The Senior Men’s team continued their good start to 2012 as they were the highest placed Berkshire club at the South of England Championships held at Stanmer Park on Saturday. The team were placed 36th out of 79 thanks to runs from James Craggs 166th, Sam Hall 217th, Mark Vardy 286th, Dave Wright 338th, Dean Makar 419th and Chris Hobson 446th.
Although the Senior Women were just one short of making a scoring team they all ran individual best placing’s at the championships, Jess Franklin came 44th, Sue Van Huyssteen 113th and Becky Coxhead 194th.
Alex Muir produced a very impressive run to finish 21st in the under 20 Men’s race, and Benji Fry ran well at his first major championships narrowly missing the top 100, finishing in 105th place.
Many thanks from the team to Brian Ireland for driving the Mini bus for us all.
Andy
Newbury AC athletes were in action at the Romsey 5 and the Basingstoke Park Run.
Irwin Fairclough (30:20) and Rose Metalli (38:48) took the runners-up places in their respective age-groups M55 and F50 at Romsey.
Paul Reeves set a new PB of 21:10 for 5K at Basingstoke where Emiliano Espinar finished 14th in 19:44.
Sophie Fowler (St Bart’s) was the best placed of a number of club athletes competing for their schools when coming 5th in the U19 County Schools Championship on 21st Jan at Wellington. She was closely followed by fellow St Bart’s pupils Vicky Duncan (7th) and twin sister Charlotte (9th).
In the U17 girls race Sam Van Huyssteen (The Downs) came 14th, Jenny Pudney 18th, Katie Metalli (St Bart’s) 37th, & Sally Herbert (Kennet) 53rd. In the boys equivalent Will Tyson ran well for 17th place. U15 Fen Holland (Kennet) came 16th with Ellie Williams, Polly Mitton and Hannah Wolak all from St Bart’s packing together to come in in 49th, 50th & 51st.
U13 races saw Holly Blower & Lizzie Parker both from The Downs in 12th and 53rd places respectively whilst in the boys equivalent Matt Pudney & Gerren Scapens of St Bart’s were 25th and 79th.
As a result of their runs Sophie, Vicky, Charlotte, Sam & Fen have been selected to represent Berkshire in the southern Inter-Counties cross country match on 4th February.
The following races will make up this year’s County Road Running Championships:
Wokingham Half Marathon – Sunday 19th February 2012
Maidenhead Easter 10 Mile – Good Friday 6th April 2012
Wargrave 10K – Sunday 10th June 2012
Abingdon Marathon – Sunday 21st October 2012
Race fee only, no extra cost – but must register for both hosting race and Berkshire Championships
Gold Silver and Bronze for 4 age groups (male and female)
Full details & rules at: www.berkshireathletics.org.uk/rr.htm or contact rr@berkshireathletics.org.uk
The 4th Oxford mail league fixture will now go ahead at Cirencester Park as originally planned, not back at Ascott-Under-Wychwood.
Please visit the Oxford Mail League website for all the details, please pass on the message to any club members. ( both courses have a little slope at the finish, I do not think it will make much difference !)
Also can I put out a call for the Senior Men’s shield, I have been asked if I could bring the shields to Cirencester so they will be ready to hand out at the final fixture in March.
Thank you all again for being so supportive of the cross country fixtures, you have been brilliant.
Andy
Nine Newbury AC athletes were in action on Sunday at the Rough ‘n’ Tumble 10 near Pewsey. Dave Wright was the highest placed amongst them fihishing 16th (1:14:36) in this multi-terrain challenge which features 1200 feet of climbing. Other finishers were: 69th Chris Hobson: 1:23:25; 79th (1st O60) Geoff Anderson: 1:24:38; 121st Karen Kennedy: 1:28:30; 122nd James Thomas: 1:28:32; 159th Bob Taylor: 1:31:47; 212th Peter Choules: 1:35:56; 315th Julie Coxhead: 1:44:30; 325th Becky Coxhead: 1:45:05. There were over 500 finishers.
On Saturday, three club members ran in sub-zero temperatures at the Basingstoke Park Run 5K: 8th Irwin Fairclough: 19:00; 9th Dean Makar: 19:28; 110th Florence Barry: 27:09. There were over 200 finishers,
Many of you have participated in the free, weekly Park Run 5K events at Basingstoke, Swindon, Andover etc. Starting from Saturday 11th February, Newbury will have its own event based at Greenham Common. This should be a great event whether you are looking for a race, some speed-work or a weekly “social” run.
For details see the event website
Please note that the Annual General Meeting of Newbury Athletic Club will be held at Crookham Common Athletic Track, Thornford Park on Tuesday 28th February 2012 at 7.30pm
All members are invited to attend. If anyone would like to join the committee then please send your nominations to Emma Carter (Club Secretary) by Tuesday 14th February.
Newbury A.C sit proudly at the top of both the Men’s and Women’s top divisions of the Oxford Mail cross country league following some good performances at the latest fixture held at Middleton Cheney.
The Senior Men’s team lowered their best ever team score down from 177 points to 136 points to leapfrog Cirencester at the top by 17 points with two matches to go. Tom Watkins and Alex Muir were right up with the leaders finishing in 3rd and 4th places respectively in the Senior race, and also claim 1st and 2nd in the under 20 age group, Alex is currently leading this age group.
The Senior Women head their division by a resounding 134 points above Headington in second place. Sophie Crumly is currently top of the individual Senior Women’s rankings after earning second place this time round, Jess Franklin finished 6th which keeps her nicely in 3rd place overall and the 3rd A team member on the day was Sue Van Huyssteen who tops the Veteran 45 age group. Sarah Fowler produced her 3rd consecutive win in the veteran 55 age group, Sophie and Charlotte Fowler are 4th and 5th in the under 20 age group, and Victoria Duncan is 5th, with Samantha Van Huyssteen 7th in the under 17′s. Ed Fry ran well to finish 5th in the under 11 Boys race, while brother Benji Fry also did well to come 4th in the under 13 Boys. Continue reading →
Dave Wright is again organising a trip ” Up North” to do some fell races. Planned dates are 5th-8th May (7th is a Bank Holiday). A similar trip was held last year and was a great success. We even got a feature in the fell runners “bible” last time as we commended them on their camaraderie , exciting races and spectacular scenery. I think they admired the fact that 5 southerners had managed to run 4 races up and down hills/mountains in 4 days. Those who lived to tell the tale and would be happy to provide encouragement for you to join this year’s trip are: Becky Coxhead, James Craggs, Dean Makar, Chris Hobson and, of course, Dave Wright.
Accommodation will be in a Youth Hostel in Lancashire. Cost £16 per night, excluding breakfast which can be booked closer to the time. The running programme will have one race per day ranging from 5 to 7 miles in 4 different places near Manchester, Blackburn, Halifax and Sheffield. It’s up to you to decide how many (if any) of the races you run. The trip will include plenty of sighseering, walking etc over the 4 days.
Please contact Dave Wright, as soon as possible, if you are interested in joining all or part of this adventure. He can provide details on the races and alternative travel / accommodation options.
