Week Ending - 2022/05/15

BADGERS CONQUER CONKERS

With racing taking a backseat this week, another Badger parkrun take-over was the focus with Conkers parkrun in Derbyshire as the latest venue. Ann-Marie and Simon Currier, Ivana Babicova, Fiona Reidy, Paul Restall, Vikki Smith, Ashley Taylor and Pip Weston offered their services for the volunteer roster and over 20 fellow Badgers ran. Sam Starkey 18:43 (3) was first back followed by Mark Repton 19:09 (6) and Cameron Barnes 19:52 just missing out on a top ten finish in 11^th. Matt Green, Russell Lomas, completing his first-ever parkrun (24:40), Mick Bailey, David Purvis and Peter Mann made the top 100. The first lady home was Katy Clemons in 26:31 followed closely by Nick Miles, Merv Jones, Lee Talbot, Maggi Savin-Baden, and Nicola Stanley all ducking under 30mins. Jill Miler, Anna Savin-Baden, 5K maestro Chris Davis, Paul Grubb, David Bailey, Paul Cooper, Terry Argyle, Janet Crumpton, Leesa Dennis and Teresa Satchel rounded out the magnificent turnout. Away from Conkers, Kingsbury Water Park saw Tim Gould first back with Andy Smith also making the top 30. Club stalwart Rachael Shelton once again put in a sterling performance coming home 2^nd lady in 23:28. John Restall, Paul Wallace, Gervase Lancaster, Lil Souter, Steve Perry and Amanda Gould also completed the course.

Babbs Mill, another popular venue, saw some spectacular performances with Glyn Broadhurst crossing the line 1^st in 18:56 followed closely by the return-to-form of David Jackson 19:18 (3), Colin Lees 12th and Adam ‘Babbs Mill’ McElhone 20^th also performed well with Joanne and Keir Hardy also making the short trip.

Further afield, Ashbourne Rec event number 2 saw Jared Karim and Zoe Yeatman. Bedworth was visited by Kate Rathbone and Mick Judd. Yvonne Faulkner and Carl Savage ventured to Northampton where the latter grabbed a parkrun PB in a brilliant 19.08.

Walsall Arboretum was the venue for David Hill and Adi Payne who both made the top 5, with Dave running a spectacular 16:43 to grab 2^nd and Adi a brilliant 17:44 for 5^th in his first 5k in over a year.

Hometown parkruns were also the order of the day, with Anne and John Devenney travelling to Wakefield where Anne proceeded to knock over 2 ½ minutes off her course pb from earlier in the year, and Sharon Jackson returning home to take on Barnsley.

There were lone Badgers at various parkruns up and down the country. Anne Marie Matthews went to Boston (UK), David Craig to Carlisle, Sarah Vine to Rosliston, Steph Attenborough was in Witton, with Gail Gunn taking on the challenge of Woolacombe Dunes.

Away from parkrun, the Swan Challenge at Coombe Abbey saw several Badgers take on the 5k’ish looped course, with Liz Peel completing 6 laps, Carl Savage 5, David Grant and Steph Attenborough 4 and on her continued return from injury, Yvonne Faulkner completed 2 laps in a 10k post-injury pb. The Twilight 10K at the same venue featured Steph White, the lone Badger, competing in 1:05:40.