Week Ending - 2022/06/26

BADGERS OPERATE SOLIDLY AT PRESTWOLD 10K

The fourth round of the six-race Leicestershire Road Running League took place on Sunday at a sunny and windy Prestwold for the annual 10K event. The race is billed as fast and flat, but the former airfield attracts gusty conditions on a near-permanent basis which added to the featureless and often desolate landscape, it is a race purely for purists. That said, Badgers managed to field the biggest team of the day and indeed their season, with some 46 runners giving everything for the club in their quest for league position and individual goals.

The holidaying Matt Scarsbrook was a big miss for the men’s side but that still did not stop an array of stunning performances from his teammates in black and white. In a field stacked with quality including GB star Gemma Steel, Dave Hill, who has been phenomenal all season, led the club home in 17^th place with a fantastic new PB time of 34:54. He became one of a select group of Badgers to break 35 minutes for the distance. Of the current register, only Danny Warren, Aaron Chetwynd and club record holder Scarsbrook have achieved the feat, as did former greats Chris Baxter and Ryan Bennett.

Three places behind Hill was Chris Horton who was just one second shy of matching his V40 club record set last month at Silverstone. He took 20^th place overall in 35:27 and recorded a rare Platinum County standard time in the process, one of just ten people to do so in the race. For the third time in as many races, Mark Cox was well up in the points. The hard-hitting floor fitter has been fine-tuning his dirty diesel-powered engine of late and with magnificent effect. Despite harbouring a minor leg problem, he was still able to romp to a new PB time of 36:16, beating off the advances of young pretender Ryan Preece. Preece has long been an admirer of Cox and he tried getting close to the Goliath of Stoke Golding but ultimately came up just short by five seconds, an excellent distance debut for the pugnacious pavement pounder.

Next back was a real surprise to some but not those who have been watching Cameron Barnes’s steep upward trajectory of late. In arguably the run of the day, he sliced a staggering 5 minutes off his previous best with a barnstorming 37:27. Followers of the 23-year-old’s progress have been particularly struck by his refusal to bow to convention when it comes to nutrition. Barnes is a pioneer for a brave new dietary blueprint consisting mostly of chips, bread, Weetabix and blue pop.

Fan’s favourite Adrian Payne (37:37), Mark Repton (37:51) and Danny Warren (37:57) all got back within close succession of one another, with Warren overtaking the aforementioned Chris Baxter, now at Poplar RC after a long-term injury, on the run to the line. The men’s vets side welcomed back Sam Starkey who ran a second ahead of the workmanlike Glyn Broadhurst, with both key men finishing inside the top 70. Show-stealer Dave Jackson bravely stepped up to the plate to cement the men’s vets' top scoring four, operating solidly as he does, all day and all night, in 41 minutes. Captain Carl Savage goes from strength to strength and his endeavours of the last 12 months were rewarded again with yet another PB, this time of 41:05. Bill Gutheridge, now in his 40’s also ran a PB, this time in 43:59, over a minute better than his previous best to lead the vet B team back. Ashley Taylor and Wayne Repton ran well, and vice skipper Dave Jenkinson almost eclipsed his 10K best with a solid performance of his own in 46:47.

Few Badgers epitomise the Badger spirit like Rob Crow. Reliable, hardworking and honest, the V50 8-mile club record holder once again impressed by turning in a personal best performance of high quality in 47:00 as well as scoring points for the high-flying vet men’s B team. Mick Bailey was next through in a sublime time of 47:09 (PB), a minute ahead of V60 club record holder Pete Mann who did well to get round in 48:05 given his left-field pre-race hydration strategy (eight pints and a kebab). Newcomer Russell Lomas ran a PB in 49:02 while Justin Haywood battled bravely in what to him must have seemed like sub-Arctic conditions. Pete Coogan, Adam McElhone and Martin Graham all ran while Adrian Parkes helped himself to yet another PB in 50:14 and silver standard. Jamie Lawrence and Chris Young made their course debuts for the club and Lee Millership toughed it out in the heat along with Warren Clamp. The weathered Jimmy Dewis made it round gingerly after injuring his calf ducking a Curtly Ambrose-like bouncer while playing cricket.

The ladies enjoyed some excellent support as they fight for their place at the top table following their promotion in 2021. The inspirational Cheryl Dewis was first back yet again in 47:03, a fully deserved gold standard for a quality performer who never lets the ladies' team down. Next back in a PB of 50:16 was rising star Emma Woolrich who produced a super run to make the top 60 ladies overall. A resurgent Nicki Bowman pushed hard to clock a season’s best 51:20, the vice-captain leading from the front as usual. Ahead of all of these Badger aces was Laura Starkey, wife of Badger Sam, who has been helping with her training. A relative newcomer to the world of running, she impressed everyone with her exceptional time of 46:38 and was promptly issued with joining instructions at the conclusion of the race, certainly one to watch!

Captain Marvel Lil Souter was the final ladies' scorer with another decent effort. The bingo-loathing Polesworth-based star once again operated solidly on a day packed with solid operators. Ann-Marie Currier has been training for this year’s London Marathon and her improved fitness has paid dividends galore. He she ran an official personal best over the distance in 56:11 as she looks to consolidate her status as the 10^th best V40 lady runner in the LRRL league to date.

Jo Davies (57:45) and Hannah Coogan (58:23) both broke the hour and Kerry Clover scored points for the high-flying vet ladies B team before Sarah O’Donoghue produced the race of her career so far with a huge personal best time of 63:18. She has come on leaps and bounds in the past 12 months with every sign suggesting that there is still more to come. Veteran runners Christine Morris, Eileen McElhone and Teresa Satchell made it round, the latter being chaperoned by Pip Weston, who is rehabilitating an injury and hence not at full tilt. Fiona Reidy, debutante Juliette Trollope and Gemma Spencer rounded up an excellent morning’s work by ensuring the best turnout of any club at a LRRL event in 2022 so far.

With just two races remaining, Badgers men are still in the hunt for league honours but after a strong showing from title rivals OWLS at this race, the Championship is likely to go down to the wire with just one point currently separating the two teams.

Away from the league race, there were two personal bests at parkrun as Andy Altoft and Warren Clamp both set new marks at Kingsbury. Rachael Shelton and Jo Hardy were the weekend’s highest placers with 7^th position finishes at their events. Jill Miller led the way at the Leamington Half marathon in a time of 2:16:55 with Ross Kilburn two minutes back and Paul Cooper bagging a PB in 2:21:15.

The Gate Gallop attracted several Badgers including Steve Perry, Matt Green, Pete Greenfield, Neil Thorne and John & Anne Devenney. Second claim athlete Eleanor Fowler was also in action for Badgers and took second place behind race winner Amy Lowe, and first veteran overall in a super run of 44:21.

Stephanie Attenborough was the first Badger back at the Snickerthon marathon which she completed the day after the Big Bear ultra-event at Cannock Chase, covering an aggregate total of nearly 58 miles at an average speed of 3.7 mph across the weekend.