Week Ending - 2022/09/04

BADGERS MEN ARE COUNTY CHAMPIONS FOR THIRD TIME

The final race of the Leicestershire Road Running League 2022 took place at the weekend with the Rotherby 8 race in the rural northeast of the county attracting over four hundred runners. With plenty at stake in both individual and team standings, the race was hotly anticipated by runners of Badgers and OWLS particularly as their men’s teams faced a ‘winner takes all’ situation at the top of Division One. OWLS went into the race with a slender one-point lead over second-placed Badgers but also with significant momentum going into the event having won the most recent two encounters in the league. The Leicester outfit had won successive promotions to the topflight and Badgers were looking to retain the crown they won in successive years before the pandemic. At the top of the field, Badgers star Matt Scarsbrook faced a battle with the imperious Mo Hussein from Roadhoggs for top spot in the individual rankings. With the exception of Hinckley’s Simon Birch, these two have been far above the rest of the field and on Sunday, the story was no different as they hared off up the road out of sight of an otherwise very capable pack. Unfortunately for Scarsbrook, it was Hussein who won out on the day, getting back in 41:24, 28 seconds clear of the Baddesley man who has still enjoyed a magnificent season all the same and can be extremely proud of what he has achieved in his career so far.

In form Tamworth AC star Ash Baldwin was next home running as second claim for Badgers and what a performance he turned in. On a challenging course with plenty of up and down, he stormed home in 43:47 (PB) to take a well-deserved third place in the race and earn one of only a handful of diamond standard runs on the day, beating off some notable names in the process including GB star Gemma Steel who obliterated the women’s race, not to mention beating most of the men. With two-thirds of the podium being Badgers, the club were off to an ideal start but highly motivated, not to mention fast, OWLS team filled positions 4, 5, and 8 with Dave Hill (45:44) in ninth able to even the numbers up. The Polesworth man has been superb all season and can count himself particularly unfortunate to miss out on individual league honours this term due to the noticeably higher standards in 2022. He even gave up his place in the re-arranged Wrexham half marathon, just to be able to help the team try to win the league, outstanding commitment. OWLS then had two more runners back in 10^th and 12^th putting them in prime position for the win, with the first six to count and five already home and hosed.

But Badgers legendary strength in depth was still able to serve them well, even though the rules this year have slightly diminished this advantage (it was always the first eight that counted). Ryan Preece put in his best LRRL display to date with a hard-fought 46:49 in 14^th spot, even finding the energy from somewhere to summon up a sprint finish in order to claim what could have been a crucial extra place. Then, in quick succession came two club workhorses, both on and off the field. At 47 years of age, Chris Horton has been mixing it runners half his age all season long and he weighed in with another crucial run for his team with a diamond standard 47:14, one whole second quicker than his run in the same race in 2021. Immediately behind him was club chairperson and organiser-in-chief Danny Warren, back in the points for the second successive race after a season blighted by niggles and poor form. Warren worked exceptionally hard to be as fit as possible for this race and his time of 47:24 earned him 18^th place in the race watched by his mum, wife (former ladies captain Rachael) and their young daughter Orlagh.

This meant that OWLS needed their final runner to be placed in 21^st position or better to take the title but when Neil Russell filled the 20th spot in a masterful 47:44 (PB), his first outing of the season, the writing was on the wall. The speedy veteran made a welcome return to the fold and looked like he had never been away, cheered on by his young son too in the process. A long straight farm drive gave spectators an excellent view of the finish and approach from a long way out and it was the pacy Dave McGowan who was the next to finish in a quality 48:22 (28^th place). With no OWL in sight, in form Sam Starkey ran a personal best of 49:55 putting him well inside the top fifty as Badgers managed to get a phenomenal NINE runners back in under 50 minutes on a difficult course. The OWLS sixth and final counter followed soon after the Chester marathon-bound Starkey, but the excellent effort levels did not stop there as each runner out on the course knew that their contribution could still be pivotal at that stage. Cameron Barnes stormed home next in 51:58 and Chris Tweed rounded up the scoring for the men’s vets side who lost their title to Huncote over the season but boosted by the likes of Starkey and Russell for this race, were winners on the day. Tweed ran 52:31, another personal best in what is looking like his best season yet. Popular captain Carl Savage announced his intention to step down at the end of the season albeit with a stellar record, with a XC league and road league win in his first season. He ran 53:51 in his first attempt at the distance while former skippers Adi Payne and Simon Currier were there to watch. Payne, the ultimate team man was still suffering from his Alpine experience but dug deep to run a courageous 54:41 and Currier played to his administrative strengths on the sidelines.

Ashley T-Dogg Taylor produced a huge new PB by running 53:54 in 75^th place, just ahead of his nemesis and former pool-playing string puller extraordinaire Dave Jackson. The two-time former vice-captain and 5-mile club record holder has been an influential figure at the club for many years and here he did his bit in 54:58 to lead the vets B team of Martin Graham (60:30), Wayne Repton (61:39) and Rob Crow (62:18) home. All three men have had super seasons in their own right, all continuing to improve despite their advancing years, Graham especially earning a four-medal haul at the British Transplant Games in Leeds earlier in the summer.

Crow is renowned as something of an eight-mile specialist at the club. To date, he alone is the only person to ever hold the coveted V50 club record for the distance and here he bettered his own mark by almost four minutes, the first of two records to fall on the day. The second was the male V60 mark where Pete Mann (64:13) shaved 22 seconds off Alan Argyle’s best set over six years ago on a balmy night on Humberside. Mick Bailey came close to beating that record too as he made a super time of 64:57, the V70 record will no doubt fall next year when the Kingsbury man enters a new age bracket. Adrian Parkes (68:08), Russell Lomas (69:20), Matthew Smith (82:08) and John Devenney (89:00) all ran well to complete the action on the men’s side of the draw.

With the ladies team already relegated, there was understandably less take up for this event but nonetheless, ten Badgers finished successfully. Newcomer Megan Griffiths has really impressed since joining earlier this year and she led the side home in an impressive 69:00. Sharon Jackson was next through in a personal best time of 70:49 with Ann-Marie Currier and Jo Davies (both 82:39) joining her in a rare hat-trick performance, which is scoring in all three categories for the club (ladies, vet ladies and mixed team). Currier also became the first female in club history to complete an entire full season of attendance across all league races both cross country and road. Fiona Reidy helped Sarah O’Donoghue scoop a new PB of 88:35 and Fiona Hutton ran 97:26 before the trio of Teresa Satchell, Anne Devenney and Gemma Spencer rounded up the action, two making their distance debut and Devenney boasting one of the strongest lippy games in club history.

Amongst the female absentees was the inspirational Cheryl Dewis, out with injury but a hitherto ever-present over the course of the season. While results are still to be finalised, it looks as though she will become the first female Badger ever to win an age category outright in the LRRL.

One of the few male absentees was key man Glyn Broadhurst who was, unfortunately, double booked at the re-arranged Wrexham half marathon. With the vets team unable to haul in leaders Huncote Harriers, he opted to miss the Rotherby race, one of the very few occasions he has not featured at a league event and went all out for a PB in north Wales. He returned with a good one too in 80:36 made even better when he found out that Manchester United had beaten Arsenal on the drive back to the Midlands. Hannah and Peter Coogan were also involved, running 2:09:52 and 1:49:45 respectively, the latter being a silver standard time too. Suzy Farrell ran well in the Worcester 10K making 56:56 and Liz Peel clocked 2:09:09 in the London Big Half as she continues to notch up more races over the half marathon distance. The longest run was that of Mark Repton who finished the South Cheshire 20-mile race in a decent 2:19:56, three weeks ahead of his next world major marathon in Berlin. Parkrun saw popular Paul Restall chalk up his 200^th event at Babbs Mill, becoming one of only a handful of Badgers to have made the magic milestone. Megan Griffiths helped herself to yet another PB, this time at Kingsbury Water Park where she finished 4^th in 23:56. Sharon Jackson was the club’s other top ten finisher as she finished 7^th at Poolsbrook while Glyn Broadhurst completed the Parkrun bingo challenge by having completed every possible different finish time based upon the number of completed seconds between 0 and 59 over a 5K run, a harder task than it first appears.