Junior Newsletter

   Welcome to our Spring 2009 Newsletter. This season Coach Andy Parkin is leading the Junior Runners – please note his contact details at the bottom of this page. Level 2 coach, Mary Nightingale, is assisting. We continue to train our own coaches to UKA standards – James Welbury has now gained his Level 2 qualification and Jeff Little, Elaine Taylor and Sarah Hilliard have joined our growing team of Level 1 coaches.
     This year we will be running a series of ‘Master classes’ in jumps, throws, hurdles, sprints, stretching and warming up with the possibility of use of Beacon’s summer track and long jump pit facility, plus we have purchased more equipment, including Junior Hurdles. More details to follow.
     Groups are organised as follows: Juniors, age 8 – 10, Intermediates, age 10 -12, Seniors, age 12- 15.

19 April Hartfield fun run. 2k race 10.30am. £3.50 pay on the day. Hartfield.funrun@live.co.uk
22 June Heathfield 10K – Junior races from 10am. Register on the day from 9.30. Venue: Rugby ground, Cross-in-Hand.

21 July Wet and wild – games and water fights, weather permitting (at Goldsmith’s)

23 July Bexhill 5 – evening seafront races including Juniors. Details to follow.

22 September Wacky Races – Junior Runners fun night and prize giving. FINAL SESSION

.5 October Lewes Downland 10m – 5k race before main race, suitable for more able juniors.

Athletic Club Open meetings:
Crawley – Under 11 (school years 4 and 5), U13, U15: 20 May, 24 June, 15 July, 31 August
Tonbridge- U11: 18 May, 15 June, 20 July

Trainers – proper sports trainers please, with laces done up, double bow. No spikes.

Water bottles – water is essential, sports drinks are not necessary. Please name bottles if you can.

6.30pm start – please be on time for registration and ready to warm up. Session ends 7.30pm.

Drainage work – it is possible that the Town Council may be carrying out work on the track later in the summer, at which time we may have to relocate for a temporary period. More info to follow.

Club vests (£8) are available. You can borrow a club vest for a race if you prefer, rather than purchase.

Our policy is to try and go ahead with a session, unless there is heavy rain, in which case one of the coaches will call you. If we have heavy rain during a session, please come and collect asap as we do not have anywhere to take them, other than under the canopy at the Leisure Centre.

Finally ………… don’t forget that we have a thriving adult club which welcomes runners of all abilities. We meet at the Leisure Centre, Tuesday’s 6.30pm, Wednesday’s 7.30pm, Sunday’s 9.00am.

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Junior News Extracts from the December 2008 CR Newsletter

Beachy Head 2K - October 25
Well done to one of our keen junior runners - Chris Hutchins took part in the 2 km run and did really well. There were about 80 children there and he came 6th with a time of 9 minutes 34 seconds.
Also congratulations to Hope Colley, who is through to the Area Schools Cross Country meeting at Wadhurst after coming 14^th in her race at Beacon School on November 26^th.
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Junior News Extracts from the October 2008 CR Newsletter

Tuesday 23^rd September - Whacky Races
Crowborough Runners held their annual Wacky Races at the end of the junior season for junior athletes. On a cool and windy autumn evening a number of enthusiastic juniors cam to the events in a competitive mood. The three group's age related results in the events were as follows:

100m
Junior: Rebecca Eyres; Cameron McAllister
Intermediates: Gemma Nightingale; Chris Hutchins
Seniors; Sophie Nightingale; Paul Millgate

Cameron Mcallister, Matthew Weller, Oliver Edwards, Sophie Nightingale, Amber George, Rebecca Eyres, Gemma Nightingale, Hope Colley, Rachel Ramsey, Rhys Harrington

Winner of the Best Girl cup, showing the best overall improvement and committment throught the season went to - Rebecca Eyres (age 9).
The Best Boy of the season cup went to Oliver Edwards (age 11). These are two of the Club's most promising atheletes.
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Extracts from the September 2008 CR Newsletter
JUNIOR NEWS
Juniors have continued to train throughout the summer and the smaller group sizes have enabled us to offer more personal training. We have been orienteering, practicing relay and baton handover technique (coaching services available to Team GB on request!), dynamic warm ups with the adults, plus more jumps and throws.As the evenings are drawing in now, we only have a few weeks of good daylight left so please note that we will hold our annual fun race night, 'Whacky Races', on 23 September and, subject to weather and light, will finish for the season on 7 October. Sessions will finish slightly earlier from the beginning of September, by 7.15pm, so please be prepared to collect children promptly.

Battle of Bexhill - children's race series 2008. There are still 2 races remaining open to children of all ages - 500m/1k/2k. Let’s see if we can get some more great results. Don't forget when you enter that you are affiliated to Crowborough Runners, and send me your results.
Race 3: Sunday 28 September, 10am Race 4: Sunday 9 November, 12.30pm. All races start outside Bexhill sailing club.
Medals and t shirts
See www.bexhillrunners.co.uk for more info

Beachy Head Challenge - Sat 25 October. St Bede's School, Eastbourne
8-11 yrs: 2k. 10am
12-16 yrs: 3k. 10.45am
£3 entry fee. Numbers limited -NO ENTRIES ON THE DAY. SEE MARY FOR ENTRY FORM or www.visiteastbourne.com

Crowborough 10k - Sunday 30 November, 10am. Help needed from Juniors to run a water station and give out medals. Names to Mary please.
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Extracts from the July 2008 Newsletter

Welcome to our Summer Newsletter and a big thank-you to you all for your patience in completing and returning forms and for supporting our sign-in and out policy. We are now full at around 40 members and will not be taking on any more this season as this is a comfortable number for us to manage safely with 5 qualified coaches. So far this season we have been covering a range of running techniques from sprint starts and short sprint relays, to endurance running and hurdling. We have also practiced various throws and jumps as required in the NU Shine Awards scheme. It is clear however that what we all love most of all is racing and games like British Bulldog so, fear not, the competitive spirit is very strong !

Children’s Race at the Heathfield 10K on June 22nd 2008
Matthew Eyres came 2nd in over 12's, Rebecca Eyres came 2nd in under 12's.

23 July :- Bexhill 5 – evening seafront races including Juniors. Details to follow.
23 July :- Last of the U15 track and field events at Eastbourne, open to Years 8 and 9 only, from 7pm at
Sports Park, Cross Level Way, Eastbourne. Just turn up, ready for action.

5 October :- Lewes Downland 10m – 5k race before main race, suitable for more able juniors.

Trainers – proper sports trainers please, with laces done up, ideally double bow.

Water bottles – water is essential, sports drinks are not necessary. Please name bottles if you can. They all look very similar.

Club kit:
Club vests (£6) and sweatshirts (£8) are available, plus we have a few second-hand sweatshirts for sale. You can borrow a club vest for a race, rather than purchase.

As our weather is so variable, please note that our policy is to try and go ahead with a session, unless there is heavy rain, in which case one of the coaches will call you. If we have heavy rain during a session, please come and collect your child asap as we do not have anywhere to take them, other than under the canopy at the Leisure Centre.

In the Junior race held before the Horsham 10K on May 11th Jack Hilliard finished 26th with a time of 7.34.

Another great month for the Junior Runners with between 30 and 40 turning out most Tuesday evenings for training on and around the track. We have been sprinting, learning about endurance (which included running with parachutes strapped to backs) having a go at relays, lots of throwing and even triple jumping. We have only lost one session to bad weather so far and both field and track are beginning to dry out so conditions are improving.We had to put a temporary halt on membership whilst we waited to see how many wanted to stay and become members. We now have a few places left in the senior section only: over 12 years.

U15 athletics friendly competitions, Eastbourne, this summer

Off to a great start for the 2008 season with 5 qualified coaches and one in training, Junior Runners now has 35 young athletes, between the ages of 8 and 14, 16 of whom were members last year and several have been coming since we started in 2005. Fairly evenly split between boys and girls, the runners are split into 3 age groups: 8-10; 10-12 and over 12. Juniors and Intermediates are led by Jeff and Maggi and Andy and Anne respectively, with Mary looking after the smaller group of seniors. Julie is membership secretary and Child Welfare Officer.

All Junior Members receive a comprehensive, personal log book on joining and will be entered for the NU Shine Awards scheme which rewards effort across a broad range of track and field events.

Thanks to Andy and James, we have secured another grant from UK Athletics which has been used to purchase more equipment, necessary for the field events. These include foam javelins, shot put and discus, triple jump mats, measuring tapes and many other items. Much fun has already been had trying them out.

Sadly Phoebe Smith, our Best Girl award winner last year has been lured by the bright lights and all year round track facilities at Lewes AC. Her younger sister has also joined her.

Thursday 5 June, Great Ormond Street Hospital Family Running Festival in Battersea Park (under 9's, under 13's, under 15's and adults) IK to 5K
Saturday 7 June, Dreams Come True 'Dream Miles', The Long Walf, Windsor Great Park. All ages, I mile distance.

We were approached earlier this year by Christine Dolan of Eastbourne AC (whom we met at the Seaford indoor Sportshall meeting last year) to ask if we would be interested in participating in a few friendly evening competitions, both track and field. She has managed to obtain a grant so there is no cost involved, other than transport to and from the venue. It is only open to 11 to 15 year olds.The meetings will be on Wednesday evenings: 14 may/11 June/23 July. Events start 7pm. There will a chance for athletes to try out a wide range of track and field events, with event specific coaching available on the evening. Entry can be as an individual or as a team. Trophies, medals and certificates will be presented.
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JUNIOR RUNNERS - Extract from the April 2008 newsletter.

Junior Runners resumed on Tuesday 1 April 2008 at 6.30pm.

This year we welcome back coaches Mary, Andy, Jeff and Julie and they are joined by newly qualified level 1 coaches Maggi Bradgate and Anne Chapman. With the increase in number of coaches we are able to create three groups, Juniors, Intermediates and Seniors, each with its own dedicated coaches enabling us to provide more specific training for each age group and a higher degree of personal attention. We are also introducing for the first time the NU Shine Awards scheme which encompases throws and jumps as well as endurance running and speed, so look out for lots of activity on and around the track on Tuesday evenings this summer.

From junior runner Phoebe:
Hi Mary. Just letting you know that on sunday 2nd march I went to the junior race under 12s race. (Eastbourne half marathon.)
I came 3rd out of about 18 or 20 which was really good and came the first girl through, I also got a trophy there for the 1st girl come through and Fenella came 9th and was the 3rd girl come through and she got a mini trophy. Southern fm was there too and we had are pictures taken and we may be in the Argus or eastbourne herald. And we will be on the soouthern fm website in a couple of days time.
From Phoebe

From Todd’s mum:
just to let you know how Todd has been doing in the school cross country, He ran for herne school against all the primary schools at beacon and came 4th, he then qualified to represent beacon against Wadhurst area, Heathfield, Uckfield and Chailey and came 5th which means he has now qualified to represent north Wealden team against the rest of east Sussex which is at the end of the month. Will let you know how he does.
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JUNIOR RUNNERS - Extract from the January 2008 newsletter.

Ashdown Forest Cross Country, December 16th 2007

We were very lucky to have a beautiful sunny day for our cross-country fixture on Sunday. However, even though the wind had dropped, it was still bitterly cold.
First off were the juniors who did a lap of about 1 mile. The three from Crowborough did very well – Phoebe was one of the youngest to take part, Fenella a year younger and Briony the youngest of all in the field. They will certainly improve a great deal as they grow older.

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JUNIOR RUNNERS - Extract from the December 2007 newsletter.

At Whitbread Hollow near Eastbourne on November 4th 2007, Crowborough’s team, all aged 11 or under, performed strongly in the junior race against boys and girls up to four years older. Twins Georgina and Harriet Somers came 20^th and 22^nd, while Fenella Smith, the second youngest competitor taking part, was 35th, three places behind her big sister Phoebe.
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JUNIOR RUNNERS - NEWSLETTER, NOVEMBER 2007

Whacky Races – Results
We had a great turnout at Whacky Races on 2^nd October, despite the gloomy, damp weather, for our last meet for the year. There was full participation in a range of fun events and some highly competitive racing, for which results below. A variety of colourful head-wear was sported by both young and old…in particular Bryan (the jester) Tapsell, John (the wizard) Lowden, Phoebe, Elise, Amber (cowgirl) George, Sophie, Gemma and Becky (all in their spice girls wigs).
The Winners were:
Egg and Spoon – Matthew
Sack – Harriet
3 Legged – Elise and Hope
Mad Hatters – Todd
Best Hat prize – Elise
100m - 1^st Ronnie Canlon; 2^nd Georgina Somers; 3^rd Harriet Somers
400m – 1^st Georgina Somers; 2^nd Todd Pannell; 3^rd Harriet Somers

Certificate Presentation:
Certificates of Achievement were awarded to all, but special certificates for the fastest boys and girls were presented to the following 10 best runners:
Alex Purnell, Todd Pannell, Ronnie Canlon; Matthew Eyres; Sam George
Harriet Somers; Georgina Somers; Nicole Taylor; Lauren Hares; Phoebe Smith
Cups – Best Boy and Girl Our special, engraved cups were presented to the two juniors whom we felt had not only achieved some great results this year but have also shown a high level of commitment, turning out every week, in all weather, they have demonstrated a really positive attitude and good sportsmanship.

Our two very special winners this year are:
Phoebe Smith and Todd Pannell
Congratulations to them. Their cups will be engraved and re-presented at the Crowborough 10k.

Todd Pannell wins 2k race :
Best Boy winner, Todd Pannell also won a silver cup for taking 1^st place in the Mascalls School 2k race at Paddock Wood on Sunday 30 September. Well done Todd!

Thanks to all parents, coaches and runners for their support this year and we look forward to seeing you all again next spring, if not before. Don’t forget the cross country season and the Crowborough 10k on 2 December at which juniors are needed to help with water and medals.
Juniors will resume on Tuesday 1 April, 2008.

JUNIOR RUNNERS - NEWSLETTER, SEPTEMBER 2007

We hope to start earlier @ 6.15pm. Refreshments will be available. Events will include:

100m/400m/Relay and, new for this year, a Mad Hatters 200m (bring your own funny hat to wear) plus lots of fun events like egg and spoon and sack race.

§ Seaford, Athletics Meeting, 21 October, 2pm: We need a Junior Runners team of all ages. Names to Mary asap.

§ Crowborough 10K – Sunday 2 December. Juniors to help with water station and medals please. Names to Mary.

§ Ashdown Forest Cross Country (organised by Crowborough Runners) – Sunday 16 December 10.30am. Juniors Race. (See separate notice giving details of all East Sussex Cross Country League Races)

East Sussex cross country league runs from November through to March. Every event has a junior race, generally starting at 10.30am.

Remember that these events can be strenuous but good fun and very wet and muddy. Take a complete set of dry, warm clothes to change into afterwards. Off-road shoes with good grip are also recommended.

If you are interested in receiving more information about these races check on our website:

Thank you all for your support this year, keep on running and see you on April Fools day, 2008 !!

From Mary, Julie, Andy and Jeff.
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The following item is from the June 2007 Newsletter.

In the Horsham Fun Run on May 20th 2007 Jack Hilliard ran the 2.3k in 7:08. Charlotte Hilliard's time was 8:48.

We are now 5 weeks into the junior season (had to cancel one week due to rain) and all is going very well so far. Loads of enthusiasm, good parental
support and, best of all, some good running. Relays and competitive sprinting seem to be the most popular so far.

As we now have 40 junior members we have stopped taking any new memberships and are running a waiting list in case any leave or fail to show on a
regular basis. The aim being to generally have no more than 30- 35 each week as this is the optimum we can cope with safely and effectively.

Sadly Andrew Johnson is no longer able to help but we have had kind offers of support from Andy Parkin and Jeff Little and hopefully this will enable
us to divide the juniors into smaller groups, by age and ability, and to give more personal attention.

The new equipment has arrived and so far we have experimented with the agility ladders, skipping ropes and hi stepper, which all seem to have
enjoyed. All the equipment is avaialable for adults to use as well - just let me know if you want to borrow anything (it is mostly being stored in my
garage for now as items seem to walk from the shed at Goldsmiths).

Dates for the diary:

Sunday 10 June - Hove Park Junior Road Races - under 9's/11's/13's/15's, from 10am (www.arena80.co.uk)

11 November - Preston Park Races

Don't forget to stop and say hello if you are training on a Tuesday night at 6.30, or feel free to join in for a while - the kids like to feel that that they belong to a real grown up club. Thanks to all that have helped so far and don't forget to check the help rota. Thank you !
Mary
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Meetings of Crowborough Runners' Junior Section were resumed at Goldsmith on Tuesday 17 April, 6.30pm.
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This item is from the May 2007 Newsletter.

Welcome back to all our junior runners from 2006 and hello to all newcomers this season. Each year we become a little more organised and this year we have a few new developments to tell you about:

New equipment We have been shopping! The club has been extremely generous and spent over £800 on some great new equipment to help us make training sessions more fun. This includes medicine balls (we are going to be doing some upper body strength work this season), agility ladders, hi stepper and hi bounce wedges (like hurdles but they won’t fall over in the wind), proper skipping ropes (skipping is a great exercise for agility and light foot work) an orienteering game and 2 training parachutes! All will be revealed in due course.

Coach training Since last season, Mary Nightingale has been training to become a level 2 qualified coach and is well on the way to achieving this. This has involved spending time helping at other athletic clubs, like Tonbridge and Sevenoaks, as a result of which we have picked up lots of useful ideas to put into practice at Crowborough

New track Work is due to start very soon on a new running track at Goldmiths. More on this as information becomes available

Training session structure Each week will follow a similar structure but will focus on a particular aspect such as legs or arms, upper body strength, speedwork, hurdles, sprint starts etc The usual format will be:

Warm up drills and dynamic stretches

Long jog and interval training, building up to a max of 8 mins

Specific exercises, often in teams

Speedwork or running based game

Races or running based game

Cool down and stretches

We will be recording everyone’s times over a range of distances from 100m and monitoring improvement over the season.

Holiday dates There will not be training on the following 4 nights: 29 May and 7, 14 and 21 August. Last date will probably be 16 October, subject to light.

Please remember: Drop off 6.30. Come with water bottle, proper trainers, warm layers. We must have contact numbers and details of any allergies or medical conditions. Please see club sec Julie, for a membership form. You must be able to collect your child from us by 7.30pm (we finish in the enclosed netball court) Safety is of great concern to us so please help by asking your child to listen to instructions from adult helpers, to keep with the other junior runners and not to wander off eg to the toilets, without reporting to one of the helpers first. A copy of our child protection policy is available on request from Julie.

HELP!! We are always grateful for adult help, you don’t have to be a runner yourself. We ask all parents to sign up to help at least once during the season, (Julie will have the rota) but if you can spare more time or would like to get more involved, perhaps even to do a short coaching course yourself, please let us know.

Contacts: Mary Nightingale home 852710/m 07961378193/em mary.nightingale@virgin.net
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Three of Crowbrough Runners' best junior girls scooped the top 3 places at the North Wealden Area Cross Country Event held at Uplands School on Wednesday:

1st Georgina Somers, 2nd Isobel Butler, 3rd Harriet Somers.

They were in competition against 72 others representing yr 5&6 girls from Uckfield, Wadhurst, Crowborough, Chailey and Heathfield. They go on to compete at the East Sussex Primary School Event to be held in Eastbourne later next month. All three girls are keen members of Crowborough Runners and were members of the winning team in the Sussex Youth Games last year.

While another Crowborough Runner, nine-year-old Hope Colley, was too young to qualify for the North Wealdon event, she came third in the Years 3/4 Crowborough Inter-Schools event at Beacon Community College in January.
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Juniors This item is from the January 2007 Club Newsletter, but it was written by Mary Nightingale some time earlier.

     Thanks to everyone who joined in with our Whacky Races night on 3 October, despite the grotty weather. There were too many winners to mention them all but suffice to say there was some pretty impressive running (well, from the juniors anyway) along with great 3 legged and sack racing (Nick: I propose that these are introduced to the Club Handicap series ).
    All the juniors were presented with a medal and a certificate of achievement, including a record of their own personal best for the season over 100m and 400m. A number were selected for special merit certificates:

Oliver Yeoman

Finally, our two special cups were awarded to the best Junior Girl and Boy, to Harriet Somers and Matthew Eyres.
Thank you again to everyone who has helped with Juniors this season.
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Eastbourne Cross Country race - 26th November 2006

In the junior race of about one mile, Georgina and Harriet Somers ran well. They were running against many children older than them and for their age, were the third and fourth girls. Well done to them.

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Ashdown Forest Junior Cross Country Race held on 5.11.2006

The junior race was held over one small lap with slight hills, distance about 2000m.
Georgina Summers came 7th in 08-12 and Isobel Butler came 13th in 09-24.
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Sadly winter is coming and it is now getting too dark to run safely outside at Goldsmiths. October 3^rd will be our last meeting for the year. We will resume again the first Tuesday after the Easter weekend, 2007.

But ……….. you can keep on running throughout the year. Why not meet up with friends at the weekend or after school and come and practise around the fields at Goldsmiths? Remember to warm up, cool down and stretch as usual (and don’t forget to bring an adult).

Plus ……….. you can join in with East Sussex cross country league races which all have a junior race starting 10.30am

The dates for the East Sussex Sunday Cross-Country League races for this season are as follows:

November 5^th Ashdown Forest ( our home fixture – please come along and support )

No need to register, just come along and sign up on the morning. Warning: you will get muddy !

More details can be found on our website www.crowboroughrunners.co.uk nearer the event.

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Crowborough Runners 10km Road Race

Sorry, no juniors race but we do need help manning water stations. If you can spare some time and want to come along and support your club please let me know:

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thanks

Thank-you to all the parents who have helped us this year, but in particular Bill Lunn and Helen Scriminger who have both thrown themselves in and made a real difference. Thank-you.

Finally ……….. well done to everyone for working hard on their running this year. Lots of you have really improved and are starting to look like great runners! Keep it up, keep fit and healthy and we look forward to seeing you all again next spring.

	JUNIORS
POS	NAME	TIME
13	PHOEBE SMITH	9-20
15	FENELLA SMIYH	12-19
16	BRIONY TAYLOR	12-20

4^th November	Whitbread Hallow
16^th December	Ashdown Forest (Crowborough Runners)
30^th December	Warren Hill
27^th January	Abbots Wood
10^th February	Cross-in-Hand
2^nd March	Pestalozzi

POS		TIME
20	GEORGINA SOMERS	8-36
22	HARRIET SOMERS	8-46

	JUNIOR NEWS 1 October 2006
The Newsletter of Crowborough Junior Runners