The January stag is traditionally known as the time to pick up some good points as the weather is often lousy so there are low numbers and people have eaten and drunk too much over the festive period. This year however, this could not be further from the truth.

A fantastic turn-out of 25 (plus 5 helpers / joggers) made for a really good race with everyone pushing each other to some very good times in unusually good conditions. In fact, the top 16 were all inside their handicap and of the remainder, 5 were doing either their first or second Stag race, which can take a little bit of learning.

At 19 weeks pregnant Amy had Dave and even herself convinced that she wouldn't be able to run quicker than 8mpm so when she came home first in 19.01 a few eyebrows were raised! If she continues to run into next month, estimating a time will continue to prove difficult for Mr Adams so we will have to see what happens there.

Second home on the night was Chris Large in a new PB of 19.48 which means he was running under 8mpm for the first time. All this training with Mrs H-M is clearly doing him the world of good and even encouraged Lorraine to complete her first ever Stag too in a very respectable time. Third home on the night was Fiona Towell, who just pipped Biana Inchley, also on her debut.

The old boys of Inchley senior and Fred Watt both earned over 20 points as they crossed the line ahead of the other two PB'ers of the night. Laurie Parr ran 14.52 and just ahead of him Warren Rose ran 15.38 for his third consecutive PB of the season.

Warren's 19 points has extended his lead at the top of the table to a healthy nine points ahead of Tom and then Andy Inchley and Billy Mead. Although a few points further back, Fiona and Richard have only run two races and scored well both times, however, anyone who has one reasonable score out of three at this stage of the season has every chance of being in the mix at the end.

However, the best thing about this month's race was the number of people as it makes it a really good race right to the end, so whether or not you believe you can win, please continue to come, aim for PB's and take points off those challenging as that's the whole idea!

We will have to squeeze in one more race before the finale in April so we'll keep you in the loop on that, but in theory the next race is Wednesday 6^th February. Full results, historical results, hints and various other gubbins are available on the Stag Trophy page of the site.