Week Ending - 2020/11/29
OVER 20 NEW PB’s IN SUPER LEAGUE SIZZLER
As the Badgers Super League enters its penultimate week, the race for the title continues with league leaders Cool Runnings, led by the in-form Hannah Craig lost more ground to a revitalised Queen Mother Blue outfit fronted by former Stranraer based pool player Dave Jockson. Once again it was Aaron Chetwynd who helped pump his side towards maximum points with another incredible run. Captains had to allocate runners to cover either 5 miles or 10 miles and Chetwynd, the fourth most-capped Badger in history, took on the longer distance and came back in an astounding 56:14, some forty seconds inside Ryan Bennett’s impressive club record. While these races will not count for the club honours board, the performances have been ratified by Badgers race official Mike Rabsich.
The standard Chetwynd has set has made others in his team follow. Glyn Broadhurst is in the form of his life, he chipped away at his PB with a superb 60:46 in the 10, while Kerry Clover continues to go faster and faster, this week setting a new PB of 86:43. Katrina Dawson ran a five-mile best in 47:18 while Dug Ladkin clocked a best ever 33:04. The skipper himself managed a quality 29:56, rolling back the years with his best time since the onset of the ankle problems that blighted his 2018 season as well as the Facebook news feeds of the majority of his friends. With teams worst two scores to drop off from next week and a couple of poor rounds in the bag, Jackson has high hopes for his in-form charges to make up lost ground on the runaway leaders.
Craig’s side still managed as credible week taking third place thanks to inspired efforts from Dave Jenkinson (78:41 – PB) and the captain herself in 88:28 (PB) while the improving Jo Hardy clocked 41:47 for the 5-mile discipline, another PB for the steady legged brunette. Evergreen Martyn Barrett also performed admirably in sunny Spain and Serena Baker also had an excellent run.
The race overall was won by Paul Restall who achieved the best time versus handicap as he ran 46:27 in the shorter event. Popular Paul is a well-liked figure in Badgers and his older brother John as well as wife Mandy all run in the club making it a real family affair. Dave Bailey and Chris Davies made up the top three with Janet Crumpton in 5th being the highest placed female after her marvellous five mile PB of 44:55. Her captain, Robert “Bulging” Boland, was so delighted with her run that he went and recorded a 10 mile PB of his own (70:12) and Jason Clover continued his rich vein of form with the third PB in that team with a brisk 78:37.
Maggi Savin-Baden’s team Chafing The Dream posted a magnificent 6 new personal bests as her team continue to chase success. In the five-mile side of the draw, Sarah Jane Chetwynd ran 43:37 a personal best, even more impressive given that she was giving birth earlier in the year. Vicki Fowler and Bill Gutheridge joined her in the five while Hannah Merry (90:48), Lil Souter (86:23) and Jimmy Dewis (70:55), all ran the fastest ten miles of their lives. Jimmy’s wife Cheryl competes in a different team, but she bore witness to more magnificent efforts as several of her team-mates recorded personal bests. Sarah Reynolds ran a tremendous 43:43 in the shorter event while Vicki Smith (47:59), Merv Jones (42:41) and Cameron Barnes (34:23) followed suit. Carl Savage has enjoyed a super season with improvements galore – here he ran his fastest ten miles ever in 72:27.
All this means that Cool Runnings lead at the top of the table is cut to just seven points and with ten points available for a team win, the race for gold is up for grabs now as the iconic Brian Moore once famously commentated. In the individual standings, Aaron Chetwynd now assumes joint leadership with Hannah Merry, an incredible effort from him particularly as he went into this competition in decent form so the room for improvement as a quick runner near the top of his game was decidedly limited. Next week, runners get a free hand to repeat a distance they have already run before the final week of the tried and tested 5K makes a return to see how far everyone has come since the outset of the tournament.