The final club session before Christmas is next Thursday (22nd) and the first session back in the New Year will be on Tuesday 3rd January.

 

The park will be closed in the evenings between these dates and, if you train during the daytime, please pay the Rangers.

 

 

The final North Staffs Cross Country League meeting of the season took place at Keele University on Saturday (10th).

 

Georgia Griffiths finished the League season by winning the U15G category overall, following a fourth placed finish in the final race. Finlay Stanton was another individual prize winner after winning the U11B race to finish in second place overall.

 

Jack Hadley came 6th in the U15B race and Caitlin Disley 7th in the U17W with both athletes finishing the season 5th overall.

 

Daisy Watson came 18th in the U11G, Will Hadley 23rd in the 23rd in the U11B. In the U13G race, Katherine Grainger came 8th.

 

Mark Shepherd ran in the Senior Men's race, finishing an excellent 28th and our Senior Women maintained their top division status with a fourth place team finish. Natalie Griffiths (12th), Sue Kneill-Boxley (31st) and Hannah Malpass (38th) were supported by Natalie Boswell (54th) who stepped in at the last minute to make the team up, despite having to run in the Telford 10k the following day.

 

Our Senior Men were in action on Saturday in the Birmingham & District Cross Country League at Cheltenham.

 

Bill Chesters continued his excellent form by finishing in 20th place. Phil Wolfe and Tom Eustace were separated by one place and 2 seconds with Phil just ahead in 58th. Craig Pearson came 73rd whilst Mark Shepherd was the third M50 finisher in 77th position.

 

James McCann in 86th and Tom Orton (159th) completed our runners and helped the team to tenth place on the day to lift them a place above the relegation zone.

 

On Sunday, it was the turn of our young athletes in the WMYACCL meeting at Warley Woods.

 

Natasha Lee had a good run to come home in twelfth in the U17W race and, in the U13G, Beth Beeson earned a terrific seventh place finish

 

Our U15B came sixth on the day with Luca Keeble leading the team in 8th followed by Jack Hadley (20th), Jake Weavell (26th) and Luke Cresswell (42nd)

 

Luke's brother, Charlie, was the first of our finishers in the U13B in 25th with William Cashmore (40th) and Alfie Blackett (49th) doing well in the 82 strong field.

 

In the U15G, Georgia Griffiths came 4th and Delilah Dempsey 39th which kept Georgia second in the current overall standings for the season to date.

 

We have been awarded one place in next years London Marathon. If you are interested and have been a member of the club for the last three years please contact me by 23.59 on Sunday (4th December) for a place in our draw.

 

If you have previously been given the club place in the last 5 years please allow others the opportunity to take part. Please note that the winner will still have to pay the entry fee.

 

It’s been good to finally get back to some kind of normality this year with the majority of events returning to pre-covid structures.

 

I’d like to thank everyone involved in the running of the club over the past twelve months. None of our coaches, officials or other volunteers are paid for the many hours of their own time that they put in, a fact that I don’t know if everyone is aware of.

 

I know I really appreciate a “Thank you” from my athletes after a training session and I’m sure all of our other volunteers do too.

 

We are also fortunate to have an excellent nucleus of people on our Committee that deal with all of the aspects of running a club that not many of our members get to see, including financial management, membership registration, dealing with various administration for the leagues that our club enters and general club governance and administration. Without these people doing the roles that they do, our club simply wouldn’t exist so thank you to them all.

 

With regards to volunteering, we have had two new track judges start officiating this season, Vici Browning and Hazel Cane. Officiating helps the club a lot. Officials score points for the club in league meetings that we are involved in and can very easily be the difference as to the position we finish. The Power of 10 are also becoming more and more strict on the level of officials helping out at meetings and have warned that, if insufficient qualified officials are not officiating an event, then results will not be eligible for the Power of 10! It would be good therefore, for us to get more people qualified. It’s not that difficult to do and it takes the strain off the officials we do have.

 

In actual competition, our Senior Women’s Cross Country team managed to avoid relegation and remain in the Division One of the North Staffs League. Our Senior Men came fifth in Division Two of the Birmingham and District League and there was some individual success with Chris Perrin finishing joint first of the athletes who took part in all four of the races.

 

Our Senior Men’s cross country team also had great runs to win silver medals in the Midland 7 Cross Country Championships at Nuneaton recently and a team of our veteran men bought home medals from the Midland Masters Cross Country Relays.

 

On the track, despite a shortage of male athletes, our YDL U17/U20 team finished second in their division behind Shrewsbury. This placed them in a Promotion match but, with many of our usual athletes and officials unavailable, we were unable to submit a team. Stoke were in a similar position and low numbers of athletes at this age seem to be a general problem across the majority of clubs, maybe a knock on effect of the disruption caused by Covid?

 

Numbers of U13 / U15 athletes in the club appear to be improving since our return and we were able to participate in more events in our YDL Lower Age Group team as the season progressed. After finishing last in the first two meetings, we made a great improvement in the final meeting to finish third. Hopefully this improvement will continue next year.

 

Our Seniors had a really good season, finishing runners up in Division 2 and earning promotion to the top division in the Midlands League. When you consider that Tamworth and Birchfield will be in Division 2 next year, City of Stoke in Division 3 and Wolverhampton & Bilston, Burton, RSC and Charnwood in the Division 4 regional divisions, we are punching well above our weight. We may find that we yoyo in this league over the coming seasons as other clubs in the top division have much higher number of athletes than us but it’s our great team togetherness which has helped to get us this far. Our athletes all support and loudly encourage each other during the meetings and it’s really great to see and a pleasure to be a part of.

 

Our Veterans (or Masters) section were again successful. Our Men’s team once again won the Midland Veterans League North Division title and the Women won their division for the first time since 2018. Well done to Rob Law and Craig Pearson who managed the men’s team and Emma Hollinshead who organised the women.

 

The Vets also took part in the League Cup Final for the first time for a few years and both the men’s and women’s teams finished fourth in the ‘A’ final competed for by the top veterans teams from across the Midands

 

There were also a number of C&S athletes who achieved individual success. I apologise if I have missed anyone out. I’ve tried to mention all achievements at area level or above.

 

Amy Pye competed in the Indoor British Championships in Birmingham and Natalie Griffiths and Amy competed at the British Championships in Manchester. Chloe Wilde also received an invite but was unable to compete due to injury.

 

Ella Beeson, Natasha Lee, Georgia Griffiths, Jack Hadley and Luca Keeble represented their County at the English Schools Cross Country Championships and Matilda Perry, Mia Wainwright and Georgia were selected to represent Staffordshire at the English Schools Track & Field Championships.

 

Amy Pye, Hannah Malpass and Matilda Perry all won medals at the Midland Championships and Amy also won silver in the National U23 Champs in the 400mH and a bronze in the 400m in the Southern Indoor Champs.

 

In the veterans competitions, Carl McMullen, Mitch Blundell, Malcolm Down, Vici Browning and Emma Hollinshead all won medals at BMAF Championships and Tunde Adeyemo, Darrell Wilde, Malcolm Down, Mark Shepherd, Carl McMullen, Mitch Blundell, Sue Kneill-Boxley and Emma Hollinshead all represented their areas in either the Masters Indoor or Outdoor Inter Area Competitions. A number of our athletes also won medals at the Midland Masters Championships.

 

Finally, I wish everyone a safe, happy and healthy Christmas and a successful New Year.

 

Shaun Ainge

Chairman

 

Our Senior Men won team silver medals at the Midland 7 Mile Cross Country Championships at Bullwell Hall Park, Nottingham on Saturday (19th) 

 

Bill Chesters had a great run to finish fifth in 43.08. Tom Eustace was tenth (44.23) just over a minute ahead of Jon Biddle who finished thirteenth. Craig Pearson was one place and ten seconds behind Jon.

 

James McCann came 20th (48.12), Paul Lester 22nd (49.26) and Darrell Wilde 25th in 50.23.

 

The opening Birmingham & District Cross Country League meeting of the season took place at Plock Court in Gloucester last Saturday (12th).

 

Out of a 182 strong field, Jon Biddle was our highest placed athlete in 49th. Tom Eustace, Craig Pearson and Phil Wolfe all finished within a few seconds of each other in 57th, 60th and 61st respectively. Lee Rogers came 82nd, Andy Cotterill 107th and Paul Lester 114th. Mark Green came 127th and Tom Orton 129th.

 

On Sunday, our younger athletes travelled to Newbold Revell in the West Midlands Young Athletes Cross Country League. Our U15G finished fourth on the day with Georgia Griffiths leading the team home in 2nd place. She was supported by Ella Beeson (22nd), Aimee Waters (44th), Delilah Dempsey (58th) and Robyn Lee (60th).

 

Will Hadley was our only competitor in the U11B race, finishing 75th and his brother, Jack came 21st in the U15B.

 

Beth Beeson finished an excellent 13th in the U13G race and Daisy Cowlishaw came 99th.

  

Georgia Griffiths, Ella Beeson and Ella Haycock made up the C&S U15G team that competed at the National cross country relays on Saturday.

 

Georgia completed the first leg in 7:35 and Ella Beeson and Ella Haycock ran 8:18 and 9:55 respectively to finish in 60th position of the 95 teams taking part. Well done to all three!

  

Georgia Griffiths made it three wins from three meetings in the U15G race at the NSCCL at Parkhall last weekend. This victory assures Georgia of the individual title for this season.

 

Callum Pearson moved into third place overall in the U13B with an excellent third place on the day. Alfie Blackett, running in the same age group, came 27th.

 

Jack Hadley (7th) and Ben Allen (10th) competed in the U15B race and Jack remains in contention for a top three position overall.

 

Daisy Watson and Will Hadley both finished 17th in the U11 races, Katherine Grainger came 14th in the U13G and Caitlin Disley 8th in the U17W.

 

In the seniors, there was confusion about the number of laps run by the male athletes which caused a number of none finishers. Of our athletes that were still running at the end, Dan Gambrill came 74th and Jack Scott 197th.

 

Our senior women's team came 5th in the Division 1 race. Nina Skilton came home in a brilliant 9th position and was supported by Sue Kneill-Boxley (38th), Hannah Malpass (53rd) and Natalie Boswell (54th).

 

Cannock & Stafford AC men's over 45 team won silver medals in the Midland Masters Cross Country Relay Championships held at Long Eaton Derbyshire on Saturday (29th).

 

The Midland Masters event was incorporated into the British Masters races. The over 45's finished ninth overall in the British Masters event but second of the Midland teams competing.

 

Andy Cotterill was first to run and finished his leg in tenth place with a time of 11:23. Mark Shepherd then ran the team's fastest leg of 10:59 to hand over to Mark Green in sixth. Mark (12:09), Darrell Wilde (12:08) and Paul Lester (12:07) all then ran remarkably similar times to gain the silver medals.

 

We also had a team competing in the M35 age group. Mitch Blundell (10:41), Jon Biddle (10:44), Craig Pearson (11:03) and Martyn Clare (13:28) all contributed to the team finishing 10th overall in the British Masters race and 5th in the Midlands.

 

The Club's AGM will take place at 7.30pm on Thursday 1st December in the function room at Rowley Park. The Agenda, along with proposed changes to the Club's Constitution, can be seen here.

 

Proposed changes to our Constitution can be viewed here.

 

Craig Pearson recently took part in the England Masters Team Trials Cross Country at Markeaton Park in Derby.

 

Craig finished 32nd overall and ninth of the M40 athletes. The Midland Masters Cross Country Championships were incorporated into the event with Craig finishing third his age group.

 

Two teams of our Senior Men took part in the Midland Cross Country relays at Aldersley Stadium on Saturday.

 

Our first team finished ninth overall. James McCann led the team off running 20:31 for his leg. He was followed by Bill Chesters (20:23) and Chris Perrin (20:07) and Tom Eustace brought the team home with a 21:32 final leg.

 

Phil Wolfe ran the first leg for our second team in 21:19 and was backed up by Ryan Ashforth (21:05) and Dan Gambrill (23:19) as the team finished 48th overall.

 

It was a busy weekend for our cross country athletes with meetings taking place in the North Staffs Cross Country League and the West Midlands Young Athletes Cross Country League.

 

On Saturday, the NSCCL races took place at Stafford Common. Our Senior Women put in a great performance to finish third overall with Nina Skilton leading the way in 14th, Natalie Boswell 23rd, Lisa Dillon 31st and Sue Kneill-Boxley 37th.

 

In the younger age groups, Georgia Griffiths made it two from two as she won the U15G race and Finlay Stanton came 3rd in the U11B with Will Hadley finishing 27th in the same race.

 

Callum Pearson and Charlie Cresswell both finished in the top ten in the U13B (6th and 10th respectively) and Jack Hadley (5th), Ben Allen (9th) and Luke Cresswell (10th) did the same in the U15B.

 

In the U11G, Daisy Watson came 20th with Olivia Cope just behind in 23rd and Katherine Grainger finished 14th and Isabelle Cope 21st in the U13G race.

 

Georgia Griffiths was again in action on Sunday in the WMYACCL at Walsall Arboretum and came a fantastic second, only five seconds behind the race winner. Ella Beeson came 24th and Delilah Dempsey 51st in the same race.

 

Natasha Lee was our only competitor in the U17W race, finishing 18th. Olivia Cope came 115th in the U11G race and Haydn Tomkinson-Hill came 70th in the U11B with Will Hadley two places behind.

 

In the U13G, Beth Beeson finished 19th and was supported by Katherine Grainger (54th), Harriet Penn (67th) and Isabelle Cope (76th) whilst in the U13B, Alfie Blackett came 72nd and William Cashmore 83rd.

 

Jack Hadley (24th) finished eleven seconds ahead of Jake Weavell (27th) in the U15B race.

 

Cannock & Stafford AC had five teams in action at the Midland Road Relays at Sutton Park on 24 September.

 

Our Senior Men came 51st out of 116 teams that started the race. Ryan Ashforth led the team out with a 20:47 leg and handed to Bill Chesters in 61st place. Bill ran the team's fastest individual leg of 19:26 to put the team into 42nd and Chris Perrin (20:04) made up a further 9 places. James Perrin ran 21:49 to hand over to Phil Wolfe in 39th and Phil completed his leg in 22:05 (46th). James Russell bought the team home with a 23:05 run.

 

Our U13 girls finished 25th in their race. Beth Beeson (18:17) was ably supported by Isabel Cope (19:38) and Harriet Penn (19:50)

 

Georgia Griffiths (14:59) had a great run to hand over in seventh place in the U15 girls race and Ella Beeson (17:24) and Delilah Dempsey (17:31) helped the team to finish 16th overall.

 

Natasha Lee (15:32) and Caitlin Disley (18:02) ran in the U17W race and, in the U15 boys, Jack Hadley (13:57), Ben Allen (14:54) and Callum Pearson (14:57) finished in 21st place overall.

 

Cannock & Stafford AC gained promotion to the top division of Midlands Athletics by virtue of winning the final meeting of the season at Stoke on Saturday (13th).

 

Martin Roberts threw a season's best 32.63 in the hammer to finish second with Shaun Ainge finishing second in the 'B'.

 

Natalie Griffiths won all three of her individual track events including earning 5 bonus points as she finished the 400m hurdles in 64.8. 35 minutes later she won the 800m in a season's best 2:18.4 and she later won the 100m hurdles in 17.0. Issey Kelly won the 'B' 400m hurdles in 71.2 and also gained pbs in the long jump (5.07m) and triple jump (9.80m) to come second in both.

 

Syd Davies achieved a sprint double winning the 100m by equalling her pb of 12.8 and the 200m in 26.4 and she also threw a pb of 23.17m to finish second in the javelin. Charis Farmer won the 'B' 100m in a pb of 13.0.

 

Hannah Malpass came second in the 400m (60.2) and won the 'B' 100m hurdles in 19.6 and Charlotte Hall won the 400m 'B' in 62.2 and came second in the 'B' javelin.

 

Despite having been unable to train for four weeks, Mia Wainwright won the 'B' long jump with 5.06m and came second in the 'B' 200m and Cara Brown won the pole vault with a 2.30m clearance in her first outing of the season.

 

John Kirby smashed his pb to win the 400m and dip below 50 seconds for the first time 49.8 and Calum Haycock made his debut for our senior team, winning the 400m 'B' in 53.7. His brother Kyle, competing as a guest, finished close behind in 54.0.

 

Ryan Ashforth finished first in the 'B' 3000m steeplechase and third in the 800m (2:04.5) and James Russell won the 'B' 400m hurdles, came second in the 'B' 110 hurdles

 

Allee Rigby ran 59.5 to finish second in the 400m hurdles, 17.2 for third in the 110m hurdles and cleared 1.75m for second place in the high jump. Maddy Batchelor cleared 1.35m for a pb in her high jump and also ran a pb of 29.3 as a guest in the 200m.

 

Tunde Adeyemo came third in the 'B' 200m, Darrell Wilde third in the 'B' 800m and, in the extremely hot conditions, Katie Burney (21:33.7), Tom Eustace (16:49.4 pb) and Jon Biddle (17:20.2 pb), in his first track outing for the club for eleven years, all finished third in their respective 5000m races.

 

Henry Heathcote, Ross Goode and Ben Powers all competed in the 100m and 200m with Henry finishing 4th in the 'A' 200m, Craig Pearson, and Natasha Lee both ran 1500m with Natasha finishing 4th in her race and Craig 4th in the men's 'B'.

 

The girls 4x100m relay team of Charlotte, Issey, Syd and Charis produced some slick handovers to win in 51.1 and the 4x400m quartet of Charlotte, Syd, Issey and Nat won by over 30 seconds with a time of 4:13.3.

 

Henry, John, Allee and Tunde came third in the men's 4x100m (46.6) but the 4x400m team of Henry, Ben, Calum and John emulated the women's achievement by winning in 3:36.3.

 

Well done to all the athletes who turned up when selected for each of the meetings, many of whom competed in multiple events to score us the points to enable the team to finish in second place in the division. The support given to each other throughout the season was brilliant to see.

 

Thanks too to everyone else who contributed during the season including Alyson Ainge for managing the team on match days, the officials and people who helped officiate, without whom there wouldn't be any competition and everyone who travelled and supported the team.

 

 

Matilda Perry won a bronze medal in the U17W 100m at the Midland Championships on Sunday at Nuneaton.

 

After finishing as the quickest qualifier by winning her heat in 12.85 (+0.1 m/s), Tilly ran slightly faster in the final, 12.83 into a 2.5 m/s headwind, to win bronze.

 

C&S had one other athlete taking part in the Championships. Sophie Hulse came fifth in her 100m heat in 13.75 and also finished ninth in the long jump with a best of 4.03.

 

 

Four Cannock & Stafford athletes represented their areas at the Masters Inter Area Challenge at Nuneaton last weekend. Mitch Blundell, Darrell Wilde and Emma Hollinshead competed for the Midlands and Mark Shepherd for Welsh Masters.

 

Mark Shepherd had a good day with three pbs (at least since the introduction of the Powerof10), finishing fourth in the M50 400m in 61.3, fifth in the 1500m in 4:43.86 and also jumping 3.93 in the long jump.

 

Mitch Blundell came second in the 1500m in 4:19.33 and also filled a gap in the hammer, throwing 11.80m.

 

Darrell Wilde and Emma Hollinshead competed in the 400m with Darrell finishing fifth in the M50 race in 62.7 and Emma second in the W50 with a season's best 69.30.

 

It was another good day for our seniors at a very warm Telford on Sunday as we guaranteed safety from relegation and with one meeting of the season still remaining, there is still the possibility of promotion to the top division of Midland athletics.

 

As all teams battled to pick up points, individual victories were always going to be difficult to come by but we started well on the track with wins for Natalie Griffiths (63.7) and Charlotte Hall (75.8) in the 400m hurdles. Nat picked up 5 bonus points for her performance and just over half an hour later she was in action in the 800m where she came second in 2:20.6. Nat also came second in the 100m hurdles and won the 'B' hammer with a pb of 20.47. Charlotte also picked up good points with a second place in the 'B' discus.

 

The 400m was another profitable event for us with Hannah Malpass winning the 'A' race in 59.6 and Mia Wainwright finishing second in the 'B' in her first 400 (62.5). In the men's races, John Kirby won the 'A' in 51.4 and Henry Heathcote finishing second in the 'B' in 54.1. Hannah also won the 100 hurdles 'B' race and came third in the hammer (20.88m) and Mia finished second in the 100m 'B'

 

It was a good day for Tom Larkin who recorded three pbs. He won the 200m in 23.0, his guest 100m race in 11.2 and finished third in the triple jump with 11.50m.

 

Our other individual race winner was Issey Kelly who won the 200m 'B' with a season's best of 27.1. Issey also came second in the triple jump with 9.43m.

 

Allee Rigby came second in the high jump (1.75) and third in both the short and long hurdle races and Sydney Davies finished second in the 100m (12.9) and third in the javelin.

 

Abbie Pendlebury finished second in both the 800m 'B' and high jump 'B' and Heather Law cleared 1.40 for third place in the 'A' high jump.

 

Jack Grimshaw came second in the 200m 'B' (23.9) and, in the 3000m, Katie Burney ran 11:49.2 to finish third in the women's race and James McCann (3rd in 9:48.8) and Craig Pearson (2nd in the 'B' in 10:30.0) ran in the men's race.

 

Martin Roberts came second in the 'B' shot and 'B' discus and Allegra Soutar came third in the 1500m with a time of 5:18.1.

 

Shaun Ainge, Christian Roe, Darrell Wilde, Tom Eustace, Mark Shepherd, Ryan Ashforth, James Malpass and Josh Blakesley all made valuable contributions to the team score.

 

In guest events, Jack Grimshaw (11.5) and Tunde Adeyemo (12.2) both ran pbs in the 100m and there were good performances from Charis Farmer, Ross Goode and Ben Powers.

 

Our relay teams were excellent again despite late changes due to some of our athletes struggling with the heat. The women's 4 x 100 team of Charis, Mia, Syd and Hannah came second in 51.4 as did our men's team of Tunde, John, Allee and Jack. Issey and Charlotte joined forces with Nat and Hannah as our girls comfortably won the 4 x 400m by almost 8 seconds in 4:05.7 and the lads team of James Malpass, Ben, Ryan and John gained a thrilling win, holding off a challenge from BRAT to finish in 3:38.4 and give us second place on the day by a single point!

 

 

Congratulations to Amy Pye who won a silver medal in the 400m hurdles at the National U23 Championships in Bedford yesterday.

 

On Saturday, Amy easily won her heat in 61.17. The following day, the final was a battle between Amy and Orla Brennan. Orla opened up a clear gap but slowed into the last hurdle allowing Amy a chance to close. However. despite giving everything over the last 40m and with the gap reducing steadily, Amy could not quite catch up and finished second in 60.65 with Orla clocking 60.27.

 

We had three athletes representing Staffordshire at the English Schools Championships in Manchester last weekend.

 

In the first track event of the weekend, Mia Wainwright was drawn in heat 3 of the IG 300m and came home 7th in 42.96.  Shortly after, Georgia Griffiths came 14th in her JG 1500m heat in 4:57.52 and Matilda Perry came 5th in her IG 100m heat, running 12.80 into a 1.8m/s headwind.

 

Charlie Holmes would have taken part in the SB 100m but unfortunately picked up an injury a couple of weeks before the meeting.

 

Congratulations to all of you on your achievement.

 

Natalie Griffiths and Amy Pye both represented the Club in the 400m hurdles at the British Championships in Manchester on Saturday.

 

Conditions were difficult for the competitors with a strong wind blowing into their faces down the back straight. Nat was drawn in the same heat as Olympian Jessie Knight and finished sixth in 63.80.

 

Amy came fourth in her heat in 64.73 after heavily hitting the last hurdle following a strong run over the first 300m.

 

Chloe Wilde, who had also received an invitation to compete, was unable to race due to a foot injury.

 

Amy Pye and Hannah Malpass both won medals at the Midland U20 / Senior Championships at Nuneaton over the weekend.

 

On Saturday, Hannah ran her second fastest 400m ever of 57.56 to take silver and on Sunday, Amy ran a pb of 24.91 to win the 200m.

 

Charlie Peters just missed out on a medal with a fourth place finish in the long jump with 4.75m.

 

Emma Hollinshead and Vici Browning each won two medals at last weekend's British Masters Championships in Derby.

 

In the W45 400m, Vici gained a new pb of 69.80 to finish second and she also won silver in the 800m in a time of 2:38.92 whilst Emma came second in the W50 400m in 69.47 and third in the 800m in 2:45.02.

 

Darrell Wilde was another with a 400m pb, finishing 6th in the M55 race in 60.89. He also came 6th in the 800m in 2:22.52.

 

Andy Cotterill ran a pb of 2:18.67 in the M45 800m to finish 8th.

 

In the 100m races, Mary Goulder-Davies  came 8th in the W45 event in a time of 16.14 and Stephen Terry-Short came 6th in the M50 in 12.90 before stumbling and breaking his collar bone after crossing the finish line.

 

Three Cannock & Stafford athletes have received invitations to compete at the British Championships in Manchester, all in the same event!

 

Natalie Griffiths, Amy Pye and Chloe Wilde have been invited to compete in the 400m hurdles after their performances this year.

Amazingly, given the weather conditions at home, our athletes were treated to relatively dry conditions for their Senior League meeting at Abingdon last Sunday (5th).

 

Martin Roberts and Shaun Ainge gave the team a flying start by winning the 'A' and 'B' hammer respectively, Martin throwing 31.63m. Martin also won the discus 'B' (20.61m) and scored well in shot and javelin.

 

A feature of the track events has been the close races between Chloe Wilde and Natalie Griffiths in the 400m hurdles. Nat again came out on top by the slender margin of 0.08 seconds. Both athletes again scored 5 additional bonus points for their performances with Nat clocking 63.48 and Chloe 63.56. Nat also won the 100m hurdles (16.78) and the 400m (58.00) as well as scoring in the hammer, shot and discus.

 

Charlotte Hall won the 400m 'B' race in 61.25, John Kirby won the men's race in 51.09 and Henry Heathcote came second in the 'B' in 52.91.

 

Allee Rigby won the high jump with a 1.70m clearance and got season's bests in the 400m hurdles (59.07) and 110m hurdles (16.78).

 

Mia Wainwright (12.90) and Charlie Peters (13.56) both came 3rd in the 100m 'A' and 'B' respectively and Mia came second in the 200m in 26.35.

 

Hannah Malpass came second in the 800m in 2:29.66 and also ran the 1500m and came second in the 'B' shot and 100m hurdles. Issey Kelly came 3rd in the triple jump with a pb of 9.78m and second in the 'B' long jump.

 

In the men's track events, Mark Green came second in the 3000m steeplechase in a performance which included a complete submersion in the water jump and he also ran in the 3000m, Tom Eustace scored good points in the 1500m (4:34.48) and 3000m (9:52.30), as did Darrell Wilde in the 800m (2:22.10), 1500m and javelin.

 

Josh Blakesley scored in both long jump and triple jump and Rob Law equalled his long jump pb of 4.63m. Tunde Adeyemo contributed in the 200m (25.49) and Jack Grimshaw scored points in the 200m and ran a pb of 11.78 as a guest in the 100m.

 

In the relays, the girl's 4 x 100m team of Charlie, Charlotte, Issey and Hannah came second in 51.39 and the men's team of Henry, John, Tunde and Jack came 3rd with 46.27.

 

For the first time in the Senior League, there were mixed 4x400 relays. Chloe, Allee, Nat and John easily won the first race in a time of 3:46.39, almost 9 seconds ahead of BRAT in second place. They later found out that they had missed holding the league record by just 3 one hundredths of a second!

 

In the second race, Tunde, Mia, Hannah and Henry also had a very impressive victory with a time of 3:54.04.

 

Overall, the team finished third on the day and lie third in the league with two meetings remaining.

 

It was a good start to the season from our senior athletes at the Midland League meeting at Coventry on Sunday (22nd) as they finished second on the day.

 

As usual, the meeting began with the Men's hammer and Martin Roberts, who finished third in the 'A' with 32.41 and Shaun Ainge, who won the 'B' gave the team a solid start. Martin also finished second in the 'B' discus.

 

Natalie Griffiths and Chloe Wilde had another great race in the 400m hurdles with Nat beating her own divisional record with 62.22 and Chloe smashing her pb with 62.54. Under the new point scoring system, both picked up an additional five bonus points for their performances. Nat also won the 400m (58.23) and the 'B' 100m hurdles (17.07) and Chloe won the 'A' 100m hurdles in 16.41.

 

In the men's 400m hurdles, Allee Rigby came third in 59.52 and James Russell won the 'B' in 67.45. Allee also cleared 1.75m in the high jump to finish second and came third in the discus.

 

The 400m was another high scoring event for our athletes with John Kirby and Henry Heathcote both finishing second in the 'A' and 'B' races respectively. John ran a pb of 50.93 and Henry 52.90. In the women's 'B' race, Charlotte Hall was a clear winner in a new pb of 61.20.

 

Our women easily outscored all of the other teams women. Sydney Davies came third in the 100m (12.81), second in the 'B' 200m (26.41) and third in the javelin with a pb of 22.01m and Mia Wainwright won the 100m 'B' (12.94) and came second in the 200m (26.35).

 

Katie Burney and Allegra Soutar came second in the 'A' and 'B' 5000m respectively. Heather Law came second in the high jump with a 1.45m clearance and Issey Kelly came third in the triple jump with 9.37m.

 

Hannah Malpass won both the 'B' hammer and 'B' shot and Charlie Peters jumped 4.90m as a guest in the long jump.

 

In the men's events, John Kirby came third in the 100m in 11.47. Mark Shepherd came third in the 5000m (16:58.59) and Tom Eustace won the B in 17:07.64. Rob Law and Josh Blakesley contributed in both long and triple jump. Darrell Wilde got pbs in both the 800m and javelin and Ben Powers pbs in the 100 and 200m. There were also good performances from Jack Grimshaw and Tunde Adeyemo in the 100 and 200m, Bill Chesters and Christian Roe in the 800m and Mitch Blundell and Tom Eustace in the 1500m.

 

The women's 4 x 100m relay team of Issey, Syd, Chloe and Hannah won their race in 49.87 and the 4 x 400m team of Nat, Hannah, Mia and Chloe easily won their race in 3:57.42, the club's fastest time for many years.

 

The Men's teams came fourth in the 4 x 100m and 3rd in the 4 x 400m.

 

There were three Cannock & Stafford athletes in action at the BUCS Outdoor Championships last weekend.

 

In the 100m, Sydney Davies finished 4th in her heat in 12.93 seconds and in the men's hammer, Jack Turner threw his second furthest ever distance of 48.02m to finish 7th.

 

Amy Pye comfortably finished first in her 400m hurdles heat in what would have been a pb time but was disqualified for a hurdle infringement. Amy did however have the satisfaction of winning a gold medal as part of the Bath University team that won the 4x100m

 

With the advancement in technology in footwear perceived to be helping some athletes gain an unfair advantage, World Athletics have issued a list of approved or non approved shoes / spikes. Please check that your shoes or spikes are approved for use. If not, you may be disqualified or prevented from racing if you use them in competition!     List of Approved Shoes

 

Our veterans had three teams racing in the BMAF Road Relays at Sutton Park on Saturday (23rd).

 

Our W55 team finished 8th. Ann Robinson completed her leg in 26:06, Dot Fellows 26:31 and Christine Kilkenny 24:45.

 

Vici Browning completed her leg in 21:51, Hazel Cane 29.09 and Lyn Clare 27.00 as our W45 team came home 15th and, in the M55, Martyn Clare in 21:33, Malcolm Down 21:17 and Darrell Wilde 19.59 helped the team to 19th position.

 

Cannock & Stafford had teams in both the women's 6 stage and men's 12 stage races at the Midland Road Relays Championships at Sutton Park on Saturday.

 

Our men's team finished 27th of the 76 teams that started the race. The first four athletes had to complete long legs and James McCann ran 33.38 to finish the first leg in 53rd place. Tom Eustace (30.37), Mark Shepherd (30.59) and Jon Biddle (32.03) left the team in 35th place at the start of the shorter legs.

 

Bill Chesters (17.57), Mitch Blundell (17.51) and Craig Pearson (17.53) lifted the team to 26th and solid runs from Chris Metcalfe (19.16), James Russell (19.13), Jagon Edge (20.11), Tom Orton (20.29) and Mark Green (20.49) brought the team home.

 

Our women had two teams entered. The 'A' team finished 32nd of 72 teams entered. Allegra Soutar ran one of the long legs in 41.41 to lie 48th, Hannah Malpass ran a short leg in 22.56 to pick up 5 places and Sue Kneill-Boxley gained a further place by running her long leg in 41.54. Vici Browning (23.03), Kelly Weatherall (23.30) and Sally Gray (21.41) all moved up the field to give us the 32nd place finish.

 

Unfortunately, our B team only had 5 runners but were in 48th position after the fifth leg. Ann Robinson (46.50) was followed by Lyn Clare (26.43), Christine Kilkenny (43.24), Natalie Boswell (23.55) and Dot Fellows (26.47)

 

Luca Keeble, Jack Hadley, Georgia Griffiths and Ella Beeson represented Staffordshire at the English School Cross Country Championships at Hop Farm in Kent on Saturday.

 

Georgia and Ella ran in the Junior Girls race, finishing 140th and 319th respectively.

 

Luca and Jack both took part in the Junior Boys race with Luca finishing 289th and Jack 292nd.

 

Six C&S athletes represented their areas in the England Masters AA Inter Area competition held at Lea Valley on Sunday (13th).

 

Tunde Adeyemo, Darrell Wilde, Malcolm Down and Sue Kneill-Boxley competed for the Midland Masters, Mark Shepherd was selected by the Welsh Masters and Carl McMullen for the Northern Masters.

 

Tunde ran in both the M35 60m (7.86 seconds) and 200m, where he finished with a pb of 24.72. Darrell also finished fourth in his M50 400m race in 61.83.

 

Carl and Malcolm both ran in the 800m with Carl sixth in the M35 race in 2:25.48 and Malcolm fifth in the M60 race in 2:41.64. Carl also ran in the M35 60m hurdles, finishing fifth in 10.43 after clattering an early hurdle.

 

Mark had a great run in the M50 3000m, winning the race with a pb of 9:53.31 and Sue ran in both the W50 800m (fourth in 2:58.18) and 1500m where she came second with a time of 5:54.93.

 

Georgia Griffiths, Natasha Lee and Jake Weavell were selected to compete for Staffordshire in the Inter Counties Cross Country Championships on Saturday (12th) following their performances in the County Cross Country Championships.

 

Georgia was the second Staffordshire athlete home in the U13G race, finishing 85th out of a field of 301.

 

Natasha came 99th out of the 256 athletes who completed the U17W race and Jake finished 256th in the U15B event out of 301.

 

Well done to all three.

 

Vici Browning and Malcolm Down both won bronze medals at the British Masters Indoor Championships over the weekend.

 

After finishing fourth in the M60 800m on Saturday with a time of 2:28.96, Malcolm went one better in the 1500m on the Sunday, winning bronze in a time of 5:20.89. Vici won her bronze in the W45 800m in 2:40.88.

 

Darrell Wilde came close to winning his first British medal but was just held off (almost literally) in a battle for third place in his M55 400m race. He at least had the consolation of recording a pb, finishing in 61.10.

 

After his exploits in Braga, Stephen Terry-Short came 3rd in his M50 60m heat in 8.05 to make it through to the final as a fastest loser. He then came 6th in the final with 8.07. Stephen also competed in the 400m where he came 5th in his heat and 7th overall with a time of 61.06.

 

Stephen Terry-Short has been representing GB this week in the European Masters Indoor Championships in Braga, Portugal and will come home with a silver relay medal.

 

On Wednesday, Stephen came 5th in his M50 60m heat in 8.10 and on Friday, he just missed out on a semi-final in the 200m after running a season's best 26.41.

 

Following his individual performances, Stephen was selected for the GB M45 4x200m relay team and they won silver on Sunday afternoon behind the Spanish quartet.

 

Amy Pye competed today in the 400m at the British Athletics Indoor Championships at the Utilita Arena. The standards required to compete at the British Champs are extremely difficult to acquire so this is a tremendous achievement.

 

Amy came fourth in her heat in 56.00, a fraction outside of her pb.

 

Three Cannock & Stafford athletes represented their universities at the BUCS Indoor Championships in Sheffield last weekend.

 

Charis Farmer was the first in action and she ran a pb of 8.28 in the 60m to finish fifth in her heat. Charis was also a member of the Edge Hill 4x200m relay team that qualified for the final where they finished sixth.

 

Sydney Davies came fifth in her 400m heat but unfortunately in the first heat of the same event, Amy Pye was disqualified for a false start.

 

Georgia Griffiths and Beth Beeson both confirmed top six finishes for the season following their performances in the final race of the West Midlands Young Athletes Cross Country League at Nuneaton on Sunday.

 

Georgia came an excellent second place in the U13G race to lift herself to joint third for the league campaign and Beth came 5th in the U11G to solidify 5th place overall. Both girls were awarded with medals after the race.

 

In the U17W, Natasha Lee came 7th and Abbie Pendlebury 26th. Maddie Batchelor was forced to stop on the second lap with an ankle problem.

 

The U15G race saw Delilah Dempsey finish 40th and Robyn Lee 45th. Ella Beeson was pulled from the race before the start due to a knee injury.

 

Ella Haycock came 44th in the U13G and Luca Keeble had a great 12th place finish in the U15B race.

 

Chris Perrin finished an excellent second in the Birmingham & District Cross Country League race at Ipsley Meadows on Saturday (19th) to give him joint second place in the overall individual standings for Division Two this season.

 

Chris was supported by Matt Craen in 20th, a great run from Mark Shepherd in 35th and Craig Pearson came 46th. James Perrin in 53rd and Phil Wolfe in 77th were our other 'scorers' and they were backed up by Jon Biddle (79th), Tom Eustace (89th), Paul Lester (111th), Tom Orton (118th) and Mark Green (158th).

 

The team finished 6th on the day and 5th overall for the season in the division.

 

Anthony Douglas, Tilly Perry and Mia Wainwright all competed in the National Indoor Age Group Championships at Sheffield on Saturday (12th)

 

Tilly was first up in the U17W 60m and ran a pb of 8.11 to finish 6th in her heat. In the U17W 300m, Mia ran 42.26 to finish 5th in her heat.

 

Anthony won his heat of the U20M 60m in 6.94 to qualify for the semi - final. Despite being behind in the early stages of his semi final race, Anthony powered through to finish third in a pb of 6.92 and qualify for the final in one of the two fastest loser spots. He then ran another pb of 6.90 to come 5th in the final.

 

Five C&S athletes have been selected to represent Staffordshire at the English Schools Cross Country Championships in Kent in March.

 

Congratulations to Ella Beeson, Natasha Lee, Georgia Griffiths, Jack Hadley and Luca Keeble who qualified after their performances at the Staffordshire Schools Cross Country Championships at Betley Court Farm last Saturday (5th).

 

Congratulations to Amy Pye who won bronze in the 400m at the Southern Indoor Championships at Lea Valley.

 

Amy smashed her pb by over a second and a half to clock 55.96 in the final after finishing second in her semi-final with 56.44.  

Three of our athletes took part in the Midland Cross Country Championships at Berry Hill Park in Mansfield.

 

Georgia Griffiths crossed the line in an impressive sixth place in the U13 race, out of 69 in the race, with the same time as the fifth place athlete.

 

In the U13 Boys race, Jack Hadley came 21st out of 67 athletes and our only senior athlete, Allegra Soutar, finished 63rd out of 169 in her race.

  

Carl McMullen won a bronze medal in the M40 age group at the BMAF Indoor Pentathlon Championships held in Sheffield yesterday (23rd).

 

In the 60m hurdles, Carl ran 10.39 and he followed this with an excellent 5.58m long jump. He threw 8.08m in the shot and then cleared 1.52m in the high jump before clocking 3:03.28 in the 1000m.

 

In the 3000m Championships, held at the same meeting, Mitch Blundell also won bronze in the M35 race with a time of 9:37.65. Malcolm Down came 6th in the M60 category in 11:15.02. Both performances were new club records.

 

Beth Beeson kept her chances of a top five finish overall intact after finishing seventh in the U11 Girls race in the West Midlands Young Athletes Cross Country League meeting at Walsall Arboretum on Sunday (16th).

 

Georgia Griffiths finished seventh in the U13 Girls race and also has a good chance of finishing in the top five for the season with one race remaining.

 

In the U17W, Abbie Pendlebury was the first of our athletes home in 21st place and was supported by Caitin Disley (35th), Angel Wood (45th), Maddy Batchelor (46th) and Dawn Riley (48th).

 

Jake Weavell was our only representative in the Under 15B race, finishing 35th and Ethan Eisenhaeur came 42nd in the U17M race.

 

Ella Beeson came 37th in the U15G, closely followed by Robyn Lee in 39th and Delilah Dempsey in 50th.

 

The senior men of Cannock and Stafford enjoyed a successful trip to Burton Dassett at the weekend, not only with the result but also with the turnout. Sixteen athletes took part, the best for a very long time.

 

Leading home in third place was Chris Perrin, a position he has achieved (according to Craig) on twenty occasions so a valuable point scorer.

 

Following Chris in 24th place was Tom Eustace running well and being followed by newcomer Matt Craen in 27th place. These three were supported by Bill Chesters who has just about recovered from Covid finishing in 53rd and right behind Bill was Phil Wolfe in 55th.

 

More good performances came from James Perrin in 56th, Jon Biddle 63rd, Mitch Blundell 67th, Mark Shepherd 76th, Craig Pearson 80th, Tom Horton 82nd, Ryan Ashforth 105th, Paul Lester, who has served the club for over forty years in 111th.  Paul was then followed by the remainder of the team, Lee Rogers 114th, Christian Roe and Darrell Wilde completing the team’s effort in 142nd place.

 

On the day the team scored 218 points to finish fourth with the B team finishing second with 473 points. Overall the club are lying in 5th place.

 

Bob Hughes

 

Here are the list of the top point scorers in the Midland Senior League, Youth Development League - Upper Age Group, Youth Development League - Lower Age Group and Midland Veterans League from last season.

 

 

Midland Senior League
Male			Female
Name	Pts		Name	Pts
Alasdair Rigby Jak Carpenter Martin Roberts Tom Larkin Jack Turner Henry Webb James Malpass Henry Heathcote Thomas Lemmon Tom Eustace	63 36 32 25 24 22 19 16 15 12		Natalie Griffiths Mia Wainwright Sydney Davies Daisy Aspinall Olivia Walker Charlotte Hall Chloe Wilde Allegra Soutar Cara Brown Issey Kelly	58 43 30 24 20 19 16 14 12 12

 

Youth Development League - Upper Age Group
Male			Female
Name	Pts		Name	Pts
Jack Turner Josh Blakesley Henry Heathcote Tom Larkin Adam Jones Charlie Holmes Sullivan Davies Ethan Eisenhaeur James Malpass Christian Roe	62 51 42 38 28 28 19 13 11 11		Sydney Davies Mia Wainwright Matilda Perry Tessa Budworth-Rogers Olivia Riley Charis Farmer Daisy Aspinall Abbie Pendlebury Katie Burney Angel Wood	71 62 52 44 37 33 19 15 14 14

 

Youth Development League - Lower Age Group
Male			Female
Name	Pts		Name	Pts
Thomas Stephens Dylan Shrehorn Jacob Smith Jack Hadley Jamie Clay Finn Cannon Tobias Mason Jake Weavell Luke Cresswell George Herriman Eshan Nahal Vean Hay-Edie	47 44 34 21 15 13 11 10 7 6 2 2		Sapphire Wainwright Olivia Malpass Ella Beeson Victoria Shrehorn Saskia Finazzi Lucy Wain Delilah Dempsey Akliah Simms Sophie Hulse Ella Haycock Olivia Walker Georgia Griffiths	59 31 29 26 20 20 19 18 11 9 9 9

 

Midland Veterans League
Male			Female
Name	Pts		Name	Pts
Martin Roberts Shaun Ainge Paul Edwards Tunde Adeyemo Carl McMullen Rob Law Paul Beeson Malcolm Down Darrell Wilde Stephen Terry-Short	50 45.5 43 39 38 35 30 30 29 24		Sue Kneill-Boxley Ann Robinson Hazel Cane Emma Hollinshead Vici Browning Christine Kilkenny Heather Bates Sally Gray Dot Fellows Natalie Boswell	69 63 62 60 30 30 24 20 16 13