Week Ending - 2025/03/09

BADGERS BATTLE AT GRIZZLY BOSWORTH XC

The final cross country league meeting of the season took place on Sunday, with a depleted Badgers squad turning out for the boggy trek around Bosworth Battlefield. Once again, it was key man Neil Russell who led the way, the Stoke Golding man storming home in a superb fifth place overall to wrap up another excellent season for him. New signing Will Pickering ran his first XC race for 8 years and emerged with a fabulous top-twenty finish position. With hopes of the league title already gone, it was very much a case of finishing with determination, and Badgers did just that. Jim Cottom was third scoring male with Matt Green, Bill Gutheridge and Glyn Broadhurst all adding their weight to the team cause. Simon Payne and Ashley Taylor completed the scoring with Eamon Thawley, Peter Greenfield and Andy Altoft taking the men’s representation into double figures yet again. 

Skipper Megan Griffiths completed a fine season with another 23rd-place finish in unfavourable underfoot conditions. Sara Wilson battled hard to make the top thirty, and Rachael Browne came 39th just ahead of Grace Barsby, who was another to complete an excellent campaign this term. Back up came in the form of Jane Barrett, Susie Stringer, Steph White, Emma Breeze and Sara Hawkins as the club now looks forward to the commencement of the road league season starting next weekend at the hilly Kibworth 6. 

The 20-mile Grizzly race at Seaton in Devon attracted a host of Badgers, with Mark Cox taking 21st overall in 2:42:56 and fifth vet male. The challenging gradients were in part offset by the stunning scenery as Adrian Payne dug deep to break three hours. Chris Tweed returned from injury to run a classy 3:20 with Dave Jenkinson, Carl Savage and Cameron Barnes all finishing in close proximity just after the 3:40 mark, alongside Rachel Crump who took third in her age group with a super time of 3:40:22.

Veteran aces Paul Grubb, Colin Lees, Liz Peel and Serena Baker returned to the popular event to fully earn their medals. Charlotte Oliver ran with Peter Mann, finishing in 5:20, despite the latter undergoing treatment for prostate and kidney cancer, a Herculean effort from one of the nicest guys at Badgers. 

Youngster Mia Cox took 4th female in the Junior Grizzly event, and in the 9 mile Cub race, Jimmy Dewis romped home in 22nd with his time of 1:24:57. V60 stars Adrian Parkes and Rob Crow finished either side of the 1:40 mark, Hannah Burgess led the ladies home in 1:48 with Judy Parkes, Paul Cooper, Joanne Crow, Clare Carter, Karen Draper and a departing Nicki Bowman all rounding up an excellent weekend on the south coast. 

In Lancaster, there was a new club record as in-form Chris Horton produced a sparkling run at the Trimpell 20-mile race, breaking the Badgers V50 club record which has stood for nine years. His time of 2:01:31 took almost 29 minutes off the previous record and is over five minutes quicker than his own V40 club record set at the same venue in 2022! In addition, it was his eighth personal best from his last ten races and good enough for 11th place in a field of over four hundred runners. Perhaps not surprisingly, he took the V50 prize in the race, too. At the Kingston Break-fest run, Maggi Savin-Baden covered the requisite 8.2-mile course in 79:34 to finish fourth in her age group, and fellow vet Steph White finished eighth at the Petzl Night Trail Run 10K in 58:40. 

Parkrun saw a win for Megan Griffiths at Perry Hall in 22:22, ninth overall, with her coach Glyn Broadhurst clocking the same time for 10th overall. Mark Cox was sixth at Seaton ahead of the Grizzly run, and there were top ten finishes for Bill Gutheridge, Jim Cottom, and Rachael Browne at Oaklands. David Craig achieved the highest positional finish for many a moon with his superb 5th place at Holbrooks, and Wayne Repton chalked up parkrun number 300 at Tamworth, where Jack Burton-Peet ran an epic 19:12 to take fourth place, along with a huge new personal best for 5K. Beth Woodward too ran an impressive 24:29 to take 6th lady.