There was definitely something in the air this week as our recent excellent attendance levels at the Stag Trophy dropped significantly. Whether it was the new year lethargy, the bugs that have been going around or the gale that was blowing down Grovebury Road we do not know, but it meant that all those that did venture to Parson's Close were able to pick up good points for the overall standing.

The person who took most advantage from this was Fred Watt, who claims to have never won an individual Stag race in all his years of running with the club. However, running a time over a minute quicker than in December enabled him to finish comfortably ahead of the pack. Maybe it's all the parkruns he's been doing recently that has given him this fresh turn of speed.

Behind Fred was Jon Hull, who has found his running mojo and was also nearly 30 seconds quicker than his previous two efforts this year which gave him a bit of a gap to everyone else. "Everyone else" was led home by Adam Haylock who just got the better of Andy Inchley in a sprint finish as they ran pretty much to their handicaps. The rest were all a little bit down on the predicted times but still scored healthy numbers of points, with both Warren and James Bell getting in the twenties.

It is around this time of year that the Stag starts to get a little more complicated with the lead having changed hands but people having done different numbers of races. As we stand though David Killick's 19 points from January threw him to the top of the table on 79 with Andy Inchley on 78 and Liz Peters on 72 making up the top three. However, there are six other people who have at least two scores in the twenties and so are well poised to challenge them.

The next race is the 4^th February prior to the AGM so please let's get back to the attendances of 2014 and make it interesting. It doesn't matter if you've got a chance of winning or not, the Stag is a great way to improve your endurance speed for all your other races.