Week Ending - 2020/08/02

RECORD NUMBERS TURN OUT FOR MONSTER MILE RACE

With an heroic performance required and needing other results to go their way, Badgers wheeled out their biggest turnout of the lockdown league so far with some 41 members taking part in the rarely raced one-mile distance. Whether it was enough to see off the likes of Hinckley RC and Desford Striders who currently occupy the top two qualifying spots in the West league, remains to be seen but one thing is for certain, the effort from the side could not be faulted. One performance in particular stood out, that of veteran ace Pip Weston. Not only was she the third lady back for the club in a quite breath-taking time of 6:57, but in doing so she became only the fourth Badger in the club’s history to record a Wava rating in excess of 80% and the only female to date to do just that. She was also first overall in her age category, a wonderful achievement.

The weekend began in great style for the club as the ultra-rapid Matt Scarsbrook ran what would ultimately have been a race winning time of 4:25 in his first attempt. Sadly, the performance was disallowed due to the run exceeding the permitted gradient loss over the distance and the Baddesley man had to go back out and use a backup run of 5:11 instead. Incredibly, this was not the quickest of the weekend as two key men either bettered or matched this display of pure speed. 45-year-old Chris Horton clocked a breezy 4:49 to bag himself a top ten place in the grand scheme of things, out of nearly 800 entrants, no mean feat. Fellow veteran Glyn Broadhurst left it late to get his time in but what a time it was, the key-man clocked 5:11 on his brave attempt. Sam Starkey is currently a man in form and once again he delivered the goods with a rip-roaring Riverside run of 5:12 and when Bulkington based flyer Neil Russell sped home in 5:16, the Badgers men were peppering the top 50. In fact, Horton, Broadhurst, Starkey and Russell finished 2nd, 4th, 5th and 9th in their veteran age categories. Another veteran came back next in the form of the muscular Dave Jackson. The former bodybuilder who made his name north of the border stormed back in a gutsy 5:19, an impressive time after an exhausting week. Rob Boland was another to break six minutes as the giant striding dad of two clocked a creditable 5:45 with no walk stops. David Grant ran well to get six minutes dead while the reliable Bill Gutheridge pulled a top performance out of the bag – the club’s youngest veteran male made a wholehearted effort in getting his 6:10 time. Jason Clover went hard to finish nine seconds later with Matt Green making a respectable 6:22. Dug Ladkin, Carl Savage and Ian Orton finished within a second of one another eleven seconds later. Rob Crow came back in a fine 6:44 with Wayne Repton, Lee Millership and Ashley T-Dogg Taylor two five and ten seconds behind the silver haired key working blues fan. The men still weren’t done as the experienced Andy Smith (7:21), John Devenney (7:28) and Merv Jones (7:53) all finished in good time and the enthusiastic Paul Cooper (9:08) was first to finish his mile, therefore holding an overall lead at one stage, albeit briefly.

The ladies were heavily involved too and aside from Pip Weston’s stunning display, there were excellent efforts in abundance. The brilliant Becky Harris once more lead the way with a super swift effort-laden mile of 6:24 and she was closely followed by Nivette Chester who came in with a late entry to record a marvellous 6:35, earning her a top five age category placing to go alongside the 6th of her team mate Harris. Jo Hardy was next back in a brisk 7:09, claiming some notable scalps along the way. Her attempt was only eight seconds outside the club record set four years ago over this seldom raced distance showing she could be a force to be reckoned with in 2021. Cheryl Dewis prefers the longer distances but still had the resolve to turn out and give her best for the team. Her 7:12 run was even two seconds than the pacy Nicki Bowman, who left it characteristically late before launching her speedy assault. Seasoned campaigner Steph White was next through in a decent time of 7:23 matching the performance of Lil Souter, another solid operator. Badger of the Year Yvonne Faulkner was next to finish, in 7:36, with her good friend Kerry Clover seven seconds behind. Clover’s time matched that of the steady Judy Parkes and Jo Davies was just two seconds away from joining them on the 7:43 rostrum. Maggi Savin-Baden returned after rib trouble to record 8:50 and the improving Anne Devenney managed 9:11 before Gail Gunn (9:33), Vicky Cawley (9:57) and Jo James (10:19) threw their collective hats into the ring. Sarah O’Donoghue ran 10:05 with newcomer Nicola Orton rounding the action up in 12:04.

The next race is a five miler in two weeks’ time and by then Badgers will know their fate, although they will be turning out in force regardless and giving it their best shot as always.