Great end to 2011!

Time to reflect for a few moments on where the Senior Mens' team have come over the past 12 months. The year started well on the country with 3rd place in the SW Intercounties, followed by 5th place at the Midlands, where we finished behind the powerhouse clubs of Notts, Tipton, Cov Godiva and local rivals B&W. The Gwent League ultimately ended with us a gallant 4th place, as we paid the price for a sticky start in the early race at Bridgend, but it sowed the seeds for what we could achieve!

Some stand out performances during the spring and summer: John Collier and Matt Ellis at the Reading Half; with Matt taking his form on the road throughout the remainder of the Run Britain Grand Prix series, finishing an excellent 10th place. At the London marathon, Rich Collinson ran 2.46 to be part of a world record breaking mother and son team! In June the team capturing the man v. horse team competition for the third year in succession and a truly great performance from Rich Collinson to finish 2nd, well supported by John Terry in 4th and Anthony Glover in 7th.

In the autumn we saw the club leap up the finish positions at the 6 stage relays, as Dan Studley, Matt Ellis, John Collier, Sam Dalgleish, Will Massey and Si Everington combined to great effect to finish 9th. What an exciting day it was as the top 3 combined to be leading at one point and in 3rd at the end of leg 3! But we shouldn't forget that we had 4 teams out running that day, as we were one of the best represented clubs on that glorious Autumn day in Sutton Park!

Then the cross country season kicked off again and this time we made sure we learned from our mistakes of last season and got out a competitive team in the first Gwent League of the season, finishing 4th on the day at Bridgend. We then followed this up with 5th at Bath University, before claiming 1st on the day at Singleton Park and taking top spot overall. At the same time our B team is flying high, 2nd place in the B league, testament to the strength in depth of the squad, and a great achievement to have 16 men make the long trip to Swansea to represent our great club!

Senior Mens Squad at Avon XC Championships: (back) Robin Phillips, Colin Johnson, Karl Dunn, John Terry, John Collier, Charlie Jones, Ken Ham and James Cant. (front) Anthony Glover, Chris Palmer, Matt Ellis, Bob Pringle, Jullian Bailey-Gard Snr and Tony Jefferies.

Then this past weekend at the Avon Championships we saw Matt and John get individual Avon medals (silver and bronze) and Matt qualify as of right for the combined Avon/Somerset intercounties team (3rd overall). The team didn't disappoint as Anthony Glover, John Terry, Karl Dunn (cracking sprint finish) and new boy Charlie Jones, who in the few weeks he has been with the club has come on leaps and bounds and already has a gold medal to show for it. With another new runner, Ken Ham taking gold in the V.50 class and Tony Jefferies and Jullian Bailey-Gard Snr taking medals in the V.60, it was a great day out and great way to end the year!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for making the, often long, journeys to represent our great club and together we can build on the success of this year and make 2012 - Olympic year - one to really remember for the club.