A Clean Sweep.

From left to right : Alex Adams, Richard Liggatt, Matt Burdus-Cook and Ben Kruze, the first 4 finishers in the latest of this season’s Winter series races.
Happy New Year.

A nice gentle start to 2022 with a report on the latest of this season’s challenging Winter Series, with club members occupying the first 4 places.

John Devine started ’22 off by getting on his bike to complete 22 reps of Bakers Hill to raise funds for the Cyclists Fighting Cancer charity (CFC).

Junior member Alfie Musk started the New year off in fine form by coming 1st in last Sunday’s Junior Parkrun. Well done Alfie.

Finally we have some photos of our Junior Endurance runners starting the New Year as they mean to go on, with their regular Sunday morning training session on the Welcombe Hills.

Take care.

Best Wishes

David Jones.

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Winter Series Race 3.

27th December.

Report – David Jones.

Thirty nine of our club members completed the 3rd of this season’s challenging Winter Series Races on 27th December, helping to rid themselves of any excess calories consumed over Christmas.

It proved to be a 1-2-3-4 for the club, which I’m guessing might be the first time this has happened.

Ben Kruze (33.57) rounded off his hugely successful year by finishing in 1st place, a position he has become somewhat familiar with during 2021. 16 year old Alex Adams (35.55) has also had a fabulous ’21 and his 2nd place finish was testament to this. Matt Burdus-Cook (36.33) in 3rd place also rounded off a superb year. Completing our clean sweep of the top 4 places was Richard Liggatt (37.24).

Next to finish for the club were Jamie Hall (12th – 40.07), David Teasdale (18th – 41.44), Seth Turner (27th – 43.53) and a couple of places back, David Smyth (29th – 44.03)

Our first female finisher and 3rd overall female was Emma Bexson (30th – 44.07) finishing just 4 seconds behind David.

Next to finish was Drew Sambridge (33rd – 44.54) with just 28 seconds separating our next 3 finishers, Pete Sugden (39th – 45.28), Joe Lee (40th – 45.30) and John Raby (41st – 45.33).

They were followed by Max Ross (53rd – 47.38), Graham Hill (58th – 47.58), Lewis Dickens( 62nd – 48.19), John Bettles (69th – 49.00) finishing just 2 seconds ahead of Robin Langhorn (70th – 49.02), Paul Longford (82nd – 50.02) and Damian Wheeler (93rd – 50.37)

Our 2nd lady finisher was Kim Lee ( 97th – 51.28) followed by our 3rd and 4th in this category, Fern Hordern (78th – 52.02) and Susan Hunt (121st – 53.57). Fern and Susan also finished 2nd and 3rd in their respective age categories.

Just a couple of seconds separated Stuart Evans (136th – 55.24) and Ben Phyall (137th – 55.26) who were followed by Chris Bloomfield (152nd – 57.10) and Richard Hartwell (174th – 59.00).

Our 5th lady finisher was Lisa Stevens (176th – 59.23) followed by Simon Curran (178th – 1:00.16) just failing to break the 1 hour barrier.

Simon was followed by Clare Enyon (203rd – 1:02.59), Caroline Skelton (211th – 1:03.37), Daniel Hodgkin (219th – 1:04.17), Sue Mothershaw (233rd – 1:06.27), James Purdy (242nd – 1:07.27), Sandie Owens (243rd – 1:07.33) and Paul Nash (263rd – 1:12.24).

Next was Jan Turner (279th – 1:16.40) finishing 3rd in her age category. Jan was followed by Karen Jackson ( 282nd – 1:18.19) and the final finisher for the club was John Butler (289th – 1:21.17)

293 runners completed the race.

22 for 22.
On New Years Day 2022, John Devine decided to bring the New Year in by raising a bit of money for the charity CFC. He was out at 8am cycling 22 reps of Baker’s Hill, as you do!
Alfie Musk who finished 1st in last Sunday’s Stratford Junior Parkrun.
And Finally

As they had been pretty much every Sunday during 2021, the Welcombe Hills were alive last Sunday with the sound of our Junior Endurance runners welcoming in 2022 and going through their paces in preparation for a hectic schedule of XC races in the New Year.
Photos courtesy of the multi-talented Jo Hutchinson.