It was another excellent turn-out of 23 runners on a cold and slightly breezy night in Parson's Close and it resulted in some close competition. Overall leader Mandy Clay was given a "challenging" handicap by Dave with a target of beating her PB by a distance in order to give the rest of us a chance as she set off first.

As it turned out though, it was Chris Large, fresh from his trip to Lanzarote that returned to his form of two seasons ago to win the race by 18 seconds from James Bell who was unbelievably making his debut and had blagged a good handicap. the genuine PB'ers then streamed over the finish line behind James, with Liz Peters, Adam Haylock, Sam Dear and Lorraine Holloway-McLean all recording best times. Sam notably ducked under 15 minutes for the first time. read more

Winter seemed to have arrived in Leighton Buzzard on Bonfire Night as most of the conversation before the start of the November Stag revolved around how chuffing cold it was. What was noted though was the distinct lack of wind to hold up any of the runners around the course so there was still potential for fast times if you were properly warmed up.

After returning to running last month, Mandy Clay was once again first to set off from Parson's Close with the aim of emulating her 25 points from October, but with twenty others trying their hardest to chase her down it wasn't going to be quite so easy this time around. The field included a guest runner in Chris Taylor from LFR and a couple of debutants in Chloe Broxup and Henry Wainwright. Fiona has been nagging Chloe to return to the club for a year after one training run in 2013 and Chloe brought Henry along for the ride. read more

The first Stag Trophy race of the season kicked off yesterday in fine style. We had 25 runners taking on the three lap course, plus a few others helping Dave with the timing and general encouragement.

 There are still six races to go and you only need to score in five to stand a chance so everyone is still very much in the game, but there were a few people who set their stalls out early. Leading the way was Mandy Clay, who having completed a cross-country season a few years back has not run for some time and managed to persuade Dave into a "nice" handicap on that basis. She came home 40 seconds clear. read more

So, the delayed final Stag trophy race of the season saw Stuart Blofeld confirm his tag as strong pre-race favourite by returning his fifth personal best time in the five races he has completed this year.

On the night, the positions were slightly confusing as there were a number of non-scoring runners in the first few places over the line, due them not having accurate handicaps as new runners, but all will be available to take a full part next year and Billy Mead (15.32) and Jordan Clay (16.09) are only going to get quicker, with so much youth on their side. read more