Week Ending - 2025/06/15

BARMOUTH OR BUST, AS THEY SAY

With three league races taking up the majority of weekends in June, it was something of a tight squeeze fitting the popular Barmouth 10K into the schedule, but more than 50 Badgers made the pilgrimage to the Welsh seaside resort to take part in what is fast becoming THE annual tour for members of the club. 

A weekend of socializing and celebration lay in store for those able to make the three-hour trip to the west coast and a handful of personal bests were achieved in the process making it a super weekend all round. 

Leading the way home and winning the race overall was the speedy Matt Scarsbrook who came home in 32:05, doing just enough to hold off the threat of second place Tomos Roberts who finished three seconds behind. The Baddesley man received a weighty old trophy for his efforts, but he was in no way the only Badger to be operating solidly on the Saturday as Mark Cox ran a magnificent 35:08 to take fifth position and first veteran athlete in the race. His time was not only a personal best but was the third fastest 10K by a V40 athlete in Badgers history. Men’s skipper Ryan Preece utilized his gargantuan swede to take four additional places on the line, ending up ninth overall in 36:09 and Adrian Payne got round safely in 39:01, skillfully avoiding zone four throughout. 

Badgers’ performance director Glyn Broadhurst capped a fine morning after comprehensively winning the challenging Dolgellau parkrun earlier in the day, by providing a pacing masterclass in the 10K to the tune of 40 minutes. There were heroic efforts from the likes of Dave Jackson and Sam Starkey but one of the standout runs came from Liberty Underhill who returned as 7th female with a big new PB of 41:18 as her super season continues at a similar pace to her running – quick! 

The fleet-footed leader of the ladies was not the only athlete in PB form. Chris Young had already boxed off a 5-mile PB two days earlier at Bosworth but still had enough in the tank to romp home in 43:39, his second PB in three days! Michael Garrett, Jim Cottom, Stefan Martin and Bill Gutheridge all ran good races before Susie Stringer sped home in 46:29, fourth in her age bracket and yet another PB to boot. 

The pacy Grace Barsby put her foot to the floor and clocked an impressive 48:18 with William Pickering, Lucy Marchi, Rachael Browne and Dave Jenkinson all getting back in good time. U23 star Erica Bassford has made great progress since joining the club on a free transfer and she helped herself to a fine time of 50:43 (PB). 

8-mile specialist Rob Crow is a big fan of the local area and he had no trouble acclimatizing to the shorter 10K distance for the day as he crossed the line in a brisk 51:42. Megan Griffiths, Sara Wilson, Serena Baker, Carl Savage, Mark Reynolds and Paul Restall all finished well inside the hour and one-time sub-16 5K runner, Terry Taylor, helped himself to a 10K PB of 52:59, a massive 11 minute improvement. If this wasn’t impressive enough, he also managed a 5K PB as part of the run, taking over minus ten minutes off his best for that distance.  

Seasoned campaigners Joanne Crow, Jill Miller and Sharon Jackson all dipped under the hour, as did Ross Kilburn in 57:53, which represented a personal best for him. Other runners included Liz Peel, Joe Jenkinson, Paul Cooper, Steph Nickless, Sarah Reynolds, Debbie Bremner and Mady Stain. Juliette Trollope returned from injury to bag herself a fine new PB of 67:10 and Megan Church helped pace the improving Sara Hawkins to a huge new best time of 69:43.

Rounding up the action were Simon & Ann-Marie Currier, John & Anne Devenney, Trudie Cruddas, Gemma Spencer, Eve King, Kate Rathbone, and principal organizer Alicia Gutheridge. 

Two days prior to the Barmouth race, the third running of the very local Bosworth 5-mile race took place on a beautiful summer’s evening with nearly two dozen Badgers making the shorter trip east for the evening event. As mentioned earlier, there was a personal best for Chris Young as he sped round in 35:27, a great achievement.  Ahead of him and filling up the podium were long-serving Badgers Chris Horton (28:27) and Danny Warren (29:20) who took 2nd and 3rd places behind race winner Tom Shardlow. Horton’s effort gave him his 18th club record in the last 12 months, a phenomenal purple patch by any estimation. Jack Burton-Peet went well in 32:00 with Colin Lees sneaking back in a second under 37 minutes. 

First female Badger back was former footballing ace Alice Belcher, who clocked a fine PB of 41:34 on what is not the quickest five-mile course on the circuit. Mark Reynolds put in a decent shift to finish in a highly creditable 41:46 with Suzy Farrell and Badgers stalwart Karen Thompson finishing a few places thereafter. Pip Weston did well in 44:57 with vice-Captain Sharon Jackson, Judy Parkes and Rachel Crump all faring similarly. Holly Smith, Ivana Babicova, Andy Smith, Merv Jones and Sarah Reynolds all finished in quick succession before Gail Gunn and her daughter Danielle crossed the line just over the one-hour mark. Anne-Marie Matthews completed the Badgers set. 

At parkrun, there was a rare double at Dolgellau as both Glyn Broadhurst (19:09) and Meg Griffiths (23:02) took first male and female respectively with excellent runs. Matt Green and Janey Barrett each took fifth at Barry Island parkrun in 21:14 and 24:42 respectively. Darndale parkrun in Dublin saw David Grant achieve his highest ever parkrun finish as he romped home in 21:12 to finish third male. Yvonne Faulkner-Grant was also in action and went one better, taking second in 25:13. In addition, there was a top ten finish for Mark Repton at Tamworth and PB’s for Neil Rose (21:08), again at Tamworth, and Carl Ford, who ran 27:18 at Kingsbury.