Awards Galore & The Swinging 60’s.

Sam Plumb picks up his award. Is that the Ghost of Christmas Past I see in the background ? Martha Silvers and Lois Ford. In the absence of our usual awards evening, this week has been less a case of the Red Carpet and more a case of the Red Track Awards. As I'm sure you will have all become aware of, in this most difficult of years, a worldwide pandemic is not going to get in the way us of doing what we do. In this instance it was a case of rewarding so many in the club, primarily the juniors, for what they have still been able to achieve, despite the huge restrictions placed upon them. Please read Paul Bearman's excellent report on these awards that were held on Tuesday and Thursday night at the track, after training. Elsewhere there is what I consider to be a really fascinating article on Stratford Athletic Club 1.0 - formed in 1964 no less. This is something I was not aware of until last week. If The Paul Hawkins Archives are the Holy Grail then this story is akin to The Dead Sea Scrolls. It includes details of a 13 year old club member who was to go on and become a Hollywood star. I implore you to read it. Alex Adams has been back to doing what he does, winning XC races. We have news of the imminent return of Virtual Racing from John Raby, one of our Team Virtual supremos and finally Hannah Osborne invites senior members to a Rule of Six, socially distanced Christmas Run. Take Care Best Wishes David Jones Tessa Parkin, Seb Hillard, Ruby Edwards. Elfric McKenzie and Charly Marshall. The Socially Distanced Covid Secure Awards. Paul Bearman Due to the current Coronavirus situation we are obviously not able to have our normal Awards evening. However, the junior Age Group Leaders still wanted to recognise the performances and success in the Cross Country and the Sportshall leagues pre lockdown and also the Club Champs post lockdown. To maintain our protocols e.g. social distancing we couldn’t have any ceremony, so no handshakes or official recognition, which was disappointing, but much like the rest of this year, we have to stick to the rules. Without a Track & Field season to speak of and the wholesale disruption of our normal training programme, the AGLs felt it was neither possible nor fair to award the normal annual trophies like Much Improved, Athlete of the Year etc. Warwickshire Sportshall League SUAAC’s dominance of all the various age groups in the Warwickshire Sportshall league was tested by some spirited opposition and we didn’t win all the age groups, but we did what we always set out to do, that was to win the league, which we again achieved. The Age Group Leaders, expertly juggled the 120 athletes who competed and with the old adage that “points make prizes”, every point made a difference to SUAAC retaining the league championship. Great job…