And now for something completely different.

Written by David Jones on 14/05/2026. Posted in News

Team Stratford. All smiles at Chedworth 5 and 10 miler.

You may have heard this one before but it was another varied week in the life of our wonderful club.

So here we are with the second of this week’s newsletters, following swiftly on from the earlier photo special.

We start of with one of Simon Penson’s articulate reports, this time on the Chedworth 5 and 10 mile rail races with 10 of our club members facing up to the challenge.

The major event of the weekend was the Warwickshire County T&F Championships where over 100 of our members competed. Many of the juniors being in the middle of the exam season, so for them it was often the case of turn up, compete, leave.

Paul Bearman is still scouring the results with a view to compiling a report on our junior’s involvement for next week but Victoria Stewart has written a report on the many successes of our Super Seniors. Many thanks Victoria.

Our racewalk duo of Jan McLure and Paul Hawkins were in fine form at the Warwickshire 3000m Racewalk County Championships.

A trio of our talented young female members have been plying their trade with some success and, as such, there are items on Marijke Tear-Verweij, Florence Andrews and Lucia Ogilvie-Putt. As part of her D of E, Lucia has also come up with another mouth watering recipe.

And now for something completely different….. Dave Battersby reports on his Run Archery Competition. Who knew.

Finally, I’ve written a report on my enjoyable 3 race week.

It’s another big T&F week, with our juniors’ competing in the first Heart of England fixture of the season at Rugby and last season’s title winning Midland league T&F team will be making the long journey to Newport in Wales. Good luck to all competing.

Take care.

David Jones

Chedworth Roman Trail: 5 and 10 Mile races aka the After Party race!

Report – Simon Penson

Sunday – what can we say about Sunday?

The ‘day after the night before’ (for some of us helping Phil celebrate his 70th trip around the sun) and a good 10 degrees cooler than Saturday! Despite travel time and the cool and windy conditions, the club was well represented in both the 5 mile and 10 mile races with 10 of us turning up to complain about the temperature and agonise about choice of clothing.

The race started from a windswept field adjacent to the village hall and quickly dropped down toward the Colne valley. The course was a mixture of tracks, fields and a short distance on road. It was varied and enjoyable and we all warmed up pretty quickly. For both routes the highlight (some say) was the river crossing-which was well over my knees! The race photos show a variety of methods being used to negotiate the feature, from Wayne charging through to me crawling out! This was followed by a long and steady climb so we all warmed back up.

We all came back in good spirits and a fantastic set of results: Donna Allen was First Senior Lady and third overall in the five mile course (dog sitting duties called), Drew Sambridge came in forth overall and second V40, on-form globetrotting Wayne Vickers was ninth overall and third in an incredibly competitive V50 group. Bettering Wayne, Emma Vickers came in as fifth woman and first V50, and a great run from Andy Snape saw him come in 33rd male and first M60. Myself, Fiona Penson, Sarah Odell and Mike Barrie made up the rest of the party, with Vanessa Crooks making a welcome appearance too.

Overall a fantastic set of results and a great showing from the Trail Running Team! Oh-and the cakes afterwards did indeed live up to expectations! (Sorry-no photo of Donna).

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All smiles
L to R: Victoria Stewart, Elaine Ledden and Kathryn Woodcock.

Warwickshire County Track and Field Championships 2026: Success at the Pingles Stadium

From the senior’s perspective

Event Venue: Pingles Stadium, Nuneaton
Event Dates: 9th – 10th May 2026

Report – Victoria Stewart

The Pingles Stadium in Nuneaton played host to the Warwickshire County 2026 Track and Field Championships last weekend. A few of the senior Track and Field members enjoyed a weekend of events alongside our competing club juniors.

Gold and Personal Bests on the Field

The field events saw some triumphs, particularly for those testing their limits. Andy List delivered a brilliant performance in the hammer throw, securing the Gold medal with a fantastic new personal best (PB) of 15.98m.

The success continued in the throwing circles as Mark Illingworth dominated the javelin. Mark took home the Gold medal with a winning throw of 22.26m.

Victoria Stewart, wanted to experience as many of the throwing events as possible and took on the discus, shot put, and javelin. As it was her first time competing in these throwing disciplines, Victoria walked away with personal bests in all three events. The lack of competitors allowed Victoria to take a Gold, silver and bronze!

Speed and Spirit on the Track

The track saw plenty of action from the Stratford contingent across both 100 and 200m sprint distances. On Saturday, Mark Illingworth swapped the javelin for the track, competing in the Senior Men’s 100m. Running in lane 2, he clocked a solid time of 14.77 seconds.

In the Senior Women’s 200m, Kathryn Woodcock showed great form and speed. She ran a determined final, crossing the finish line in 37.83 seconds to earn a well-deserved Silver medal.

The 100m senior women’s final was another highlight, featuring a tightly contested finish between the trio of ladies from the club:

Elaine Ledden put in a superb sprint to take the Bronze medal with a time of 16.33 seconds.
Kathryn Woodcock followed closely behind, securing 4th place in 17.75 seconds.
Victoria Stewart, competing in her first-ever competitive 100m, successfully achieved her goal of crossing the line without any spike mishaps. She clocked a time of 17.83 seconds, finishing just after Kathryn and happy with her debut performance.

Paul Hawkins and Jan McLure

Warwickshire 3000m Racewalk County Championships

Report – Paul Hawkins

The 3000m race walk is usually held as part of the championship at Nuneaton but suffers from low attendance and consequently a low level of competition.

This year an event was held at Stourport as part of the Worcestershire Championships which included walkers from across the Midlands in one race but with separately scored county races included for Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire.

Two walkers from Stratford upon Avon AC took part and both came away with silver medals in the very warm conditions.

Leading the way was Jan McLure who walked a personal best of 19.56.26 followed not too closely by Paul Hawkins in 23.37.02. Both were club records, Paul’s age group record helped by there not having been one previously. Paul is looking forward to setting some better quality records as his first season in a new age group progresses.

Marijke Tear-Verweij competed in the Great Bristol 10k on Sunday. She was in the first wave, ahead of the masses, and finished with a time of 40:19, just a few seconds off her PB of 39.48 and was 9th lady and 2nd U20.

Florence Andrews.
Building on her successful cross country season, Florence competed in the Lenches Hand 5k race held at the Lenches Club in Worcester on Bank Holiday Monday. She finished in the extremely impressive time of 21:58, a 2:30 improvement on her time at the same course last year. She was 1st female finisher. Florence also finished as 2nd U16 in the Crowle 1 mile race in Crowle Worcestershire.

Lucia Ogilvie-Putt in full flight at the Warwickshire Schools Combined Events.

Lucia commented “Last Thursday I competed in the Warwickshire Schools Combined Events. It was a lovely sunny day, and everyone did really well. Everyone was buzzing to be there as many people had never competed in combined events before. We were so pleased with the results for King’s High; we won every age category as a team and on Monday I found out that I came 2nd! I was especially pleased with my long jump as I got a PB. Overall, it was a great day, and I am looking forward to doing it all again in the next round”.

Lucia’s latest.

Looks pretty mouth watering.

Hi everyone,

This week’s recipe is for Chocolate squares. These are the perfect protein snack to take to a competition.

Ingredients:
1 cup pumpkin seeds ( any seeds or nuts will do – hazelnuts work really well!)
1 cup coconut oil or butter or cacao butter (I use a mixture of all of them and sometimes no cacao butter if I’ve run out!)
8 dessert spoons choc protein powder ( we have a plant-based choc brownie flavour one which works well)
100g 85 or 90 % dark choc
2 tsp vanilla essence
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 cup dates ( soak in hot water for a few mins if a bit dry)

Method:
1.Melt the butter/oil/cacao butter and chocolate in a saucepan on a low heat
2.Blitz the dates and seeds until chopped but still chunky (if you prefer it smooth, more like a naked bar, then blitz the seeds first until a fine powder)
3. Add the protein powder, vanilla and maple syrup to the date mix and blitz for a few seconds.
4. Whilst blitzing slowly pour in the melted mixture to the date mixture.
5. Line a baking tin with baking parchment or well-greased tin foil.
6. Pour ( well plop) into tin and use a spatula to gently spread and pat well to flatten so there are no cracks in the mixture
I make mine about 1/4 inch thick but it’s up to you!
7. Leave in the fridge to set ( or freezer for 20 mins if you need them in a hurry!)
8. It’s best to score the top to mark out the squares after they’ve cooled for 10 mins as it makes them easier to break into squares later.

NB It’s not an exact science- each batch comes out a little different but the more butter you add the fudgier it will be and will need to be kept cool or it will melt!
The more cocoa butter you add the harder the bar- which is better for school- not as melty!
I don’t use nuts because of school!

How does this befit us athletes?
Healthy fats in coconut oil and cacao butter gives us a dense source of energy. The seeds and dates provide fibre needed to aid digestion. Dark chocolate is an antioxidant which helps with inflammation dn heart health.

Hope you enjoy!

Lucia

And now for something completely different!

Run Archery.

Report – Dave Battersby

Last Sunday I took part in something a bit different, a run archery competition!

There were 2 events – a sprint which included a 400m run – shooting at 4 targets, another 400m run, shooting again and a final 400m. For any missed targets there was a penalty loop.

There was also a longer distance event with 4 x 1 km loops with 3 rounds of shooting- again with penalty loops.

As it was my 1st event I found it quite a challenge to sprint into the shooting area then get ready to shoot and found myself left behind by the more experienced athletes, coming in 11th out of the 18 after running 3 penalty loops.

Come the afternoon I unfortunately decided to call it a day after about 2 k after the calf injury I picked up a couple of weeks ago flared up.

It is a really interesting event – with the penalty loops meaning just being a quick runner doesn’t mean you will win – in the longer race for every miss you run another 160 m – meaning if you miss 12 targets you have to run nearly 2 k further.

I was a bit gutted not to be able to finish but will certainly be trying it again what’s not to like about combining my 2 favourite sports!

David Jones
Proud to wear the vest. Very proud

Some members of the England Team

Bannister Mile
Tempo Events Summer 5k
Biderford 10k

That was the week that was

Report – David Jones

As someone who is constantly nagging you to send in reports, I thought I should comment on the past seven days in my running life.

For maybe the first time, I embarked on 3 races in 7 days, each of progressing length. A mile on Monday, 5k on Thursday and 10k on Sunday.

Last week Nigel Chidgey reported that the force was with him, so time to see if it was with me.

The first of the 3 was the Bannister Mile on Bank Holiday Monday in Oxford. For the elites/quickies the race is on the track at the iconic Iffley Road track where Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile barrier on May 6th 1954. For the less quick runners the race starts in Oxford City centre, finishing just outside the track and you are then funnelled onto the track to collect your medal. I reported last week on Tom Cox’s stunning race on the track, as one of the elite runners.

This is the 3rd time I have done this race and it really is a lot of fun. Not being on the track meant there were minor undulations. I was pretty pleased to finish in 7:21.6, some 9 seconds quicker than when I last ran it in 2024.

The only niggle is that I really do not like driving in Oxford, usually opting for the park and ride option but as I needed to get there earlyish and it being bank holiday, I opted to drive. Road works and diversions literally had me driving round in circles for 30 minutes trying to exit Oxford. These diversions, I kid you not, directed me in to the railway station car park on a couple of occasions.

I then opted to miss the Shakespeare Race, something I am loathe to do. The reason being, was that I had entered the first of the Tempo Events Summer Series of 5k races. 5k road races are few and far between and I needed to submit a time to the England selectors in an attempt to run for England in a k race in July. Sadly the selectors do not accept parkrun times.

The course was a straightforward out and back. The only slight problem being that it was pretty much a gradual downward slope all the way out, which of course meant an incline all the way back. I do not like inclines, no matter how slight and I’m pretty rubbish at them. My time was a couple of minutes inside the required time for England qualification and it’s now a case of submitting my time and seeing how it compares with others wishing to represent England in July. Fingers crossed.

As a club we were well represented in the race. Jamie Hall did what Jamie does by winning in a time of 15:59, closely followed by a remarkably quick first lady, Alex Eykelbosch of Dacorum AC in 16:06.

In 7th place was our own Matt Burdus-Cook, also hoping to qualify for England. Matt finished in 7th place with a time of 17:55, dipping under the 18 minute qualifying time required for selection.

Matt was followed by Drew Sambridge (11th – 18:49). It was then our first lady finisher Emma Vickers (35th – 22:48), closely followed by Keith Jewett (36th – 22:56) and Kim Lee (40th – 23:46). I finished in 44th place with a time of 25:02. Hannah Stockil then proved that motherhood certainly isn’t slowing her down, finishing the in 26:31. It was then Ali Kirk (29:33), followed by Phil Brennan (30:35). Phil was competing barely a couple of miles from his home and was concerned that he wouldn’t get back to his local in time to join his buddies for a pint. Finally, John Butler recorded at time of 34:48.

As you would expect with a Tempo Events race, it was well organised and well marshalled by some familiar faces with use all walking away with a couple of Barry the Butcher beef burgers at the and.

It was then time for my 10k race in Bideford Devon. This was the 2nd time I had been selected to run for England and was a pretty enjoyable day all round. The first time was at the Newcastle 10k last year, and like then, I found the actual qualifying for selection the hard bit but the race itself quite enjoyable. Meeting up with your fellow internationals beforehand, comparing injuries and ailments, as we runner’s tend to do.

The big negative was that I was missing the County Championships, which I absolutely love but when your country calls………

The weather was a bit blowy and the course, again, an out and back. Running the first 5k on the road, I was a bit concerned about the undulations, thinking about the return, but the inward 5k was along the Tarka Trail, running alongside the river and flat ! Much joy.

I’d targeted a time of 52 minutes and briefly ran with the 50 minute pacer but I think my days of 50 minute 10ks have long passed. I finished in 52:36, a few seconds quicker than Newcastle, so I can’t really complain.

So was the force with me ? I think, on reflection, it probably was.