The BRAT Juniors’ Winning Run Continues In Banbury!
Let’s set the scene. Meeting 1 in Stourport in June. The BRAT junior team delivered a crushing victory, finishing over 200 points clear of second place Banbury. Let’s not forget, we were only promoted to this division last year, so many of the existing clubs have no idea who we are and how strong our athletes are! It must have been a shock for the other teams, but with Banbury hosting this recent meeting, it was the perfect opportunity for them to put out their strongest possible team, and they did not disappoint! To complicate matters even more, this meeting unfortunately clashed with the Inter County Schools’ Championships (Mason Trophy) where we had a lot of athletes competing. In their absence, it was left to others to step up and make their performances count! What’s more…..Oxfordshire don’t compete in the Mason Trophy, so Banbury didn’t lose any athletes for this…
Heart of England League – A Crushing Victory For BRAT Juniors
It’s that time of the year again. Our first BRAT junior track & field league outing…and you know what that means….an opportunity for me to put together my usual protracted write-up for the website. As always, I start with my usual caveat that I can’t mention everyone, but rest assured, I have a close eye on all of you both during the event itself and via the results. I will be chatting with all our athletes at some point, hopefully! Taking a step back from results and performances for the moment, there are a few things that underpin our (fantastic) results: Officials (timekeepers, starters, track judges, field event helpers). I’m starting with officials as it our #1 most important point. In all honestly, officials are one of our most limiting factors when it comes to developing as a club. To host our own events, we need many more. A big…
Autumn Road Relays Sign-up
The Autumn Road Relay’s are coming up and we are looking for people to sign up, for one of biggest events in the BRAT calendar.
CHAMPIONS!!
Champions! On Saturday 13th August the BRAT track & field senior team went up to Stoke for the final league meeting of the season. Our task was to finish in the top three on the day – if we did so we would be guaranteed promotion back to the top flight for the first time in a decade. However, we wanted more, we wanted to go up as champions especially after all the hard work everyone has put in this season. The biggest problem we faced wasn’t so much the heat but our lack of available athletes – we went without 18 regular competitors due to work, holidays and a fixture clash with the Midland Under 17 championships! By hook and crook, we somehow managed to get enough competitors to fill the majority of the events and throughout a scorching hot afternoon the BRAT athletes fought for…
Heart of England Division 3 – Victory for BRAT!
What a performance and what a season. 3 league meetings and 3 wins. Let’s not forget, we had to completely rebuild and start afresh following the difficult COVID shutdowns. We have come a long way since those rule of 6 sessions at Rowheath playing fields! Anyway, on to last (last!) weekend’s results. It really is a terrible idea of the league to schedule a junior league meeting at the start of the summer holidays. A long list of athletes were either on holiday or at the commonwealth games. What was really pleasing for me, as team manager, is that a whole group of athletes came out to compete in the league for the first time, amazing! From those new athletes, T’maya Tweede-Robinson came out with 2 1st places (shot put A & javelin B) and 2nd in the high jump B. Louisa Bando was first time league competitor, securing 2…
Senior League – Meet 3 – Telford 17th July 2022
BRAT scorch to victory in Telford… The BRAT track and field team secured their second win on the trot in the Midlands Senior League on Sunday 17th July in blazing hot conditions. There were some discussions held during the week as to whether the meeting should go ahead given the weather forecast – indeed the Southern league didn’t proceed with their matches. Thankfully the decision to run the meeting proved to be the correct one, especially as it meant that the BRAT athletes could once again, show what they are made of whatever the weather! Our A string winners on the day were JP Stolberg in the steeplechase, Dan Robinson in the 3000m (Dan is unbeaten so far this season), Bonheur Tshibola in the 100 hurdles, a double for Jenny Scott in the hammer and discus and our women’s 4×100 relay team. In the B string Paul Joliffe in the…
BRAT Juniors Win @ Heart of England League
The recent Heart of England competition at Stourport was a day of miracles. Firstly, the weekend began and was punctuated by torrential downpours. Alas, those competing on the Saturday at the Mason Trophy may have got pretty wet! Not only did we manage to escape the rain, but the sprinters also enjoyed a home straight tailwind, it NEVER happens. I imagine the back straight wasn’t quite so kind! After our absolute demolition of the opposition in the first match back in April, where we won by 350 points, I decided to shuffle the team around. We had a large number of athletes that hadn’t competed in the league before and quite a lot that hadn’t ever competed on the track before. Big pressure, well done guys. I was therefore a bit shocked and, I have to admit, a bit worried when some of the other teams arrived on coaches, unfurled…
Senior League
The return of competitive league athletics… Not since August 2019 have athletes from all over theMidlands region had a competitive league match to look forward to. Finally on22nd May teams from Cannock, Abingdon, Stoke, Telford, Coventry and of courseBRAT, met at the University of Warwick track for the first senior league matchof the 2022 season. Two years with no competition, then two matches in thespace of a fortnight. The second match taking place at Abingdon on Sunday 5June – I therefore thought it would be easier to do a round up of both matchesin a single post. The first thing to say is how wonderful and gratifying itis to see that our junior academy is working. The majority of our ‘new look’senior team is made up from athletes who have all come through our academy – inthe first meeting alone we had eight under 17 women and three under 17…
New Indoor Club Record for Adam Peacock
2022 got off to a positive start for Adam Peacock at the British Milers Club indoor Grand Prix at Sheffield on Sunday 9th January. Adam broke the long-standing club indoor record for 1500m, running 3:50.78, finishing in 5th place. The record, previously held by Matthew Clarkson, set in 1989 at RAF Cosford, had stood for over 32 years! Adam Peacock
Updated Athletics Club Rankings
A Happy New Year to all our members. 2021 has seen some remarkable personal improvements in athletics and the final list of 2021 performances for the club is now available to view, together with updated all-time club records and age-group best performance lists. In 2021, there were 3 new overall club records broken and 32 club age-best performances. There were also an amazing number of personal best performances following the club’s return from the 2nd lockdown from COVID-19 in March 2021. Access to the rankings lists is HERE. They can also be found in the ‘Club Info’ tab on the home page. If we have missed any performances from the year or from the other ranking lists, please let us know at rankings@bratclub.co.uk We have also been trying to discover performances from the past, including from our previous ancestor clubs. If you know of anyone or have any old results…
Junior Awards Ceremony
Due to the ongoing Covid restrictions it was not possible to hold the traditional indoor Awards Evening for all BRAT members. Not to be disheartened, the Junior’s held an outdoor event at the track following their Sunday morning training session. The weather held, the Christmas tunes played, mince pies were eaten and the applause kept coming. A special thanks goes out to Julie Smith for organising the event, Martin Ludford for getting the trophies engraved and set-up and Gordon Ainsley for collating all the results. A collection was made for Birmingham Children’s Hospital, where £100 was raised. Before the awards were announced, Gordon highlighted all the members who had broken Club records – 28 had been broken in total, some multiple times! Congratulations to the following:- Club Record Breakers: James Marshall (Masters) 8 x all at 800m Lucie Tait-Harris (Masters) 7 from 800m to 5000m Karl Welborn (Masters) 5 from…
Outstanding Club Performances at Telford 10km
The Telford 10km has the reputation of fast times and it did not disappoint on Sunday 12th December 2021. There were 14 club members who raced and there were some remarkable performances, lead by Morgan Hill, setting a new U17 club age-best time of 37:00 Becki Timmings also ran 35:44, to rank her equal 3rd fastest Ladies club member ever! Club Results: Adam Peacock (SM) 30:56 – Equal 7th Fastest all-time club Man Paddy Townsend (SM) 31:38 Karl Welborn (M40) 31:56 – 3rd fastest all-time club M40 Dan Robinson (M40) 32:06 – 4th fastest all-time club M40 Will McKemey (SM) 32:31 – PB Adam Hill (M35) 33:06 Ben Carrington (M35) 34:23 Conor Farrell (M35) 35:10 – PB Thanos Tsolakis (M45) 35:47 Becki Timmings (SW) 35:44 – Equal 3rd fastest all-time Lady Rachel Gifford (SW) 36:15 – 8th fastest all-time Lady Paul Coughlan (M50) 36:37 – 4th fastest all-time club M50 Morgan Hill (U17) 37:00 – U17 Club age-best performance Damian Cartland (M45) 37:25 – PB Paul Jolliffe…