Despite the February chill hitting Leighton Buzzard this week, thirteen gallant folk made their way to Parson's Close for the fourth race of this year's Stag trophy. With Warren looking to defend his lead at the top of the table he made sure he was present and was joined by most of the people chasing him in the table.

I think it's fair to say that Dave was a little caught out by the appearance of Kate Owens on the start line as she somehow managed to convince him that she wouldn't be quicker than 20 minutes for the 2.5 miles, despite the fact that she ran that pace for a marathon in October! As a result she was first over the finish line and gained a new PB by about ten seconds. Remarkably, Kate only just pipped Bianca Inchley in her second ever stag race as she took two and half minutes off her January time.

Third home, and the final PB'er of the night was Chris Large who is now edging towards 19 minutes for the race. New member Mark Haynes, competing in his first Stag race was just outside 20 minutes, but finished in a very sprightly fashion to suggest he will be quicker next time!

With four of the seven races now completed, Warren Rose still has an eight point lead over Tom Inchley in the overall standings with Warren just missing his fourth consecutive PB as Tom ran a season's best and fastest time of the night with 14.14. Although Andy Inchley is third, he is unlikely to challenge overall, but with a high score from Amy Inchley, along with Bianca and Chris there are still plenty of people who could challenge Warren.

Even if you are out of the reckoning for the overall win, almost everyone can get into the top three with a bit of luck and even if you can't, just turning up and running makes the positioning much more interesting so please try to come along.

Dave Adams has now booked his annual skiing holiday and unfortunately it clashes with the March Stag date so this has been put back a week. Please note that the remaining dates are;

• 20^th February
• 13^th March
• 3^rd April