Week Ending - 2023/11/26

BADGERS DOMINATE AT HOLLY HAYES XC

The final cross-country race of 2023 took place at Holly Hayes Woods near Coalville on Sunday, marking the halfway point in the six race 2023/4 Derby Runner League season. As ever, there was no shortage of drama and calamity at the event which saw Badgers coming home with an unprecedented 1-2 in a league race. The event also marked the 100th league appearance for Adrian Payne, who became only the second Badger ever to reach this impressive milestone. 

For the second time in as many races, new co-captain Dave Hill led the race early on in a bid to make it two wins from two, but a wrong turn left the 32-year-old floundering back in sixth position, taking fellow Badger Danny Warren with him. Undeterred by the mishap, the duo returned to the correct route and rapidly began to make back the places they had each lost with Hill overtaking his teammate near the end, crossing the line first ahead of Warren at the conclusion of the 5.2-mile multi lap course. Never before have the club taken the top two places at a league event in their 12-year history. The drama did not end there, with runners including Sam Starkey, Chris Horton, Ann-Marie Currier and Cameron Barnes among others, all taking tumbles or picking up knocks on what is a testing course, strewn with trip hazards lurking beneath beds of slippy leaves.  

Fellow captain Ryan Preece made a bold decision to go with experience ahead of the big race, leaving himself out of the starting side and packing his team with key men over the age of forty. Neil Russell was the first of these back in the tent, with yet another high-quality run-in 17th position. Adrian Payne, who along with the gas-powered Mark Cox will join the rank of key man in the very near future, was next through in a brilliant 22nd spot, with Chris Horton scoring well in 33rd, three places ahead of Cox. The final two scorers were made up of yet more key men as Chris Tweed in 50th place and the returning Glyn Broadhurst (58th) notched up wonderful runs of their own to fully justify Preece’s decision to go with age over youth. 

This point was further reinforced when it became apparent that the next four Badgers home were also veterans as Sam Starkey led home the trio of Jimmy Dewis, Matt Green and Stefan Martin. The latter two of this group entertained onlookers with a thrilling sprint finish across the soaking wet uphill grass finish, with Green’s superior leg-length advantage winning out over the more space-saving Martin. Chris Young continued his stratospheric improvement with a 136th place finish ahead of the more experienced Ashley Taylor and Bill Gutheridge with Colin Lees edging out vice-Captain Dave Jenkinson in another keenly fought tussle. Cameron Barnes did well to finish after a nasty looking ankle injury in the latter stages of the race. Rob Crow, Simon Currier, Pete Greenfield, Eamon Thawley and newly appointed men’s elite performance advisor Rick Reilly who passed on some particularly helpful pre-race footwear tips to help his charges take full control of the race and with it the season. 

The ladies’ team were looking to extend their lead at the top of the second division and once again they had a quality team out for the occasion led once again by the peerless Eleanor Fowler who bagged a superb seventh place overall. Fowler has never been outside of the top ten since she began running for Badgers a few seasons ago. In form Skipper Liberty Underhill was next back in a wonderful 16th spot, fresh off the back of her course record setting parkrun attempt the day before. Suzy Farrell ran a magnificent race to end up 26th overall, not just filling the vital role of vet scorer in the side but doing so purely on merit rather than on age. Beth Woodward finished strongly in 36th place and co-Captain Megan Griffiths managed 42nd despite harbouring a rabid dislike of cross country to rival that of Chris Horton and Ashley Taylor! 

Kat Wilson backed up her super showing at Bogworth Heath the week before with a great 60th place finish here ahead of the returning Cheryl Dewis, a real Rolls Royce of a runner if ever there was one. Janey Barrett crossed next in 80th place with Jill Miller two spots behind while Jo Hardy and Sharon Jackson both ran well enough to break into the top 100 women on the day. Judy Parkes became the fourth most capped female Badger in history with another industrious performance and Kerry Clover ran in tandem with Joanne Crow in the V45 category. Ann-Marie Currier suffered a labial injury as she battled her way round in 141st place before the hard-working Ivana Babicova completed her two and a half laps ahead of Kate Rathbone and Sara Hawkins, the latter receiving a tumultuous roar. 

Elsewhere, Dave Purvis tackled the Stourbridge based 9 locks challenge 10K race in 51:34 to improve on his time from before. Yvonne Faulkner-Grant ran the Benidorm 10K along with husband Dave (47:55) and Paul Cooper (53:57) with Carl Savage running 99:53 in the half marathon distance there. 

There was plenty of action at parkrun, principally to celebrate David Craig’s 300th appearance, second only to Andy Smith in the all-time listings. Chris Horton took first place in 18:26 to equal Canicross star Elaine Sherwin’s record number of wins, Suzy Farrell ran a PB in 22:07 to finish second lady with Jill Miller and Megan Griffiths both making the top ten. Over at Tamworth, Matt Scarsbrook became the third Badger to win the event in five runnings, setting a mind-blowing course record time of 15:45. And last but by no means least, there was success at Aston Hall parkrun where Dave Hill ran a course record time of 18:01 and fellow captain Liberty Underhill managed to do similarly in 22:11 as both took first place in their respective gender categories.