So, the delayed final Stag trophy race of the season saw Stuart Blofeld confirm his tag as strong pre-race favourite by returning his fifth personal best time in the five races he has completed this year.

On the night, the positions were slightly confusing as there were a number of non-scoring runners in the first few places over the line, due them not having accurate handicaps as new runners, but all will be available to take a full part next year and Billy Mead (15.32) and Jordan Clay (16.09) are only going to get quicker, with so much youth on their side.

As it turned out, Tim Bacon was the first scorer, with a huge PB of nearly a minute and therefore took the 25 points on offer. His was the first of six PB's in the top eight finishers and just goes to show what good form people are coming into now. Behind Tim, were Joby Hobbs (14.04 – PB), Andy Inchley (13.40) and Jill Richardson (17.28 – PB), but they were the only ones who managed to hold off the fast finishing Stuart. His target for the night was to get into the top eleven and so cruising home in fifth place in 14.19, certainly more than did enough to take the title.

Stuart's 21 points earned on the final night, gave him a total of 108, which may not be the highest ever, but with so many more participants this year it is an extremely good score, and is emphasised by the fact the no-one else made 100. The Stag this year has been tremendous as a competition, with nearly sixty people taking part in at least one race, 25 of those acheiving personal bests and 16 completeing the requisite five races to get a full points total.

The best thing about the Stag is that it is designed to put everyone on a level playing field, with improvement and consistency being rewarded, but the crucial thing is to get lots of people racing regularly to get a close competition and the fact that ten people were were fighting for the minor places on the last night shows that perfectly. In the end, Andy Inchley and Nick Clay just sneaked out of the pack with 96 and 92 points respectively before the next five runners were covered by two points from 89-87.

So, we will leave Stuart to bask in the glory of his victory for a couple of months before we start on the challeng of preparing tactics for next year. Having said that, those that are extra keen, Dave will be available at the club dinner on Friday if you have a spare couple of quid to buy him a pint!

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