Wednesday evening saw the first Stag Trophy race of the 2012/13 season take place in Parson's Close. There were 20 brave souls who ventured out on the chilly evening to take on the three lap course. On this occasion there was just one debutant in Max Raxha, who was doing just his second run with the club and so his start time was estimated without any previous knowledge.

The rest of us were being judged on last season's form, which was of benefit to some and definitely not to others! As seems to be traditional now with first timers we either significantly over or underestimate their time and on this occasion Max benefitted from our judgement and cruised around the course in 16:24 to be nearly a minute under his predicted time. However, he was given a good battle for the first place by Jake Irvine whose time of 16:38 was a new PB.

There were two other PB's on the night. These were achieved by Warren Rose (15:46) and Jordan Clay who has now beaten his father's best time for the race as he recorded 14:23. They finished third and fourth respectively. The top five was completed by Ian Grimshaw in 13:54.

Defending champion Pete Mackrell was using the race as part of a training session and so didn't quite hit the heights of last season, in finishing 15^th and so started the year with an 11 point haul. Overall though, 10 out of the 20 runners were underneath their handicap time.

Next month's race will take place on Wednesday 7^th November, with Max the man to catch.