Hello BPJs and other readers,

It’s been some time since I put my fingers to the keyboard and sent you all a quick update on club life, etc.

Well the first part of the year is always a bit slow with very little happening.  But as we look forward to the clocks going forward and spring starting I am sure the next few months will bring all sorts of fun activities.

In February I was invited to attend Worcester Tri Club’s annual meal and awards night, the evening was very well attended.  It was nice to hear how our club offers a great launch pad for athletes to move into the 3 discipline format of Tri and how many of the Tri Club members use our club for regular running sessions and races as well.   Our club was highly praised and it was a pleasure to represent you all.

The cross country team finished 21st in the Gloucester League and 6th in the Birmingham League.  I hope next year we can try and get a few more runners to take up the chance to compete at these events as it costs nothing to enter and is a good test for your legs … good fun is ‘normally’ had by all.  Well done to all who took part and Chris for taking the helm and sorting out the team.

Earlier this month the Croome Park race team handed a nice cheque of just under £2,000 to the National Trust.  We have now set the date of Sunday, 30th November 2014 for this year’s race. The race will be open for entries when the race licence is sorted. We will put further information on the website in due course.

Worcester City Council have given us the go ahead to plant a Tree in Gheluvelt Park in memory of Peter Gilbert.   I am trying to locate a Black Pear tree but they are hard to find!   We may have to, therefore, plant something different.  We have missed out on the winter planting season so we will look at doing this towards the end of the year.

Last summer’s Stuart Wild Memorial Race went down a storm and we are hoping to hold something similar this year. Dates and timings should be available very soon, we are just waiting on a few small things, once all the I’s and T’s are dotted and crossed, more info will follow.

The club have just purchased a new tent for events and this should help our members in all sorts of different ways please ask the committee if you wish to use it for a running event. The tent saw it’s first outing at the weekend at the local Pendock Spring Chicken Run, organised by the local school, members of BPJ and Tewkesbury AC.

The race saw 35 BPJs running and many helping and marshalling. There were even some BPJ victories with new member James Smith winning the 10K and Dan Cale’s son Jack winning the 1K. Derek Jackson and Jemima Lowe also came first in their age categories, well done all, it was great to see so many members supporting the event.

The next large event in which it’s always great to see a large number of BPJs is the Crowle 10K in May. As normal we will meet for our annual photo and I look forward to seeing you there.

Best of luck to all those runners taking part in the London Marathon, hopefully the hard work is done and you can enjoy the weekend.

Finally I would like to remind you that your memberships are due at the end of March. Thank you to all the members who have paid so far. You can easily renew online, or fill in a paper form and hand it to Cat, the membership secretary. There are plenty of forms by the notice board at Perdiswell.

Enjoy the next few weeks,

Mike