Following on from last week’s Stag Trophy finale we had one final event to conclude the 2019/20 season.

The traditional Boxing Day handicap that has been the Easter handicap in recent years migrated (hopefully for just one year!) to the late summer. It was also no longer a head to head race but a virtual one spread over nine days where competitors ran the route and we took the times from the Strava segment.

None of this is ideal for anyone; the route is far more interesting if you’re having a battle with a teammate rather than battling round on your own and as we all know, segments can be inconsistent in their time recording. However, it was the same for everyone and there was a serious trophy up for grabs.

In the end we had three women and eight men run round the course over the nine-day period allowed and all will earn points towards the overall clubman/woman of the year. Three of the eleven managed to beat Dave’s predicted time, which is an excellent effort given the circumstances. And so, the top three:

• In 3^rd place, 35 seconds ahead of his handicap – James Lowe
• In 2^nd place, 52 seconds ahead of his handicap – Gary Straford
• And the winner, 70 seconds ahead of his handicap – Sam Dear

Dave Adams described Sam’s run as “Storming” and so many congratulations should go to him for winning the final trophy of the longest ever season.

We will endeavour to get both this trophy and the Stag presented to the winners as soon as possible. The full results are below:

Easter Handicap Results (Virtual) – 2020
29th August – 6th September 2020
Pos.	Name	Predicted Time	Actual Time	Difference
1	Sam Dear	34:55	33:45	-01:10
2	Gary Stratford	42:35	41:43	-00:52
3	James Lowe	39:50	39:15	-00:35
4	Chris Dimmock	45:05	45:42	00:37
5	Tom Kimber	33:55	34:54	00:59
6	Jo Sharples	37:20	39:59	02:39
7	Rob Elmore	31:30	34:10	02:40
8	Ruth Mitchell	39:30	42:52	03:22
9	Stuart Dimmock	39:20	42:44	03:24
10	Amy Farnfield	39:30	42:55	03:25
11	Neil Green	43:00	49:29	06:29

This is the segment we used for the timings: https://www.strava.com/segments/25496083?filter=overall