The AGM night!
The club’s 2015 AGM was relatively well attended with a good range of active and not so active runners making an appearance. The biggest item this year was the club’s renaming from ‘athletics club’ to ‘running club’. Some say it’s long overdue as the club has long been populated with just runners! Tewkesbury Running Club sounds mighty fine to me.
The annual presentations were again the scene of much excitement; the categories for presentation were –
Club Person of the Year (voted by the club members)
Improver of the Year (voted by the committee and excluding the committee)
Personal Performance of the Year (voted by the committee and excluding the committee)
Club Championship ‘King of the Road’
Club Championship ‘Queen of the Road’
Club Championship ‘Good for Age’
5 Mile Handicap Series
Wes Reid won the Club Person of the Year and deservedly so after his grand challenge of 100 races in one year aka, “Race Odyssey”. Wes has also taken on the role of XC secretary this autumn and is doing a soothing job of rounding-up the runners for the Saturday afternoon antics. Wes took the trophy from last year’s winner Roy Northcott.
Wes is the 2015 Club Person of the Year
This year’s Improver of the Year was hotly contested; big improvers like Calvin Blandford, Natty Jenks, Charlotte Deacon, and Sam Connelly were all contenders and received votes but Michael Jackson took the title with the closest of margins from Charlotte. Michael was not present to accept his award on the night as he had a date (hopefully as rewarding). MJ’s season had been impressive by any standards. He’s a guy who has trained well, worked hard, set targets and got results. MJ took the title from last year’s winner Karen Maber.
Jacko has been making some good moves this year.
The Performance of the Year was between two people as the voting went. The idea behind this award, which I must add like the award above was Caroline Mansfield’s idea, is to include those who don’t normally win anything or sometimes don’t get recognized. However, in 2015 an achievement was accomplished by Angie Sadler that took the most votes. Leaving Charlotte as the runner-up, Angie’s 110+ mile race along the Cotswold Way was epic – it was hours and hours of some stunningly tough paths, trails and the occasional village lane. She was the first lady to finish the event and as personal performances go, it sits right at the top for her. The Cotswold Way is regarded as something special by Tewkesbury RC. Charlotte’s achievement is very noteworthy as she completed her first marathon over the Bristol to Bath course which included the later 13 miles of constant ups and downs. Angie took the title from last year’s winner Kim Boskett.
Huge result for Angie - even by her standards.
This year’s Club Champs was finely won by Jon Mansfield. It was close in the end with just 8 points from Steve Maber who has had an excellent year of competitive running. Ben Reid shocked the most by clinching a third place trophy. Ben’s early season consistency left him in a great position before he turned his ankle in the Woodchester Park race. Although he may not have caught Steve for second place, he did give himself a cushion from Russell Steele and Nigel Tillott.
Jon on top
The Queen of the Roads was defended successfully by Fran Osborne. Fran’s careful planning and solid performances gave her a considerably large lead over Karen Maber in second. Karen had reason to be cheerful though as she improved on her 2014 third place with a 2015 runners-up spot. Carol Cowley came in third this year as she didn’t contest as many events as she usually does. She did, however, score enough points to stay clear of Sharon Peters. Sharon, like many of us this year, had some untimely niggles in the way of her progress.
Fran retained het title.
Our Good for Age competition has not yet been calculated – I have worked some of the scores out but I’ll need to start at the beginning again as it looks extremely tight between some of the aforementioned runners (watch this space for news).
The Wednesday evening handicaps were smoothly organized by the Club Captain Roy Northcott. The series winner was announced as Calvin Blandford and the man himself was there to receive the shield from Roy and Mike Ward. I have said it before and I’ll say it again, the handicap series can be incredibly hard to win (I’ve tried on several occasions and fell way short). Fran and Wes finished second and third respectively which confirms how well they have done in 2015. Jude Rodrigues made a late surge for the podium but just fell short.
Series winner Calvin.
The evening ended with the Club funding a very appetizing buffet which Roy tided-up.
