Week Ending - 2024/11/17

PB PRIDE AS BADGERS KNOCK IT OUT OF THE PARK

Badgers were the most represented club in attendance at the sellout Derby 10-mile race on Sunday, returning home with a host of personal best performances on a renowned quick course. Starting and finishing at Pride Park football stadium, home of Derby County, Newham and Essex Beagles star and second claim Badger, Matt Scarsbrook finished a fabulous fourth overall, just three seconds shy of his best set at the Great South Run in 2023, with a terrific time of 51:33. Flying! 

Following him was meant to be an epic five-way tussle of the vets with much hype during the build-up to the event centring around who might win out from the fabled quintet of Dave Jackson, Mark Cox, Chris Tweed, Adrian Payne, and Glyn Broadhurst. Jackson, the fastest over the distance historically, withdrew beforehand due to a nasty shin flare up while bookies favourite Broadhurst opted to run as a pacer for ladies’ captain Megan Griffiths. The Badgers supercomputer estimated a finish time of 59:58 for newly turned vet Payne and he delivered the goods in a thrilling finish to take the spoils in 60:02 (PB). Wannabe veteran Mark Cox finished just six seconds later, a fantastic distance debut for the Stoke Golding ultra runner, who had Payne in his pocket for much of the race. To see Payne beating off Cox in such an exhilarating climax was a real treat for the Baddesley man who was beaming from ear to ear all afternoon, let that be known. Fellow sub-three marathon vet Chris Tweed weighed in with arguably the biggest PB of his career of late, taking a quarter of an hour off his 2012 time set at the Burton 10, to get home in 63:33! 

Ashley Taylor romped home in 68:27 to land himself a two-minute PB and Sam Starkey rolled back the years with his quickest 10-mile since 2018 with his 68:39. Long-striding Matt Green used all of his experience to power his way to a fine PB time of 68:54, all the more impressive when you consider he is closer to 50 than 40 age-wise. Wayne Repton recorded his second 10-mile PB in as many weeks with a gutsy 69:33, his first time under 70 minutes no less. Jim Cottom too bought a ticket for the PB train, travelling first class with a 2-minute best of 72:39. Bill Gutheridge has been putting plenty of graft in recently and he was rewarded with a season best 72:50. Megan Griffiths continued her stellar 2024 with a big PB of 73:38, within a minute of the club record, paced by the industrious Glyn Broadhurst. Chris Young followed next nine seconds later before Paul Grubb produced a belter of a run in 76:46, another PB from a man with vast experience and age very much against him. Colin Lees endured a torrid time in 77:21 but Paul Cooper raised spirits once again as he ran a three-minute PB of 81:14, a proper job. 

Rob Crow followed up his success at the annual awards ceremony with a fine run of 82:17. Rachael Browne was second lady Badger to finish and helped herself to a five-minute PB of 84:19, another terrific run on a day full of them. Peter Mann is battling prostate cancer at present, but he did not let it stop him from racing his way to a sub-ninety time of 89:40, the run of the day. Joanne Crow ran an excellent 91:48 just ahead of Judy Parkes with Sharon Jackson, Jill Miller and Ross Kilburn all going well. Kieren Coopey continued his improvement with a PB of 96:30, some seven minutes quicker than his previous mark. Maggi Savin-Baden ran an excellent gold standard time of 99:00, nine seconds ahead of debutante Steph Nickless. Terry Argyle ran 1:43:23 and Debbie Bremner bagged a two-minute PB of 1:43:48. Gary Bartlam, Anna Savin-Baden and Fiona Reidy all battled hard before the trio of Sara Hawkins (1:57:15), Kate Rathbone (1:58:16) and Gemma Spencer (2:06:06) all managed huge PB’s in what was an epic race for the north Warwickshire side.

With such a proliferation of Badgers at Derby, you could be forgiven for thinking that was it for the weekend, but you would be wrong. In-form Dave Purvis ran a half marathon PB at Alton Towers in 1:46:25 and Carl Savage took part in the Escape from Meriden adventure race where he clocked up fifty miles altogether in a shade under sixteen and a half hours, ending up in Corby of all places, a real war of attrition. Eamon Thawley tackled the off-road Coombe 8 trail race and returned home in a time of 77 minutes, a fine effort from one of the most experienced Badgers of the lot. 

Parkrun saw plenty of action too, with highlights including Stacey Horner’s PB at Tamworth in 21:36 (third lady). Mark Repton ran 19:51 to take 5th overall and at Conkers, Eamon Thawley ran his fastest parkrun for six weeks as he sped to a time of 26:31. Glyn Broadhurst, at 48, was the fastest of the weekend with his 3rd place 18:39 at Watermeadows, near Towcester, where Megan Griffiths finished 4th female. Babbs Mill saw three ladies reach the top ten as Rachel Crump, Jane Barrett and Victoria Jones finished 3rd, 4th, and 6th respectively.