Week Ending - 2025/11/30

DOUBLE DELIGHT

Badgers saw two of their stars win races over the weekend as both Ryan Preece and Chris Horton produced sparkling performances to win their selected events. At the Maverick Trail Series races in The Chilterns, Preece was in fine form in the eight-mile ‘middle’ distance event, taking on some treacherous underfoot conditions in typical belligerent style. Slipping and sliding all over Oxfordshire, the self-styled Swede of Speed made light work of ground that had been truly saturated by heavy rain, to dominate the race and ultimately win. His time of 59:17 was hugely impressive as was his winning margin of more than four minutes. 

Up in Darlington, Preece’s training partner Chris Horton was tearing it up at the Croft motor racing circuit, tackling the 10-mile event in the RunThrough Croft GP meet. While the rain had at least abated, there were icy patches on the course as temperatures dropped to around three degrees on the Sunday morning. The 50-year-old led from the gun and set a solid tempo throughout the course of the 5-lap race, and ended up taking the win in 59:08, over seven minutes quicker than the second-placed athlete. This meant he was able to better his own V50 club record set earlier in the year, up in Manchester, by a minute and a half. 

Preece had company at his race within the ‘medium’ distance, Mia Cox running superbly to finish top Junior in the field in a brilliant 1:29 alongside Ultra ace Dad Mark. Adrian Payne went particularly well in the ‘long’ distance. The Baddesley ace had a traumatic start, but once he had settled into his rhythm (Z2), he soon began to make serious headway, making the podium in third position and being the top veteran athlete overall in 1:41, a fine effort. Also tackling the half-marathon distance ‘long’ event was Dave Jenkinson (2:18) and his son Joe (3:17), along with a poorly Erica Bassford who soldiered home in tough conditions.

Heavy rain on Saturday morning made for especially unpleasant running conditions at parkrun, but that did not stop a number of plucky Badgers seeking their weekly 5K fix. Dave Jackson was the fastest out there, clocking 19:07 at Walsall Arborectum. David Craig finished fourth male and fifth overall at Kingsbury, where Sharon Jackson and Jill Miller both made the top ten ladies. 

Tamworth saw Meg Griffiths and Mark Repton finish 4th and 6th in their respective gender categories, while Vicki Brunsdon somehow managed to run a personal best time with her 31:34. Ebony Key made a course best at Bedworth, and Mark Reynolds continued his good form with a speedy 23:44 at Oaklands to take an age group first. Rachael Browne once again made the top ten at Sutton Park, and Yvonne Faulkner-Grant took sixth lady at Druridge Bay parkrun near Morpeth.