The following are extracts from the Club's quarterly magazine, which was published in Dec 2002:
NB: The club's race results are covered by weekly updates on the NEWS page
This year’s Awards Evening and Social was held at the East Barnet Valley Social
Club, East Barnet Rd.
The youngsters trophy winners were:
BEST MINOR (U11) Niall Fleming GIRLS WINTER POINTS TROPHY Katherine Henderson BOYS WINTER POINTS TROPHY James Goddard GIRLS SUMMER POINTS TROPHY Abigail Watts-Cherry BOYS SUMMER POINTS TROPHY Ben Nagy U13 GIRLS BEST PERFORMANCE Abigail Watts-Cherry MOST IMPROVED COLT (BU13) Christian Louka U15 BOYS 400m Shaun Goddard ERNIE THOMPSON TROPHY (impr BU15) Stephen Rayner BEST U17 GIRL Keli Tawiah DODESHEIDE TROPHY (best club BU17) Alex Horton ROAD HANDICAP TROPHY Louis Prati
The Senior trophy winners were:
LADIES WINTER POINTS TROPHY Helen Hoyle MENS WINTER POINTS TROPHY Dave Wilcock LADIES SUMMER POINTS TROPHY Louise White MENS SUMMER POINTS TROPHY Chi Kin Tsang MILE TROPHY Dave Wilcock SENIOR 400m TROPHY Peter Ilo RON BAILEY TROPHY (800m) Dave Wilcock SENIOR 5000m Andy Kelleher SENIOR LADIES BEST PERFORMANCE Denise Gayle ORIENTEERING TROPHY Steve Chilton PARLAUF TROPHY Team Cunningham BIATHLON TROPHY John Shirley THREE-LEGGED TROPHY Steve Chilton PENTATHLON TROPHY no contest LADIES TEAM MANAGER’S TROPHY Kath Woods PRESIDENT’S TROPHY Reg Black
MENS WINTER TEAM MANAGER
Contact nos for Steve Hewitt are: 0208 882 1170 and 0788 942 5984
Chair Penny Wylie Vice Chair Des Michael Secretary Chris Stott Clerk to Committee Brian Strong Treasurer Pauline Lygo Membership Secs Maureen Shirley & Penny Wylie Officials Sec Ted Kimber Social Sec Tiffany Stephens Fixtures Sec Alan Radley Clubhouse Gerry Webster Magazine Editor Steve Chilton Coaching Sec Steve Harris Handicapper Steve Nunn Club Captains Dave Wilcock & Maureen Shirley Press Sec Karen Bradley Promotions Sec Catherine Perry Trustee Tiffany Stephens Team Managers: - Men Winter Steve Hewitt - Men Summer James Taylor - Women Winter Helen Hoyle - Women Summer Steve Chilton - Vets Men Summer Andrew Blackman - Vets Women Summer Helen Ewings - YA Winter Jim Neville - YA Summer Vacant - MWL Ladies Maureen Shirley - MWL Men Peter Graham Committee Pippa Anderson, Mark Kos Jane Day, Mel Parker, Peter Rice Auditors George Neville & Terry Ryan
NEW MEMBERS
The following new members have been elected at Committee since the last magazine:
Francis and James O’Toole, Behnam Banieqbal, Natasha Sparks, Olga Batichtcheva,
Robert and James Bradford, Pauline and Costos Michael, Luigi Lusardi, Ciara
Fagin, Rose and Charlotte Michael, Ken Pemble, Sam Barrow, Claudia Pensa and
Hanna Gul. May you all have a good time with the Club.
COACHING
On 9th December the Borough of Barnet Sports Development Department are organising
a course in “Good practice for Child Protection” at Copthall Stadium from 6-30
to 9-30pm. It will be run by Sports Coach UK. All those involved in coaching
should have done a child protection course. Contact Carly Owen 0208 202 6536/07950
627740 for further details and to book your place. The £20 cost can be claimed
back from the club.
In January the Borough are organising a “Volunteer Walks Leader” course. Once
qualified leaders are covered by insurance. For further details contact Fitness
for Life - Simon Barnett 0208 202 6057. The course will be at Copthall Stadium
and is free of charge.
Midweek Road Race League Div. 1, 3rd Race, Royston 10Km, 11th June 2002
Ladies
Race - Another good turn out with 12 ladies competing for the team. There would
have been more, but the long journey after work made it impossible for some.
At least for this race all our athletes arrived at the start line on time (unlike
the previous race at B.S.) & Pauline gave us all a surprise with her new ‘Beckham’
haircut, the influence of football seems to be everywhere! Getting back to the
running, it was a pleasant course on country roads & conditions were good, Karen
M. had her usual good, consistent run, finishing 2nd, backed up by Karen B.
(our 1st vet home) in 8th. Jane D., Penny W., Karen F. (could we be the only
team with 3 Karens in it?) & a noble run from Kirsty, who was struggling with
injury problems, completed the team. The girls hard work was rewarded with a
magnificent 2nd place, behind St. Albans, who are virtually unbeatable. Our
vets were 3rd team & the combined (men & women) team was 3rd (unfortunately
our men could only manage 5th). Well done all those who ran.
Maureen Shirley
Midweek Road Race League Div. 1, 4th Race, St Albans
7M, 4th July 2002
Ladies Race - The final scoring race of the season & at least it was relatively
local, however the fact that there was a SWTFL two days later & school events
affecting both parents & teachers in our team meant that the team was not quite
as strong as we hoped. On the tough course, which finished uphill, Karen M again
led the team home in 3rd position with Karen B. not far behind in 5th. The team
was completed by Helen H., Kirsty, Tanya & Penny W. The vet team finished 2nd
with both Snr & combined teams finishing 3rd. Well done to all who ran & mention
must be made of Dina (Tanya’s sister) making her debut for the club & Maggie,
who was jogging round part of the course ‘encouraging’ everyone.
Maureen S.
Midweek Road Race League, Mob-Match, Trent Park 9km,
18th July 2002
This year’s mob-match, when both divisions run together & is followed by the
league presentations, was jointly hosted by Barnet & Trent Park. The organisation
seemed to go very well with plenty of helpers from both clubs, thanks must go
to all who helped, especially Chris Stott for organising the Barnet helpers
& Pat Rowe, together with her fellow helper Phyllis Mitchell, for coordinating
the food with TP. The course was chosen by Trent Park, so no complaints to Chris
please! However often you train in Trent it is always hard to race there & it
showed on many faces as they finished. The men turned out one of their best
teams of the series, finishing overall 2nd, with Adrian Mason winning the race
& Keith Turner coming in 3rd followed by Richard Gamble in 6th. The ladies team
was not as strong as it had been throughout the series due to a number of other
commitments, but our three Karens (Murphy, Bradley & Faloon) led the team home
in 5th place. Our male Vets were 1st & our female Vets 4th. The club’s combined
finishing position was 4th (out of 11 teams). On to the League presentations
where we picked up a fair few medals. The ladies got the bronze team in both
senior & vet category & the men got silver team in the vets. All the team medals
were presented at the club presentation evening in October, the individual medals
were presented on the night. Individual medals went to:- Karen Murphy 2nd Snr
Lady, Karen Bradley 2nd LV35, Pauline Lygo 2nd LV55, Penny Antoniou 3rd LV55,
Keith Turner 1st Snr Man & 1st V40, Des Michael 1st V50, John Shirley 3rd V50,
Con Antoniou 1st V60, Mike Sawyer 3rd V60. Well done to them all & also well
done to all those who competed in this years series of races. Thanks must also
go to Mick Tappin for always being there for the ladies team, Alan Radley for
being such a good men’s team manager (Unfortunately Alan is unable to continue
as team manager next year, is there someone out there willing to take over?)
& of course thanks to John Atkinson for being an excellent results secretary.
Hope to see you all again next year.
Maureen S.
London to Brighton 54 miles. 6th Oct
115 runners assemble at Big Ben for the 7am start, and when the Westminster
Chimes finish there is an eerie silence as we wait for the first stroke of 7
to start the race. I think of the period between the chimes and the first stroke
as being a last chance to avoid what lies ahead. The early morning chill is
slow to disappear; at 14 miles we leave the main road and start the long climb
up Farthing Down. We cross a cattle grid and suddenly we are in bright sunshine
and I see a line of runners stretching into the distance. A recent visit to
Ted Bone (the osteopath) has worked wonders as I am able to run smoothly, although
a little slowly. The combination of an Asics DS trainer on my right foot and
a Nike Pegasus on the left is proving to be an ideal choice. I reach 30 miles
in 5hrs 13mins. I think of this as my halfway point, as it marks the boundary
between the easy first half when the legs are fresh (and I have to be careful
not to run too hard), and the more hilly second half when the legs are tired
and I have to work hard to keep going. Although 10 minutes slower than hoped
for at 30 miles, I am running smoothly and not slowing too much. A long hill
between 39 and 40 miles causes a severe atack of premature rigor mortis, but,
like a car on a roller coaster, I manage to get over the summit and start running
smoothly again. On the long climb up Ditchling Beacon (47 miles) I overtook
one cyclist and two pushing a tandem - the first time they had ridden it. Meeting
people who were more tired than me gave me an extra burst of energy. At 48 miles
I saw the sea ahead and started to run a bit faster, but suddenly a knee nearly
collapsed under me, and I took the safe option of reverting to my previous comfortable
but slow pace. From 18 miles I had been passing and being passed by a lady runner
but, since I run faster than her uphill and she ran faster than me downhill,
we never run together. She passes me again on the two mile long downhill to
the finish. Barry Dabrowski (an ex-Barnet runner) had watched th race in previous
years - usually seeing me at 47 miles. This year he had decided to run and had
prepared well. 1 Brian Hennessy Crawley 6 00 57 38 Barry Dabrowski Dulwich 8
28 08 102 John Fulcher Barnet 10 04 07
John Fulcher
The Big Sur River Run 10k 26th Oct
There are a few upsides to business travel and I try to make sure that I hunt
them down. Experiencing this race was probably one of the best upsides that
I have encountered recently. I am sharing my record of this event so that those
of you that ever travel to California at this time of year can do the race too.
Big Sur, a stretch of dramatic coastline and Coastal Redwood forests about 70
miles long, running from just south of Monterey to north of Santa Barbara, has
the most breathtaking scenery: the Santa Lucia mountains plunge from 3000 plus
meters, into the Pacific ocean and create a staggering vista as your travel
the only road through the area – the Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1). The
meeting of the warm land and the cold Pacific creates a microclimate that supports
the unique Coastal Redwood forests, and the two remaining natural Monterey Cypress
groves. I revisited this area as a priority, following a business trip to Palo
Alto and on my first overnight stop I picked up the leaflet advertising the
run - supposedly flat and through Redwood forests alongside the Big Sur River
- how could I resist the challenge? I was able to enter on the day by dint of
an early rise – I was the first there! I spent the next couple of hours enjoying
an excellent runners breakfast of porridge at the Big Sur Lodge resturant. The
race had all the positive aspects of the Great North Run – without the North,
the crowds and distance. It had support from the watching crowd, a roomy run
as the field was only around 400+ runners, atmosphere, which was infectious
- perhaps more exuberant than we repressed Brits think decent but – hey – we
could do with letting go the tension and excitement at the start of a race,
some excellent on route timekeeping to help those who were serious about pace,
and heartbreakingly beautiful scenery. The route made inventive use of limited
tarmac road through the sun and shade dappled redwood forest and sparkling river
– it comprised a variety of repeating loops, but in different directions so
it was not too tedious. It was also nice to encounter the string quartet, playing
in full black tie, more than once too! Other entertainment en route included
a musica ranchera trio, bagpipers (playing an unexpectedly cheery bunch of tunes
- for bagpipes) and a jazz band. The quality of the entry was broad – respectable
but not staggering times for the leaders (mid 30 mins) and a good portion of
the field in the fun run category, timewise. My own shameful time of 52.24 (I
have been off for months due to injury, you must appreciate) was in the first
third of the field, which gives you an idea of the standard. So - for those
of you who would like to give themselves a test, mid holiday and the incentive
of a realistic chance of a prize for the speedier among you – this is the perfect
opportunity. Race website: http://www.bigsurriverrun.org
Pippa Anderson
Reg’s Training Weekend. 19/20th Nov
There we were, Thursday night, standing in Asda, a mix of shock, at having left
the Railway Bell early (!) and anticipation for the weekend ahead. ‘Supplies’
we were told were deemed a necessity to fuel the training regime lined up for
us. So, it was with this knowledge and a few glasses of Chardonnay inside us
that we pushed our trolley round the aisles. After an eternity we parted with
our cash and loaded the bags with bagels (energy), 50 chocolate bars (seriously)
and a few more bottles of Chardonnay (hydration). We all gathered at Fleet Services
at some sociable hour on Friday and consumed, as is usual, a vat of cappuccino.
It was here that the females of the species discovered the delights of a Sandy
Balls training weekend, a fine balance between work hard - play hard. It was
later that evening when we discovered that the play hard option was the dead
cert winner. By late afternoon on Saturday a definate routine was emerging.
Sleep, run, eat, drink, although not necessarily in that order. Oh yeah, and
occassionally throw in a Jacuzzi (all mens feet on the side please!). If you
could manage the brief stroll to get there. A few, who shall remain nameless,
decided it was way to far and drove there, even discussing which cab company
to call to get to the restaurant later... A few awards (official and unofficial)
where given out. Des Michael is now Des ‘Stallion’ Michael, and Katherine Woods
is now the ‘Filly’ of the group (by the way if you want to slow her down, run
next to her with orange peel in your hand). We also have John ‘shorts’ Shirley,
and Cath Perry and Karen Murphy are now honorary blokes (you’d better ask me
about that one!). We all learnt a few things about each other after living in
such close quarters. An easy run is never an easy run, Reg definately used to
be in the army and due to his injury spent sunday afternoon on the ‘Bench’.
One last thing Reg, from us girls ... RUB-A-DUB-DUB .... THANKS FOR THE MUD!!!
We won’t be asking for our ‘cashback’!
Leigh Harvey
Senior Mens Winter 1 Chi Kin Tsang 162 2 Peter Ilo 114 3 Dave Wilcock 58 4 Craig Goddard 49 5 Mike Bennett 48 6 Richard Gamble 34 Senior Ladies Summer 1 Louise White 108 2 Kath Woods 60 3 Jill Dinsmore 56 4= Joanne Tawiah 43 Denise Gayle 43 6 Philippa Horton 37 Boys Summer 1 Ben Nagy 49 2 Stephen Rayner 48 3 Sam Rice 34 4 Michael Spencer-Smith 32 5 Loius Prati 30 6 Ben Smith 28 Girls Summer 1 Abigail Watts-Cherry 54 2 Rebecca Watts-Cherry 46 3 Ruby Blevings 45 4 Jordan Smith 44 5 Sacha Rice 42 6= Keli Tawiah 39 Zoe Barton 39 Womens Winter Points 1 Helen Hoyle 40 2 Kath Woods 30 3 Kirsty Johnstione 24 4= Karen Faloon 20 Leigh Harvey 20 Karen Murphy 20 Mens Winter Points 1 Dave Wilcock 25 2= Keith Turner 24 Richard Gamble 24 4 Francis Robinson 22 5 Dave Candy 16 6 Des Michael 15
Wed 11 Dec Sweatshop Sale, N Finchley
Sweatshop in North Finchley will be holding a Barnet & District Xmas shopping
evening on Wednesday 11th December from 6:30pm until 8:30pm. They will be offering
a 15% discount on all full price purchases made on this evening for club members.
A good chance to save some money on Xmas presents.
Sat 14 Dec NWLL, Copthall
Includes Club Champs for all young athletes age groups. Details from Jim Neville.
Please note that this date has changed from that on the fixture card.
Boxing Day Boxing Day Handicaps, Clubhouse
3.4 miles Seniors, 1.7 miles YAs. Meet at Clubhouse at 10am. First race 10-30am.
Remember this is a fun event when the racing is not to be taken too seriously.
This year we are again encouraging fancy dress (not compulsory) & there will
be prizes. Please bring any unwanted Christmas presents for the now legendary
raffle, also cakes, sausage rolls, biscuits etc for the after race feast. There
will be the usual free lucky dip for the young children. Bring family & friends
to enjoy the festive atmosphere & help is always welcome with marshalling &
the teas.
Sat 28 Dec Chingford League, Trent Park
Another important league fixture for both the mens and womens teams, and this
time incorporating the Mens and Womens Club Champs. Details from team managers.
Sat 4 Jan Middx County Champs, Cranford
Details from team managers.
Sun 5 Jan Herts County Champs, Watford
Details from team managers.
Sat 25 Jan Southern Counties Champs, Exmouth
Because the National Cross Country is at Parliament Hill the Southern is elsewhere
this year. Join the club on a trip to Devon. Details from team managers.
Sat 22 Feb National Cross Country, Parliament Hill
As it is on our doorstep we ought to have a good turnout for the National this
year. Details from team managers.
This list of forthcoming events is not exhaustive, and just includes the MAJOR club events. There are many more, whose details are on the winter fixture card.