December 2006

For Indoor Competitions coming up please see your coach and  Mick Sanderson for the entry forms.

The competitions are:

3rd/4th February - MCAA Indoor Champs (part1) HPC, Alexander Stadium, Birmingham

10th/11th February  -  Birmingham Games - NIA, Birmingham

18th February  -  MCAA Indoor Champs (part2)  and Open Events at the NIA, Birmingham

DRIVING ON THE FOOTPATH

Please DO NOT drive cars on the public footpath as you leave the car park.

Not only is this illegal but it is dangerous

and is depositing mud over the public footpath.

If you park on the grassed area by the new entrance please leave enough space for a single front row of cars only. These cars can then leave without having to use the footpath.

Training nights over Christmas and the New Year are:

Thursday 28th December       6.30 - 8.30pm

Tuesday 2nd January            6.30 - 8.30pm

Thursday 4th January           6.30 - 8.30pm

Tuesday 9th January            6pm - 9.00pm

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone at Tamworth AC.

Thanks for everything you have done for the club during the last year be it athletes competing, training and enjoying their sport, the club officers and the bar staff who work for hours behind the scenes, the committee, the coaches, the team managers, the officials and all the volunteers, sponsors and supporters who support the club in any way no matter how small.Thank you all!!

 There are 2 coaching courses booked to take place at Tamworth AC's home ground for Spring 2007.

   First off is the Level 1 Assistant Coach Award on Saturday 27th January. The number of the course is WM 1091.

In February there will be a Level 2 Core Module course which is over 2 days on Saturday and Sunday 24th/25th February, the course number being WM231.

Young Tamworth AC athlete Chloe Williams won the Chocolate Santa which was recently raffled for club funds.

Thorntons Chocolates in Tamworth kindly donated the huge chocolate Father Christmas and club member Trevor Stevenson organised the raffle which was drawn in the clubhouse on Thursday evening, 21st December, in front of a crowd of athletes and club members.All funds will go towards the funding of the indoor facility which is getting ever closer to fruition.

Here is the first website for the new England Athletics.Check out our West Midlands section.

www.englandathletics.org/

The third race in the West Midlands Young Athletes Cross Country League series  was held on an extremely cold day over a very fast course at Newbold Revell.

In spite of absences caused by illness and holidays Tamworth Athletic Club maintained their 5^th place out of 19 in a very competitive league.

It was Corrine Blythe’s first race for the club and she ran brilliantly to place 3^rd in the under 11 girls’ section with Eloise Redfern not far behind in 10^th. Jessica Hirst found the going difficult this time but still completed the course in 23^rd. Bethany Puffett ran well to finish 48^th with Rebecca Bradford 74^th, Sam Lawton 70^th, Sam Brady 84^th and the diminutive Alisha Arnold 93^rd in her first ever race.

The under 11 girls have moved up to an excellent second position overall after this performance. Eloise Redfern is lying in 5^th place overall in the individual race.

The under 13 and Under 15 girls teams were severely depleted by sickness with only 2 girls turning out for the club in the under 13’s and 3 in the under 15’s. Leanne Lewis was 86^th and Sophie Oldfield improving in every race coming 94^th in the under 13’s.

Tamworth’s under 15’s were having their own personal competition and this time Elyse Jinks came out on top in 50^th with Lauren Mann 51^st and Amy Williams 56^th  close behind.

Megan Jacobs and Jade Lepla were in the under 17 Ladies race and Megan finished 20^th and Jade 29^th.

The under 11 boys were very competitive and in spite of a Sportshall Athletics meeting two nights previously, Robert Stroud ran his best ever race for the club with 2^nd place but he was chased hard by Ellis Cross who was 9^th. Tamworth AC newcomer Keir Hatton was turning out for the first time and he was 45^th, Ryan Christian 54^th, Reice Bruton 63^rd, Oliver Williscroft 65^th and 9 year old Mathew Redfern was 71ⁱⁿ his first cross country race for Tamworth .  Ellis Cross now holds 4^th place overall and Robert Stroud 7th in the individual competition.

The under 13 boys is the strongest age group in the club at cross country and they once again showed their ability when they extended their lead in first place with another superb team performance.

Kristian Edwards was 3^rd in the tightest finish of the day but he was only just in front of Anthony Parkes 6^th and Richard Mahony 7^th. Jack Childs is still recovering from a chest infection and he ran courageously to be 20^th with Aidan Blythe 50^th, Sam Greenbank 61^st, Ricky Hawkes 62^nd and James Thacker 72^nd.

After three meetings Kristian Edwards is 1^st, Antony Parkes 2^nd and Richard Mahoney 5^th  overall  in the individual competition.

Stephen Parkes recorded the best finish in the under 15 section when he finished 2^nd in a very close race. This moved Stephen up to 3^rd overall. Luke Roughley was suffering with stomach cramps and his 20^th place was remarkable in the circumstances. Jacob Hughes once again had a good race in 34^th with newcomer Stefan Wilson not far behind in 39^th.

The final race of the day was the under 17 men’s and once again there was a close race between Tamworth athletes with Steve Deeley taking the honours this time in 7^th just taking Simon King before the finish in 8^th. Joe Saddington had his usual steady start and his 23^rd place was just in front of Steve Harris in 24^th. Sam Micklewright was 31^st and Jackson Green 45^th.

The team moved up to 3^rd overall in this category after today’s races.

 Please contact Chris or John for information on junior cross country and fell running and Chris or Tom for the seniors at tamworthac@aol.com. All emails will be forwarded to the right person.

Four Tamworth AC athletes accompanied coach Paul Tasker to the Don Valley Indoor meeting in Sheffield and picked up personal bests in every event that they entered.

This reflected great credit on all the athletes who had worked very hard in training in preparation for this meeting.

Cameron Thorne won his 60m in 7.98secs and took second place in the 150m in 18.89 secs.

Jason Powell, in his first races in the under 17 age group, won the 150m in 18.70 secs and came sixth in the 60m in 7.96secs.

Tom Adams , not the steeplechaser, finished in second place in the 600m in a time of 1:37.69 mins.

Tom Burton, in the under 20 men's age group, took fourth place in the 60m in 7.59 secs and the same position in the 150m in 17.54 secs.

Tasker took part in the senior men's 2000m in a very strong field containing some international runners and finished ninth place in a personal best of 6:10.8mins.

Visit the club and buy some raffle tickets at £1 a strip and you'll get the chance to win a HUGE Chocolate Santa ,worth £80 ,which has been donated to Tamworth AC by Thornton's Chocolates.

A photograph of Trevor Stevenson, who has organised the raffle, and the Chocolate Santa is the first photo on the 'Our Club' section of the photo gallery.

All funds will go to the Indoor Facility which is getting ever closer to fruition!

The second race in the highly competitive Division 2 of the Birmingham Cross Country League series was held at Leamington on a course, parts of which had been under several inches of water earlier in the week. This had made the course extremely heavy and muddy in places and although it looked deceptively easy it was quite testing in places.

Tamworth Athletic Club once again fielded 11 runners and the team remains in 8^th place in the 4 race series.

Andy Wright once again led the team home and after a steady start he gradually pulled through the ranks to finish in 24^th place.

This was Tom Adams’ first attempt at senior cross country since leaving the junior ranks and he too started slowly over the 10k course eventually completing the race in 48^th having caught Paul Tasker just before the finish who was 49^th.

Dave Williams and Howard Bush continued with their rivalry and this time Dave was 64^th with Howard 68^th.

Adie Hall hasn’t run for 12 months because of injury and coped well with the difficult conditions to finish in 94^th with the fast finishing Nigel Fisher in 105^th.

Michael Pierpoint found the heavy conditions difficult but he did well to record 151^st with multi-eventer Matt James chasing Pierpoint hard to the finish and using the race as distance training in 153^rd.

Alan Oliver came to the club 12 months ago with his daughter and over the months he has been persuaded to have a go at the longer races. This was probably his first real cross country ever and to complete the course in 173^rd was a testament to his perseverance on a very tricky course.

The next race for the senior athletes is the county championships at Leek on January 6^th. Forms are available from John at the club.

For information on cross country training and competition for seniors please email Tom at tamworthac@aol.com