Stag 2019-20

The Stag season runs from the first Wednesday in October to the first Wednesday in April. Usually the only reason for changing one is if New Year’s day happens to fall on a Wednesday.

Race one of the season had eighteen people show up for the three lap charge around central Leighton. In decent running conditions, ten people beat Dave’s predicted time for them with four claiming new PB’s. First home was Coralie Anderson who smashed her PB by around a minute. Striding home second, in his first ever Stag was Paul Griffiths who will now be in Dave’s sights for next month. Nick Clay showed his experience to come home third ahead of three further PB’ers in James Lowe, Ruth Mitchell and Jo Sharples. read more

Wow, that was close!

After a fantastic Stag Trophy season was all but wrapped by Joe Bidlake-Hull in February, the final race of the year meant that only Amy Farnfield had any chance of taking the trophy from his grasp. For this to happen, he had to finish outside the top eight and she had to win the final race.

A wet day and the school holidays had depleted numbers a little so we were down to nineteen participating, but the conditions were reasonable for running. As ever with the Stag it is difficult to tell early on in the race who is going to come through at the finish, but one thing was clear, that Amy was certainly going to be near the front of the field. read more

PB-Tastic Penultimate Stag

March comes with a slight sense of relief. Although many of the club thrive on the mud and damp of the XC season, for most the third month of the year means spikes go back in the cupboard and the evenings start to get noticeably lighter. That lifting of the winter gloom seemed quite evident in March’s results.

Nineteen runners is not a huge turn-out – perhaps some were still in shock from the snow – but with nine and half of those runners getting PB’s and one being a first-timer it was certainly a challenge for those that didn’t. read more

The Leaders Keep Leading

The January Stag trophy race was exactly what it should be about, with 31 runners all coming home in very close succession. 31 is one of the highest attendances ever, so was great to see after just 14 in December.

The first four finishers all got PB’s and gave a great example of the diversity that the event brings with Alison Bell continuing her improvement from the Tuesday beginners group; Chris Large getting a PB for the first time since he won it in 2013; Jordan Clay going into 4th place in the all-time list with a fantastic 12:42 and Joe Bidlake-Hull representing the juniors with his third PB of the year. PB’s were also earned Huw Morgan-Jones and Matthew Brooks, while we welcomed Caitrina Oakes for a baptism of fire on her first run with the club. read more

The Big Elimination!

Going into the sixth of the seven Stag Trophy races on 1st March, there were still a very large number of people who could technically get into the podium positions. Coming out the other side of the March race, we were down to six!

Recent Wednesday night runs have not been very well attended and for some reason the same applied in this month’s Stag. Having had 35 running back in October we were down to just 15 yesterday. This did include most of the leading contenders but was a little disappointing nonetheless. With the light evening of April fast approaching, hopefully the numbers will return for the final race of the season. read more

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