Week Ending - 2025/02/02

MATT MAKES SUPER START TO 2025

Nearly 2,500 runners took part in the Warwick Half Marathon on Sunday on a cold and sunny Sunday with Matt Scarsbrook running a quite brilliant time of 69:06 to take fourth place overall in the race. The Newham and Essex Beagles athlete who also runs for Badgers ran within a minute of his personal best for the distance which was a terrific effort given the undulating nature of the Warwick course and sets his 2025 season off in fine style with teammates feeling that even better times are sure to come this year if this is a fair marker. The Baddesley man was one of ten Badgers in action at the weekend with Brian Pinker next through in 1:40:13. Paul Cooper dipped a second under 2:02 with ladies vice-captain Sharon Jackson going well in 2:12:22. Krystal Knight missed a personal best by just three seconds with her fabulous run of 2:13:38 and her friend Bryony Sherwood followed soon after in 2:15:21 with a huge PB time by a quarter of an hour. Veteran ace Steph Nickless ran an even bigger PB, taking 24 minutes off her old best with a superb 2:18:12, real progression from her. Terry Argyle ran 2:50:40 with Esther Parr and Ivana Babicova running in tandem to finish in 2:54:23.  

Four Badgers were in off-road action at the weekend with Cameron Barnes taking 63rd place in the Charnwood Hills race in 1:55:44. At the Dovedale Big Daddy fell race, Adrian Payne produced a heroic display to finish 15th overall and justify his latest ranking as the fifth fastest Badger at the club. In running his time of 2:31:24, the craggy electrical engineer was able to secure the coveted V40 series prize and will now concentrate his sights on taking some of the vets club records while he is at the younger end of the age range. Mark Cox finished 18 minutes further back in 43rd spot, a decent effort from the club’s premier ultra specialist. Danny Warren has been in good form of late but the demonic levels of elevation allied to the significantly longer length of the final race put paid to his hopes of a high finish, sensibly call it early after a promising start. 

There was a handful of high finishes at parkrun over the weekend with Liberty Underhill taking the only first-place finish of Saturday morning with her speedy 21:21 at Corby, a trouser-press-based PB for the pacy 23-year-old. Teammate Megan Griffiths made it a 1-2 for the ladies with her excellent 23:10, the industrious deputy headmistress has been on an upward curve for the last few seasons and with her now applying herself well to a marathon training programme, the signs are all there for yet more improvement in 2025. Luke Neal almost made it a Badger double, the Rugby-based grafter just being pipped for top spot with his second-place time of 19:34, still the fastest Badger anywhere of the morning and only sub-twenty time to boot. Glyn Broadhurst ran 20:34 to take third male, a good effort after 116 training miles, 150 more on the bike and four powerbags sessions during the week. 

At Kingsbury Water Park, there were top ten finishes for Sam Starkey, Matt Green, Jim Cottom, Jill Miller, and Jane Barrett. Mark Repton managed ninth place at Tamworth in 20:21 while Joanne Crow took a fantastic sixth place at Dolgellau in Wales. Holly Smith made the giddy height of the top ten at a hotly contested Brunswick Park parkrun and last but not least, Victoria Jones ran 27:19 at the Forest of Dean parkrun to take seventh lady, a great effort.