Club History
As a result of previous mergers by former athletics clubs in Birmingham and Black Country area, the club has over 100 years of athletics heritage. Here is a brief synopsis of our history:
Spring Road Relays Sign-up
The Spring Road Relay’s are coming up and we are looking for people to sign up, this is one of biggest events in the BRAT calendar and a great chance to meet people from across the club. It is on our doorstep so we want to put out a strong showing. When: Saturday 1st April Where: Sutton Park, Birmingham Who: Everyone! Please sign up below, everyone is welcome to get involved! Please contact the following to enter: Women’s’ team manager: Helen PikeSign up for the Senior Women’s Team here. Men’s’ team manager: Dan RobinsonSign up for the Senior Men’s Team here.
Junior Cross-Country Season Summary
For the second year in a row we have finished 5th overall team out of 21 teams in total, so a lot to feel positive about. We went into the last race in fourth position but narrowly lost that position. Looking back over the previous few years we have finished: 21/22 – 5th 19/20 – 12th 18/19 – 15th 17/18 – 19th It’s pleasing to see that we have consolidated our improvement from last season. During the XC series we had 63, 58 ,57, 51 and 56 athletes competing across the five races. So there has been a massive improvement in the number of athletes that are turning out to compete which has made the difference. We can’t emphasise enough the importance that you all make to the overall team position so you all contribute to the success of the club if you win or finish further down the field! …
BRAT Club Fundraising
BRAT club raises money for Birmingham Childrens Hospital
A Return to the Birmingham Sportshall League
It’s been 3 years since we had a Sportshall League, the last competition was February 2020! With that in mind, it was great to get back to what I casually refer to as “organised chaos” (it over ran the time slot by an hour, so i’m going to go with simply “chaos” for this weekend’s event!) Anyway, it’s a fantastic opportunity for our juniors, particularly the younger juniors, to get some competition experience over what is often a long cold winter. Many of the athletes have never competed for the club before, so it’s great to see them getting involved. I have a number of coaches to thank for picking the BRAT team, but the general principle we went with was enjoyment and inclusivity. What was particularly pleasing as a team manager was successfully collecting all the numbers in at the end of the event. Just kidding (although I still…
Men’s XC – Warley Woods
Warley Woods was the place to be……
Men’s Cross Country – mid season update
Amazingly we are already half way through the Cross Country season and a lot has been happening, with loads of BRATs turning out for the team (46 so far). The Midland XC relays at Wolverhampton were the opener to the season. We arrived with 4 senior teams and a Masters team trying to better last year’s Bronze medal at this event. James Drakeford ran the first and notoriously competitive first leg and gave us a solid start handing over in 9th place to Adam Peacock whose storming run brought us up to 3rd place. Dan Robinson held us in 3rd and opened the gap over 4th place Tipton by a few more seconds. JP Stolberg started the final leg 58 seconds behind 2nd place Rugby & Northampton and closed to within 8 seconds at the finish, just running out of time to overtake. So in the end we had to…
Junior XC – County Champs
Now, I may not win many prizes, but the award for the most waffle filled write-up goes to…. I am writing this short report from my perspective as the BRAT junior team manager/coordinator/head coach….or whatever my role is! For me personally, it was the first time in attending a cross-country county championships in….well…decades! Back when I was a junior, up in Lancashire, I remember doing the county champs and it felt like such a step up in quality as compared to the rest of the league races. This felt the same in the race last Saturday. Smaller fields across all age groups battled a challenging course; traversing narrow sections on energy sapped legs from earlier hills. Add to that the sub-zero temperatures and icy patches and you have a recipe for some tired junior legs! I interviewed one of the junior athletes (also known as a chat with my son,…
Warley Woods – Junior XC
The third fixture of the league was held at Warley Woods on a hilly course and again the club produced some great performances. Although we had 57 athletes finishing, we had a number of athletes unable to compete due to illness which affected a number of teams. The U11s bucked that trend with a superb 3rd place in the girls and 5th in the boys. The other teams in the top 10 were U17M 3rd, U13B 4th, U15G 7th and U13G 9th. Overall, we finished 6th on the day but with two teams very close in front. We still retain our 4th position overall after the third fixture so plenty of time to consolidate this over the final two fixtures. Thank you to the team managers, Jort for bringing the tent and the parents and not forgetting the athletes for doing all the hard work! Looking forward to seeing you…
BRAT AWARDS 26/11/2022
Saturday 26th November saw the return of a full blown BRAT Awards evening at Birmingham City Football Ground. It was great to be able to get everyone together again in person to celebrate the amazing performances across all agegroups and disciplines. The evening would not have been able to go ahead without the input from a number of people, but especially Julie Smith for organising it all, Gordon Ainsley for collating performances and Martin Ludford for sorting all the trophies. Awards got underway with the Junior Club Championships and AAA Awards, with the recipients detailed below:- Position Points U-11 Girls 3 Erin Colclough 47 2 Josephine Colclough 48 1 Anna Newman 50 U-11 Boys 3 Joseph Baker 41 2 Kai McMillan 47 1 Elliot Jones 49 U-13 Girls 3 Erin McDaid 62 2 Noor Bailey 68 1 Niamh O’Carroll 73 U-13 Boys 2= Oliver Knight 68 2= Dominic Moynihan 68…
Action Heart Tuff’Un
The BRAT club had its annual trip to Baggeridge Country Park on Sunday 20th November for the Action Heart Tuff’Un.
BRAT Awards – 26th November – Get your tickets now!
Right, here it is, the biggest social event of the year. It’s been a few years since we had an in-person presentation evening where all the club gets to celebrate, but we are back! This event is an opportunity for our athletes to spend time with their teammates and friends as we come together as a club to celebrate our successes over the past year. There will be a host of awards to be given out, along with baking competitions, quizzes, music and more. Who should attend Everyone! We would like as many of you to attend as possible, regardless of whether you are new to the club or you have been with us for years. Regardless of which group and which sessions you do, please come along. It’s rare for us to have an event that encompasses all our groups. Event Details Date: Saturday 26th November Time: 6:30pm Venue:…