The Big One is upon us!

Written by David Jones on 10/09/2026. Posted in News

A few of our Vets team at last Sunday’s Vets T&F Cup Final. Other members had either left or were still competing. Our volunteer officials were officiating!

I do like a varied week!

This week we start with a report on the Vets T&F ‘A’ Cup Final at Pingles Stadium on Sunday. Another wonderful if somewhat exhausting day when our club’s renowned camaraderie was once again in full evidence. Joint team managers Kathryn Woodcock and Nathan Darby somehow skilfully managed to get team members to cover pretty much all of the events. In his report Nathan mentions that a certain amount of cajoling was required to achieve this. Some would call it arm twisting but who am I to argue with Mr D.

As the T&F season draws to a close we had a number of our talented juniors competing at the BRAT End of Season Open, with PBs a-plenty.

A handful of our seniors ran the local Kenilworth Half on what I think is referred to as an undulating course. One of my least favourite turn of phrases. If it’s hilly why done they say it’s hilly.

We then have a couple of wonderful reports from two of our most travelled seniors, Emma Davis and Susan Hunt. Emma’s report is on island hopping in the Scilly Islands, while Susan was once again north of the border competing in the Sterling 10k and as sure as night follows day, her report is accompanied by a photo of something edible and caky.

There are the results of last week’s Shakespeare race. I won’t mention the hill again. Oops I mentioned it.

Finally this week’s Stratford Herald reports on both the Kenilworth Half and Mike Lambert Open.

It’s a massive weekend for us coming up, with the Stratford Big 10k and half marathon plus an absolute highlight of the club calendar, the Club Championships. Good luck to all who are competing and if you or your children are, please please feel free to send me a few words on the experience for inclusion in the newsletter.

Take care.

David Jones

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The Big One is Coming

Not to be missed

The Club Championships!

They’re almost here.

The countdown has begun.

Chillin’

Vet’s T&F League Cup Final

Sunday 6^th September.

Report – Nathan Darby

The climax of the Vet’s Track and Field League is a full day bonanza event at the Pingles Stadium in Nuneaton.

The top 2 teams from each division and the next best 3^rd placed teams were to fight it out in the “A final”, with the next best 8 teams in the “B final”.

Finishing second to Worcester in the Southern Division qualified us for the “A final”.

The cup final is a real step up in quality and it was a great stage for us to show what we can do.

Selection this season has been a constant challenge, with several of the key members of the team missing for large chunks of the season.

Kathryn and I spent long hours over the team this time around, with late injuries and illnesses trying their best to scupper our plans! However, after some last-minute cajoling and enlisting help from our club mates, we managed to get most events covered.

The event started at 10:00am and went on until 5:30pm, so a very busy day for everyone. Conditions in the morning were perfec, but got steadily hotter and more humid as the day went on.

The overall result was a little disappointing, as we finished in 7^th position. However, the gap between 7^thand 4^th place was only 32 points, so on another day we might have done a little better.

More annoying was that having narrowed the gap on Worcester all season, they went on to win the final by some distance.

But enough negativity, we had some great performances on the day so let’s concentrate on that!

Pete Sugden continued his transformation into racewalk specialist with a great 2^nd place and Jan McLure was a comfortable 3^rd in her event. In the 100m Dave Wilson ran powerfully to finish in 3^rd.

As the humidity grew, the athletes taking part in multiple events started to regret a few life choices and the people in the 3,000m were dreaming of an ice bath!

A lot of the track events had to be covered at the last minute by willing volunteers, and all came out of their events in credit, especially when they had to drop down an age group or three!

Highlight of the track for me was the men’s 4×400. After a long day, I was quite happy to stroll along in the anchor leg. However, to my horror, Bogdan Ene (find of the day) ran a superlative 1^st leg, which was backed up by Richard Gubby and Pete Sugden, meaning that I had to run as fast as I could to maintain 3^rd place!

The field was more successful, with Stratford winning no less than 4 events, 3 of which were by Paula Williams! The other event was John Boxall in the high jump. Other highlights in the field were Mark Illingworth, James Chamberlain and debutant Tom Cross who all acquitted themselves well.

Overall, it was a fantastic day and the support from the team for each other made me proud.

The willingness of people to step into events to cover last minute changes was extraordinary. I can safely say that my admiration for real multi-eventers is magnified after I did 6 events!

Not the result that we would have liked, but it seems churlish to dwell on any negativity after a long and successful season.

Huge thanks to everyone who has given up their time to represent the team either by competing or officiating this summer.

I hope that everyone has enjoyed it as much as I have and I look forward to welcoming everyone back next year.

Both Kathryn and I took over the role of managing the team with some trepidation, however I can say that it has been very fulfilling and made me proud of what we have achieved.

We go again in spring!

Charlie and Jamie Cassells

Lucia Ogilvie-Putt

Indigo Ogilvie-Putt

BRAT End of Season Open

Report – David Jones

As the T&F season draws to a close, a handful of our hard working juniors’ made their way to Birmingham for the BRAT End of Season Open meeting.

The Cassell brothers, Charlie and Jamie were among those juniors who competed in what their mother Lucie, described as a great and well organised event.

U14 Charlie’s summer training paid off, with him running a pb in his 1500m in 4:38.02, shaving a couple of seconds off his previous best. Apparently he was still a bit disappointed as he was hoping for slightly better time but he competed well in a heat of containing Masters, U18 & U16 athletes and was first in his U14 category.

Charlie was 4^th in long jump with a pb of 4.09, improving on his previous best of 4.02.

U12 Jamie did not have good day with his long jump. He couldn’t work out his run up and either missed or jumped way before the board but he ran 12.47 in the 75m, beating his previous best time of 12.52.

However he perked by running a pb time of 24.44 in his 150m.

Jamie shook the disappointment off quite quickly and said he just needs to train harder for next season.

The hard working Ogilvie-Putt sisters had a busy day. U16 Lucia winning bronze in the 1500m, although she was apparently not happy with her time of 5:18.39 – the medal vs PB scenario is always an interesting one. She also had a solid LJ (4.10) and Javelin (17.05).

U12 Indigo secured gold in the Howler and a pb of 3.15m in LJ and a solid 150m (27.33), which she was apparently not happy with.

Their comments on the day were:

Lucia’s: As practice for the Club Champs myself and my sister entered the BRAT end of season open. I competed in Javelin, 1500m and long jump. Javelin was first and I made some very consistent throws but with nothing too spectacular. After a 3 hour break, it decided to rain just before my 1500m (luckily it was only a shower.) I ran the fastest first 2 laps of my life with the 1st being 72 seconds and the 2nd being 78. From then on I realised that was a bit too fast but I still managed to take home a bronze medal. Straight afterwards I went over to the long jump. I was happy that I jumped over 4m, despite having just run a 1500m. All in all I think it was a great way to get ready for this coming weekend.

Indigo added: I competed in Howler, long jump and 150m.

Even though I won the howler I didn’t throw anywhere near my PB which I know happens but it was frustrating.

I was pleased that I got a PB in long jump (3.15) because I have been finding it hard to hit the board when I jump.

U12 Daisy Mason competed in the 600m, finishing 4th in her heat (out of 9) in the U12 category She ran superbly as one of the few 9 year olds and her time of 2:18.87 obliterated her previous best time of 2:35.3.

Another hard working family were the Ryan-Gill sisters. U14 Annabel ran a pb time of 2:46.42 in her 800m, knocking 6 seconds off her previous best. She also jumped 3.66 in the long jump. U14 Lara ran 14.77 and 30.09 in the 100 and 200m respectively, with U16 Bethany running 14.26 and 29.09 over the same distances.

Maggie Silvers recorded a time of 5:43.8 in the 1500m, Elsie Gould ran times of 11.57 and 23.27 in her 75m and 150m races, also jumping 3.33m in the long jump.

Finally U14 Rose Jackson ran 16.18 in the 100m, beating her previous best time of 17.9. She then smashed her 200m pb. Her time of 28.50, knocking a huge 6 seconds of her previous fastest.

Lisa Stevens, Kim Lee, John Devine, Rob Gisbourne, Dave Maundrell and Ash Habel.

Kenilworth Half Marathon

6th September 2026

Kim’s Kenilworth

Report – Kim Lee

In an attempt to keep the momentum from my marathon training, I committed to my first experience of the Kenilworth half marathon. In the back of my mind I even considered if a half marathon PB was achievable, straight after my marathon PB in London earlier in the year.

It turns out that the summer heatwave plus two weeks of travel to Borneo just before the event was not the ideal race prep, so the push for a PB fell to the wayside.

I settled for targeting 1hr 50mins, with Garmin giving me a 1hr 53mins prediction.

Arriving early in a sea of Kenilworth Runners, I found Lisa Stevens, Rob Gisbourne, Ash Habel, and Dave Maundrell in the race number collection area, allowing for a pre-race photo thanks to our support crew and photographer Ian Stevens.

In the start pens, we spotted Huw Crossweller, followed by Seth Turner calmly breezing in after his hour warm-up.

Seth, Huw and Rob are training for an ultra and marathons, respectively, so this was a conveniently timed training run for them.

The race started in calm conditions at 9.05am, after the 5k had set off.

An early start works well for me but it soon heated up in the second half of the race.

Despite reviewing the route in detail and having spoken to others who had competed before, the hills (or my insufficient hill prep) caught me out in places. Where I would usually try to push up and over them, I found I was not keeping the momentum. A definite learning experience, and it certainly fired me up for my next half, which is likely to be Warwick in early 2027.

After the dreaded 10 and 11 mile hills, I pushed on into Kenilworth and finished strong in a time of 1hr 50 mins 32 seconds. Nothing better than beating a Garmin prediction! Although Garmin swiftly downgraded me from ‘unproductive’ to ‘overreaching’.

It was great to see Huw, Seth and Rob cheer me through the final 400m. They’d finished in 1hr 25mins, 1hr 27mins and 1hr 32mins, respectively. Ash finished soon after in 1hr 41mins and Dave in 2hr 27mins. Lisa had fine-tuned her jeffing and glided across the line in 2hr 6mins, achieving a massive half marathon PB.

Seth added “I only entered this one a week before as my wife had to give up her place because she was abroad. It’s a great local race, very well organised, with a really good atmosphere and the weather was almost perfect.

I used it as a hard tempo effort in the middle of a 3 hour long run as I’m currently training for an ultra rather than these shorter distances.

As such, I ran it fairly controlled and consistent and was really able to enjoy the experience coming home in just under one hour 28 mins ready to finish the last half hour or so of my long run”

Emma Davis and her four legged friend Nellie.

Scilly60

Report – Emma Davis

The Scilly60 is a multi-island trail challenge, taking runners across all five inhabited islands of the Isles of Scilly.

Competitors complete every inch of the coast path on St Mary’s, St Martin’s, Tresco, Bryher, and St Agnes, before returning to St Mary’s for the final 5 km push to the finish.

This is the ultimate way to experience the raw beauty, technical terrain and wild spirit of the archipelago.

While the islands may be small, the terrain is anything but gentle with continuous undulation, rocky sections, sand, sea spray and technical coastal paths that demand focus from start to finish.

What Makes Scilly60 Unique

5 islands
Every metre of coast path on all inhabited islands
Tidal and logistical coordination for seamless inter-island transitions
Stunning scenery, tough terrain, and a true sense of adventure
Strictly limited to 150 participants to protect the environment and maintain an exceptional runner experience

Scilly60 is challenging, immersive, and unforgettable — the perfect race for those seeking something truly different.

Due to a couple of niggles I decided to opt for this race in the hope that I may stand more of a chance to complete it.

As explained above the event is a little quirky in that you run around the 5 inhabited islands of the Scilly isles and catch a boat to each island.

Each island has a time limit and if you don’t reach the cut off time you are unable to start the next island.

You start with St Martins, a 10k loop of hilly, sandy technical trails. Then it’s on the boat to the next island. Island number 2 Tresco, a beautiful scenic 11k route equally as testing but definitely my favourite. It was breathtaking. It’s then a short trip to Bryher, named the Beast of Bryher for a reason, after a 30 min boat trip over to St Agnes with a few runners looking a little green due to the choppy crossing. This was a testing 9km over some very narrow coastal paths followed by a sand bar twice.

Challenging to say the least.

With 4 islands successfully completed it was back to St Mary’s to complete the last 5k.

With tired feet I took a tumble on a flat gravel path and it became a very slow shuffle to the finish.

Bruised but absolutely ecstatic to have finished the 42km.

To all the trail runners take a look at this event!!

Susan Hunt sporting her Scottish themed trews!

A race report from Susan just wouldn’t seem right without a photo of something edible.

Stirling 10k

Report – Susan Hunt

I was in Perthshire last weekend, so I had a look for a local race. The Stirling 10k was an hour away and promised a flat and fast course.

Great, I’d be back in time for a roast dinner. Perfect.

After a Summer of extreme temperatures, I was delighted when race day brought normal Scottish weather: cool rain.

The majority of the 1600 runners on the start line were wearing club vests and I noticed that only myself and someone called Eric had our names emblazoned across ours. Feeling distinctly self-conscious. I considered repositioning my race number over my name; but that would have meant wearing it directly under my chin (not a good look), so I hoped that everyone would be so impressed with my Scottish-themed “trews” that they would forgive my race vest narcissism.

The road route meandered around the less scenic parts of town (Morrisons, McDonalds and some housing estates) but provided us with views of the castle without the need to run up to it.

We then headed out of town to the base of the hill upon which the Wallace Monument sits, where a piper was positioned (at 5k).

Happily this was the start of an out and back section, so we ran by him again at 6k.

Aside from the piper, on-course support was almost exclusively provided by race marshals; although a couple of shoppers said “well done” as they waited to cross the route.

The course was indeed a fast one. The winner ran 29:03 and I surprised myself with my fastest 10k for a while.

There were more surprises in store…

Firstly: the size of the women’s finisher T shirts. I’d consider myself fairly “wee” (some might even say scrawny). I started with a small shirt and couldn’t even get it over my head. So I worked my way through the sizes and ended up with a large (it’s probably the only item sporting such a label in my extensive running wardrobe).

The second surprise was the magnificence of the goody bag.

The entry form had allowed me to decline a medal; but I still felt a flicker of disappointment when I was directed away from the bling.

All this was forgotten when I received a brown paper bag full of goodies (just like the old days).

No disappointing leaflets in this bag. I got a banana, a rubber duck, a Tunnocks caramel wafer and a double-shortbread empire biscuit bearing the 10k logo on an edible disc!

I headed home happily for my roast dinner (the edge slightly taken off my appetite by the massive souvenir biscuit).

The Stirling 10k had been a belter!

L to R: Richard Liggatt, Seth Turner, race winner Jamie Hall and Drew Sambridge.

Missing from last week’s group photo were these 4 quickies. At the time of the group photo they were doing their cool down run, which is apparently what élite runners do post race.

September Shakespeare Race 1

Last Wednesday 44 senior members’ completed the latest Shakespeare race. Meeting at The Fox in Loxley and setting off for a 5mile/8k race, including a couple of miles of track round Richard Dobedoe’s farm and culminating in a pretty brutal hill.

Jamie Hall was again victorious, completing the challenging course in 31:44. He was followed by Richard Liggatt in 2nd place and a time of 32:56. In 3rd place was Wayne Vickers (34:17).

First lady finisher was, yet again, Kate Wright in 6th place overall with a time of 34:42. Sarie Weaving was the 2nd placed lady, with a time of 35:25, finishing in 6th place overall and Helen Platts (19th – 40:37) was 3rd placed lady.

For the full set of results, follow the link below:

https://www.racetecresults.com/results.aspx?CId=16418&RId=996&EId=10

Stratford Herald
This week they report on our participants in both the Kenilworth Half and Mike Lambert Open.