Wednesday night saw a stunning finish to the Stag Trophy season as Steve Orlando and Dan Webb battled for the overall title. Going in to the race, Dan Webb knew that only a win on the night and Steve finishing outside the top five would secure the trophy, while long time leader Steve knew the odds were stacked against Dan.

As club members arrived on a perfect night for running it was immediately clear that the participation numbers were a touch down with only sixteen participants meeting at the park. The expectation was for the usual stack of PB's with the new summer lightness and a warm evening, which surely favoured the incumbent leader. However, as the race slowly unfolded it became clear that there was only likely to be a couple of people battling for the win on the night and one of those was Dan…….

The other person who was hunting everyone down was Ian Grimshaw, who had started last with Andy Inchley, but soon left him and started working his way through the field in his charge for a PB and podium place for the season. On the third lap, Dan hit the front of the field when he overtook Amelia Wallace near the end of Grovebury Road and knew he had to hang on, but with Ian charging along he was closing the gap rapidly and by the time they hit the park Dan's lead was just a few metres. Meanwhile Steve Orlando was running pretty well himself, having a battle with Jake Irvine around 5^th / 6^th place and 5^th would guarantee him a share of the title even if Dan won.

At the front of the field, just when it seemed Ian was about to go past Dan with fifty metres left Dan found from somewhere a last gasp turn of speed, put his elbows out and held on for the win to smash his PB by 32 seconds and finish in 15.36. Now it was down to Steve and where would he cross the line. Despite having been left for dead by Ian early on, Andy had worked through the field himself and gained four places in the last 400m to come home third, just ahead of Amelia. The first of the juniors was Charlie Mead who ran a PB of 17.00 and despite a final sprint from Steve to cross the line ahead of Jake, it was not enough as his 20 points earned on the night did not improve his total.

The final result meant that Dan Webb, who missed the first two races of the season, had come from nowhere to snatch the victory by one point with Steve in second. Ian Grimshaw, who's time on the night of 13.30 put him in to 16^th place on the all-time list finished in a comfortable bronze medal position for the season and the tradition of new members winning the Stag Trophy was emphasised as all three are were in their first full season.

Well done to everyone who has competed this season, particularly Dan, Steve and Ian and huge thanks also should go to Dave Adams for all the hard work he puts into preparing the handicaps and results as well as his side kick Uncle Pete. The full list of results and PB's is available via the Stag Trophy page now.