Mens Winter Points Trophy

16/2/13 Hi Guys,
As always sorry for taking so long to get an update out to you - busy times. However it’s here now so please find attached the Winter Points Trophy standings after 27 races.
With a whopping 21 races under his belt John Clarke has a 3 point lead over his nearest rivals Richard, Andy C and Raj. With a few scoring races left there is room for one of these to edge ahead of John but it would take them running the Southerns, travelling up to Sunderland for the nationals and then running a top 6 leg at the Chingford league relays to do so. This will really test their commitment! However as it would also require John to miss all of these races and given he has competed in almost every possible race going this looks unlikely!
A bit further down myself, Will and Ben Boxer are fighting it out for the minor places with Joe , Costa and Danny currently rounding out the top 10. There is time for this to change over the last few races so make sure you get yourselves out there to pick up those valuable last few remaining points – starting with the Southerns at Parly Hill this weekend! Latest table here
See you all soon,
Alex

26/11/12 - HI Guys,
I’m not going to waste your time apologising for being so behind with the updates, what I will say is that from now on they will be a lot more frequent as the race for the winter points trophy starts to take shape. In the meantime here is a bumper update!
The leaders and chase pack. Well after 15 races our very own red shorts enthusiast John Clarke is leading the charge with 11 points, a margin of just a single point on his next rival Joe Gomes who is showing the benefit of getting stuck in to the met league races as his fitness starts to really show.
Paul Carter, despite all his efforts is two points adrift with little and large double act Danny and Raj keeping the pace with him. For the first time Raj has chosen 2012 to combine his lukewarm enthusiasm for cross country with terrific ability, resulting in some great performances on the country. He could well be one to watch in the title race this year.
The ominous form of Richard McCormick is also tucked in there alongside Will Morris. Recently awarded the title of ‘Stag’ on the Sandy Balls training weekend, Will is another athlete to watch this season as he looks towards next year’s London marathon. Despite not always being the fastest member of the club (Des’ words not mine) he’s well within range of the leader and John has made it clear that Will is his main worry as things stand.
Who else is there or thereabouts?
Andy C is showing a good return to the mud and has even been spotted running the Met league alongside Dave W, both sat on 8 and 6 points respectively. The ever reliable Costa has also been a key member of the met league team that is currently running the show in division 3 (more to come on that later) but needs to show his face at a few more Chingford league fixtures if he’s going to move up. Young buck Ben Boxer has continued his very impressive start to the season as witnessed by his recent performance at Parliament Hill where he was 5th man back for the team out of 22 Barnet runners.
Others athletes to mention
After a very brief look down the table I’ve picked out a few other guys worthy of some praise/abuse:
James Taylor – good to have him back in the team, but for how long? Babies tend to be pretty damaging to a runners career (ask Chris Manning). Also fantastic to see familiar faces Andy Kelleher John Murphy and Liam Mitchell making a return to the team.
Andy Welsh, Dave Byrne and John Fuller are all athletes who are familiar with the cut and thrust of the winter season. However seeing them turn out more frequently than in previous years is a promising sign. Can they keep this going all season though? On that note it is good to see Chris Violet extending his repertoire and taking in a few more championship races.
Rob Prater, Rob Scott, Laurence and Tim Butler all need to get themselves sorted out and involved in the chase if they want to avoid being left behind. With the exception of permanently injured Tim, they have no excuse as the other 3 are all in great shape. Come on boys!
Jamie March seems to have gone early this season by running his annual cross country race right at the start. Could we see an unprecedented second race in a season this year?
Great to have new members Ben Watson and Johnny Yates competing for the club for the first time. They have been vital to the early success in the met league, and we would love to see more!
Finally it gives me great pleasure to mention Pete Ellis who despite experiencing a “slowing down” in both his running and life in general is battling on and finds himself towards the top end of the table. Pete I know you can’t win this but for the sake of appearances at least keep trying!
What else is there to say?
Well turnout so far this season looks ok – we have got ourselves into a good position in the Chingford league but will need to really keep focused on those races if we want to get back to winning ways.
Meanwhile in the met league we are finally starting to show our pedigree as a competitive London club. With the aim of winning division three and gaining promotion to the division above we made a great start packing our scoring 8 into the second hundred at the first race to top the div 3 table. A huge effort from the guys who were around for the second race at Stevenage when everyone else (myself included) disappeared off to Sandy balls meant not only did we maintain a top two placing but lost only a small amount of ground on Highgate’s B team who are now in first.
The next met league race is on the 15th Dec where I intend to make my season debut, please come and join me at Ally Pally for what has been described as the best fun you can legally have for free. I fully expect us to return to the top of div 3 after this race but we need as many of you as possible to turn up in order to do so! It’s embarrassing that we are in division three as it is, so I intend for us to win by quite a margin at the end of the season.
Sorry to go on and on, that will do for now. Next scoring race is the Fraternity Cup this Saturday at Trent Park, make sure you don’t miss it! Well done to those who made it out yesterday to the Club Handicaps to earn a valuable point.
See you all soon,
Alex
Latest table here

1/10/12 - I would like to offer you all a warm welcome to the 2012-13 Barnet & District Mens Winter Points Trophy!

Forget the 2012 London Olympics, forget the historic 2012 Tour de France, pay no attention whatsoever to the start of the new premiership football season. This is it. This is the big one. The new, digitally re-mastered version of the B&D Mens Winter Points Trophy!

You are the privileged few who are invited to compete for the coveted trophy, awarded at the end of the season to the brave soul who fights relentlessly all winter against the hills, mud, cold and Pete Ellis’ terrible company and survives, finding himself at the top of the pile of Barnet’s finest athletes.

What’s new?

The new format awards a point to all finishers in all scoring races except in the Chingford league, where the first 6 finishers will be given 2 points and all other runners the usual single point. This is to allow some of the faster athletes a chance to make up an extra point against those athletes who race week in week out all season.

Chingford league, met league and championship races open to all senior athletes are now included as scoring races. In addition to this, a selection of county champs and other road races of significance to the club’s history make up the list of scoring races (full list attached).

Last year Richard McCormick won the trophy (groan, boo etc. etc.) but as a man loyal first and foremost to the Chingford league I feel he may struggle to make that extra point count against the most committed of racers. However he has worked his magic and knocked his creaking bones back into fantastic shape, as evidenced by his fastest leg at the recent SEAA road relays. So it’s game on for now.

The action so far

Without an opening ceremony in sight the competition got under way on 9th September at the Herts 5k road champs with a small selection of athletes chalking up the first few points.

John Clarke, Yitzhak and Paul Carter (a man famous for ability to drink beetroot juice by the gallon in the pursuit of that elusive pb) are currently topping the leader board with 3 points each after the first 5 races. But with Ben Boxer and Alex Emmanuel, two of the latest juniors to make the jump up to the senior ranks sat close behind with 2 points apiece I suspect things may not stay this way for long. Costa has been keeping a low profile of late but has got his campaign well underway with a promising start, and big Jon Kilsby is starting to make those months of injury free training start to count. Joe Gomes and John Fuller have clearly got a plan, which they are sticking to and so far it seems to be working nicely. The likes of Chris Violet, David Sheridan, Rob Scott & Kerry have all thrown their hats into the ring too.

However the racing really gets underway at the start of the Chingford league this Tuesday at Hog Hill. This is followed up soon after with fixtures at Trent Park and the first of the Met league races at Claybury.

Last year numbers were up on previous years, results in both league and championship races were promising and the general atmosphere seemed to be in a very healthy state. Let’s continue to build on this. We need as many athletes as possible out for all races and if we are to return to winning ways in the Chingford league we will need all hands on deck.

We are also targeting promotion to the division above where we currently stand in the Met league and solid results at all five of the fixtures should achieve this. Anyone who is undecided WE NEED YOU TO RACE! Please if you are healthy and any small part of you wants to race, dust the racers off and get yourself to the start line as every finisher will help us to build on last year’s results.

I hope to see as many of you as possible very soon,

Alex
Updated table here