WESTBURY HARRIERS WEEKLY NEWSLETTER 22/09/24
Hello,
Welcome to this week’s WH news, lots to get through this week: the fallout from the XC Nationals is still ongoing… With the amazing Freya Bradleys unprecedented female U17 win making club history and the Snr men’s team winning a trophy! The Midland road relays had both a men’s and women’s team out, with two race reports to read. And if that wasn’t enough Anne Dockery was flying at the Oldbury 10 miler, smashing the run Britain rankings! Lots more first-place category finishes in that race – make sure you have a read).
Looking forward to the Forest of Dean half next Sunday (for the next Club Championship race), and don’t forget the first cross-country fixture on the 12th October. Plus club feedback night tomorrow (Monday) at Coombe Dingle, all details in this email. Have a great week,
Ben Wood
RACE AND EVENT REPORTS
Freya Bradley makes history at the Nationals!
by club Historian Pete Keogan,
Wow. Perhaps they should hold “The National” in September more often!
Huge congratulations to Freya Bradley on becoming the first Westbury Harrier to win an individual female English National Cross Country title. She joins an exclusive club. John Parker won the Youths (U.17) title at Warwick in 1956, Mark Vile also won the Youths title at Leeds in 1982. In 1988 Simon Mugglestone won the Junior Men’s title at Newark.
Also a big well done to the Senior Men for their first top ten finish since 1996, that was also at Newark.
Westbury Harriers Men win Michelin Trophy
by Mike Mewse
We had a four day wait, whilst results were checked, before being announced winners of the Michelin Trophy for minor clubs at the 2024 English National Cross Country Championships. The Michelin trophy is awarded to the club with the best progress over the last five years. (Our Senior Men were classified as a minor club having not placed in the top 30 for over 5 years). We’ve improved from being unplaced in 2019 (2 runners) unplaced in 2020 (4 runners) 67th in 2022, 40th in 2023 and now 9th in 2024. Competition is fierce and we beat East Cheshire by just one place to secure the trophy. Well done to all.
Midland 4 Stage Road Relays (LADIES) – Saturday 21st September 2024
A great day out for our ladies at the Midland 4 stage road relays at Sutton Park yesterday. We had 2 teams take part, 1 senior and 1 master. With the usual headache of organising relays teams and last minute changes we were grateful to get 2 complete teams to the start line. Many thanks to Dawn and Robyn for stepping in, eternally grateful.
Conditions were hot and humid with our leg 3 and 4 runners receiving some rather torrential downpours. Everyone ran fantastically. All posting faster times than previous years. The ladies field was of a really high standard and the number of teams taking part seems to be growing each year, which is great to see.
The senior team finished 28th out of 68 teams. Our senior team saw Meg and Maeve step up to run as seniors as the first time. Really great to have them on board and they both ran brilliantly. Hannah ran nearly a minute quicker than 2 years ago ( consistent strength and interval sessions paying off) and Tamsin 13 seconds quicker than last year.
28th Westbury Harriers (seniors). 1:13:32 1 Tamsin Chick (33) 17:22 2 Megan Orriss (35) 19:05 3 Maeve Robinson (33) 18:24 4 Hannah Batchelor (28) 18:41
Our masters teams team were 4th for the 3rd consecutive year!! They should not be disappointed with fourth as it was a high class field and they were only 9 seconds off 3rd! We will try again next year.
Robyn ran a great first leg despite not feeling 100%, Dawn who has never run this event before tackled the course superbly. Katie improved on last year, dipping under the 17 min mark. Catherine ran a storming last leg posting the 5th fastest masters time of the day, 25 seconds quicker than last year.
4th Westbury Harriers Vets 1:08:38 1 Robyn Ellis (9) 17:41 2 Dawn Stygall (5) 17:40 3 Katie Hughes (6) 16:59 4 Catherine Treble (4) 16:18
Well done everyone and thank-you so much for travelling and taking the time to race for the club.
Midland Counties Road Relays (MEN), Sutton Park, Sat 21st Sept
Well done to our Senior Men who finished 42nd out of 120 teams in the Midland 6 Stage road relays at Sutton Park. 6 stages of 5.88K.
Ireland International Seamus Robinson (18.39) was our star performer with a high class run, taking us into 28th place on the second leg after Jack Derrick (56th place – 20.30) had made a strong start. Ever reliable Alastair Blackwood (44th 23.25) had a good run in 3rd before handing over to Paul Bretherton (45th 21.10) with Matt Cant (44th 22.38) and Ben Rawlins (42nd 20.22). completing the six man team.
Many thanks to everyone for making it to the event – by car and bike ! Yes – two of our team cycled from Yate to Sutton Park !!
OLDBURY 10 MILER
by Felicity Russell
Some tidy club results from today’s Oldbury 10-miler, which in addition to being a Thornbury RC race, is also the AAA 10-mile championship race. (Didn’t manage a full club photo beforehand but here are a few of us):
Matt Ellis 55:04, 2nd Male overall, & V40 1st
Judy Knights 1:19:58, FV60 1st,
Alison White 1:24:57 FV60 2nd
Fliss Russell, 1:26:59, FV65 1st,
Anne Dockery, 1:21:17, FV70 1st, FV75 1st – which looks as if it will be fastest of all time in her age group on the Run Britain Rankings,
Anthony Glover, 58:03,
Chris Palmer 1:03:26,
Martin Clayton 1:12:40,
Helen Kirkwood, 1:25:54.
There may well be other WH members not included here – if that is you, please add yourself! – as I’m only going off the entry list and some people forget to put their club down on the entry form, mentioning no names on that ….?
CLUB NOTICES
Club members feedback evening – Monday 23rd Sep 6-8.30pm
On Monday 23rd September 6pm-8.30pm in the committee room (upstairs in Coombe Dingle Cricket pavilion, next to the bar) we will be holding our 2nd feedback evening. This is your time to contribute views and ideas into the clubs development plan.
We will be asking your thoughts around
Communication (Do you get the information you need? Thinking about the different communication channels the club uses – newsletter, emails, social media, direct messages).
Training (Do training sessions provided meet your needs. If you don’t come to club sessions could you share why not and what we could do to change this).
Transition from juniors to Seniors (what would you like to see the club doing to support and retain athletes moving from juniors to seniors)
Improvement (do you have ideas of ways the club could improve).
You can come along and speak to members of the committee. There will be post it notes where we will ask you to add your comments into the different areas we are asking about, this is done anonymously. If you can not attend you can email your feedback to manager.women@westburyharriers.co.uk
TIME TO BE SEEN…IT’S GETTING DARKER
As the evenings draw in and it starts to get dark much earlier, please remember to bring a headtorch/light and/or wear bright/hi vis clothing to training sessions from now on.
WESTBURY CENTENARY MUGS
If you haven’t already received your centenary mug, please collect one from Mark and Sarah Andrews. All club members get one so don’t miss out!
GWENT LEAGUE FIXTURES 2024-25
Fixtures confirmed for this season are:
Sat 12th Oct: Pembrey Country Park (entries now open on RunTogether so do sign up. The details still show last year’s race times as they have not yet been confirmed for 2024. We will confirm ASAP. Please sign up the Friday before the race)
Sat 9th Nov: Llandaff Fields, Cardiff
Sat 30th Nov: Blaise Castle (date provisional)
Sat 8th Feb: Margam Park, Port Talbot
Sat 1st March (or Sun 2nd): Venue TBD
SOUTH WEST CONFERENCE
On Saturday 28th September the South West Regional Council will be hosting a conference in Exeter (1-4pm). This is targeted at volunteers, coaches, officials, athletes and parents. The conference will include networking opportunities, a presentation on club standards and updates from both EA and the South West Regional Council. Please find attached a copy of the conference flyer containing further details. Please note it is FREE to attend but you need to book your place by emailing Keith Reed – reedy41c@googlemail.com
YEOVIL OPEN ATHLETICS DAY
In partnership with Yeovil AC, England Athletics are delighted to be delivering an open day on Sunday 29th September. This is being led by Regional Club and Coach lead Mark Brace and many of you will know Mark from the fantastic work he has done around the South West Endurance Network (SWEN) and through the various webinars he has helped deliver. This open day is FREE to attend and is targeted at coaches, officials and athletes (the minimum age for athletes is Under 15 and those under 16 will require a parent/guardian to be in attendance). A series of specialist coaches will be supporting on the day and the open day will include support for coaching under 11’s, hammer and javelin coaching, endurance (including steeplechase), sprints & sprints hurdles, supporting masters athletes, physical preparation and opportunities for officials to learn more about specific events and the use of the Rosta platform. Attendees will choose both a morning and afternoon session to attend. Further details can be found on the attached flyer and to book your place please email Mark Brace (mbrace@englandathletics.org) and include the required info listed on the flyer.
THIS WEEK’S TRAINING
MONDAY:
Group tempo runs from Coombe Dingle at 6.30pm, with Wellbeing run at 7.15pm
TUESDAY: Track session at Yate 7pm
Seniors book on via RunTogether. Check the FB page for session details.WEDNESDAY: Hill Session
Adults, all abilities. Meet every Wednesday at 12pm at the traffic lights by Saville Road on the Downs. Book on via RunTogether. Coffee in the Downs Café at 1pm for anyone that wants to come along.
THURSDAY: Intervals
Coombe Dingle at 7pm. Warm up & running drills.
2 sets of 10 minutes;
2 mins at 10k pace
2 mins at half marathon pace
2 mins at 10k pace
2 mins at half marathon pace
2 mins at 10k pace
(3 min jog recovery)
option to reduce intensity.
UPCOMING RACES
A reminder that we have an events calendar on our website where you can keep track of dates for training, events and races. (Thanks, Vicky, for keeping this updated). https://westburyharriers.co.uk/events/events-calendar/
Club Championship info and rules on this link: https://westburyharriers.co.uk/events/club-championship/
Sunday 29th September: Forest of Dean Autumn Half Marathon – Club Championship #1
Saturday 12th October: Pembrey Park, Gwent League XC https://groups.runtogether.co.uk/WestburyHarriersRunningClub/Runs
Sunday 20th October: Keynsham Dandy – Club Championship
Saturday 9th November: Cardiff Cross Challenge, including second Gwent League fixture
Thursday 7th November: Severn Bridge 5 Night Race #1 – Club Championship
Sunday 24th November: Brent Knoll Race – Club Championship
Saturday 30th November: Blaise Castle, Gwent League XC
Saturday 12th December: The 12kss of Xmas – Club Championship
Thursday 19th December: Weston Prom Race #4 – Club Championship
Saturday 8th or Sunday 9th February: Margam Park (TBC), Gwent League XC
Saturday 1st March: Venue TBC, Gwent League XC
Thanks and have a great week everyone,
Ben Wood
