We’d like to say a massive thank you to all our team managers, officials, coaches and other volunteers who were not only integral in successful competitions and training prior to the pandemic but have gone the extra mile to continue to provide training and competitive opportunities since.

In particular we’d like to say a big thank you to Peter Mountain and Steve Grant who are stepping down as the womens and mens Midland Athletics League (MAL) Team Managers respectively after many years organising our teams for the league, they have both done a brilliant job. We are recruiting replacement team managers for the 2021 MAL -which is currently still planning to go ahead- so if you or someone you know would be interested in getting involved please get in touch by emailing your interest to secretary@bristolandwestac.org .

Unfortunately, due to the latest announcement from the government, we must once again close Whitehall Athletics Track with immediate effect and until further notice.

These photos give a lovely summary of our recent festive activities as follows :-

Monday evening jaunt around the streets of Clifton taking in all the tree lights especially the enormous tree in the Mall gardens as shown in photo.

Wednesday at Whitehall we took over the track for the usual Christmas cracker relays plus a lot of fun was had by all especially the cracker finale at the end.

Saturday was definitely a Bristol & West take over in Eastville park when 23 lads plus many girls from Paul Owens endurance squad took part in the ever popular 1 mile relays.

It has been a busy week!

Thank you to all the parents who assisted yesterday with time keeping, marshalling & cutting cake. Personally I felt all the lads gave a very good account of themselves & without doubt if they were wearing a race number they would of probably ran around 10 seconds faster. Overall we were lucky with the weather plus no one fell over & the general public appeared to applaud our effects.

Ali Hurford

Below are the application forms for the 2021 Peter Hargreaves Performance Grant and Peter Hargreaves Scholarship Grant. If you believe you are eligible for either of these grants and wish to make an application, please download the form by clicking ‘download’ at the bottom of the relevant form and fill it out with your information as required. To be considered, please submit your forms to Mike Down at mike.down@blueyonder.co.uk no later than the 19th January 2021. If you are unsure whether or not you qualify, please discuss it with your coach before making your application.

Although we are disappointed not to be holding our typical Riverbank Rollick in January 2021, Thornbury Running Club are delighted to be holding the inaugural ‘Virtual Rollick’

To make sure that the spirit of the infamous ‘Rollick’ is not lost, we expect at least half of your run to be off-road and to involve an acceptable level of mud wind and water.

To this end we would encourage all participants to upload photographic evidence of rivers, dirty trainers, muddy faces or any other inspired pictures from their chosen routes on to our Facebook event page (https://fb.me/e/1Mtu7LIaX) to assure us that you have suffered appropriate and traditional levels of discomfort.

All participants will receive a medal for their efforts and whilst we will NOT be providing prizes for the speediest runners, we will judge the photos received via Facebook and reward the muddiest and grubbiest accordingly.

The Club (TRC excluded) with the most entries will receive 6 free places in the next Rollick that we are able to hold.

• Run your own socially distanced 9.6 mile route
• Run any time between 1st and 31st January 2021 – go on you know you want to do it on New Years Day!
• Follow the instructions and the link emailed to you to in order to submit your elapsed time (not moving time) accompanied by a screenshot of your run from your running application of choice
• Medals will be posted during February as we collate the results and assess the photos
• Places can be transferred using the Race Nation web portal
• Entries are limited to 400 and will close when this limit is reached or at 13:00 on January 31st, whichever comes soonest
• Runs must be completed and evidence submitted before 23:59 on January 31st
• “Over the past few years our medals have been shaped like a segment of pie (or cake for those with a sweet tooth!) so that by completing all three of our events it creates a whole large medal. As the Virtual Rollick is a one off we have, on this occasion, opted for a smaller version to keep costs down and donate more to our two charities. We hope you understand.”

To enter please go to Race Nation:

https://race-nation.co.uk/register/thornbury-running-club/virtual-rollick-2021

This year’s event will be held in support of our two current club charities, to which we will be donating at least 50% of the proceeds. If you would like to make an additional donation, please pay their respective websites a visit: –

• ‘Made a Mark’ https://madeamarkcharity.com foundation which exists to ‘make memories for bereaved children’ and
• ‘CALM’ https://www.thecalmzone.net in memory of Thornbury Running Club member Liam Jones

We hope you all continue to enjoy the trails through these tough times and we all look forward to running together again as soon as circumstance allow.

Many thanks

Joanne Emerson – Race Director

Training will resume at Whitehall Athletics Track from Monday 7th December. Please contact Paul Filer at PaulF@bristolandwestac.org if you have any questions or concerns regarding this.

Unfortunately, given the recent second lock-down announcement from the government, Whitehall Track will be closed from Wednesday 4th November at 9pm until further notice.

Firstly, many thanks to the noble band of officials for their help, namely, Mike Strange, Anna Ford, Stu Waring, Nicko Brooke, Roger Brocklesby, Steve Grant, Julie Ilogu, Clair Meraz, Richard Kershaw. Joe Lyne Jess Graham & Nick Crew.
It was to say the least blustery with some serious gusts of wind, which made some of the times achieved even more creditable.

Race 1 It’s always invidious to single out performances but Henry Cochrane’s PB achievement hanging on to Jack Bancroft who started 10 seconds behind was the stand out performance in the first “race” with improving Rob Farley third fastest.

Jack Bancroft 15.19.2, Henry Cochrane 15.26.1, Rob Farley 16.04.2, Johnny Suttle 16.24.2, Ben Maliphant 16.30.5, Will Cheek 16.34.2, Anthony Glover M45 16.43.4, James Harrod 16.45.3, Simeon Howson 16.50.

Race 2 Ellie Wallace showed what a class act she is with the fastest time in the second “race” with Aled Anderson posting a PB and another notable run by M55 Phil Parry.

Aled Anderson 16.46.3, Ellie Wallace 16.52.2, , Nick Tuftnell M40 17.07.2,  Josh Habgoode-Coote 17.11.6, Phil Parry M55 17.41, Dan Schofield 17.45.7, Tariq Kurd 17.51.9, Sam Bentley 18.05.9, Will Purcell 18.25.9.

Race 3 Rosie Hamilton-James was the star in the ladies race, but there were a host of PB’s & good runs from young and old alike.

Rosie Hamilton James 17.57.0, Natalie Griffiths 18.19.0, Katrina Entwhistle 18.39.6, Catie O’Donogue 19.02.8, Claire Jolliffe W55 1918.0, Rachel Stowell W40 19.20.0, Rhiannon Paton 19.20.1, Liz Sanigar W40 19.35.0, Sarah Everitt W55 19.47.4, Vicky Tester W40 19.48.2, Sian Davies W60 21.00.5,  Lucy Ellis V35 21.32.5

Race 4 Gareth Hughes, currently a member of the sleep deprivation society, posted the fastest time followed by Matt Brydon who went safely under 18 mins. But perhaps the best performance was by newcomer James Hodge posting a PB after starting running again only a few months ago during the lockdown.

Gareth Hughes 17.24.5, Matt Brydon 17.49.3, James Hodge M45 17.51.7, Simon Brice 18.01.1, Jonathon Lines 18.20.7, Minkee Kim 18.27.2, Alex Wood 18.43.4, Ewan Paton M45 18.46.4, Jerry Dobson 18.46.9, Arwel Roberts M50 19.02.6.

Race 5 Fast improving Tom Foxon, a very recent B&W AC signing, clocked a PB and there were good runs from a number of masters.

Tom Foxon 18.09.8, Nicholas Dobson 19.27.2, Rupert Cross M35 19.27.5, Daniel Thornton M55 19.44.0, Dylan Peters 19.46.4, James Marshall M55 20.24.3, Rory Bateman 20.32.1, Chris Palmer M55 20.20.1, Kate Hoffen W50 23.01.1, Emma-Jane Orchard 24.34.2.

Chris Elson

Competitive opportunities are inevitably few and far between at present , reports Mike Down, so it`s essential that you seize the moment when they arise, and FELIX MCGRATH and JACK BANCROFT both did just that by smashing their previous personal bests in the Cheshire 10K.

There were serious doubts during the week that the event would go ahead due to the West Cheshire region being placed in temporary lockdown, and only an alteration in the course to keep it in East Cheshire saved the race.

Perhaps not surprisingly plans for starting the runners in small groups at ten second intervals were somewhat compromised, and in the event the groups having been lined up in rows across the start actually set off at little more than two or three second intervals.

With the fastest runners on Power of Ten rankings starting at the front, Felix and Jack started close together, but well outside the top 20 of what was a first class field headed by Midland cross country champion Ethiopian OMAR AHMED. It was an ideal set up for our guys as they always had runners in front of them to chase.

It was an out and back course with the outward journey arguably slightly faster than the return, with Felix and Jack close together at the halfway turn in close to 15mins flat. The fact that the return journey was marginally tougher meant that to match the club runners` holy grail and dip under the 30 minute barrier was probably never on the cards especially as they had both been operating at a pace well inside their best for the distance.

Nevertheless clearly boosted by the fact they always had runners in front of them to overhaul and were both always catching runners rather than being passed, they ended up much closer to the front than they had started, with Felix, who pulled away from Jack in the latter stages to finish as high as 8^th overall, only just behind internationals NIGEL MARTIN (30:03) and this year`s National cross bronze medallist LINTON TAYLOR (30:06), with Jack less than ten seconds slower in 11^th. The net result was that Felix ended up slashing 42 seconds off his best in a time just nine seconds outside that magic 30min barrier of 30:09, with Jack trimming 25 off his in a time of 30:17. AHMED was the individual winner in 29:24.

“ There were doubts all week whether the event would get cancelled by the authorities concerned, but with the weather conditions so good we just knew we had to make the most of the opportunity,” said Felix.

“Having run the race before I feel the original course is flatter and faster, so I am sure we can both get under 30 mins before long especially as we know now that the pace is well within our reach.”

If successful they stand to join PETELE GRICE and DAN STUDLEY, who at present are our only two runners who have run under 30 mins for the distance.