breezed back in 21:12 with the esteemed David Craig continuing his upsurge in form with a nippy 22:04. Mick Bailey celebrated his 50th parkrun with a superb 22:51 as his season goes from strength to strength and Dean Bowd led Evie Whitehead, Matt Jackson, Pip Weston and Mark Reynolds back to the finish line.

The spritely Rachael Shelton was next back in 27:29 with Darryl Johnson, Amanda Gould, the mercurial Merv Jones and dashing Dave Bailey all doing well. Mandy Hanson ran 32:59 with Iwona Jedro, Amber Bradford, Vikki Smith and Paul Wallace all rounding up a busy morning’s work for the north Warwickshire based club.