SOMERSET SCHOOLS ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION Secretary Treasurer Mr. B. Baker Mr. L. Neville 16 Holly Court Fosse House Frome Burlescombe BA11 2SQ Devon Tel. 01373 464766 EX16 7JH Mobile. 07855749543 Tel. 01823 674111 Email. [email protected] Email. [email protected] www.somersetschoolsathletics.org.uk 2020 Cross-County Report ‘Just before 19!’ For me the cross-country season starts with hotel booking at least six months before the ESAA Championships soon to be followed by introductory emails or telephone calls to land owners and suppliers. Therefore in mid to late 2019 planning started as usual. Area championships took place at their usual time (either side of the Christmas break) with the subsequent area entries coming in to allow for the results computer programme to be set up. It was at about this time that the international and then national news began to be flooded with what to many was a new term: Corona virus, COVID 19. Junior Championships – This now established championships took place as usual at King’s College with Richard at the helm of the day’s organisation. The course was the same as the previous year but much rain during the preceding days meant that parts of the course were more than simply ‘damp’ and at the very end rain was again sweeping in! Entry numbers and participating schools saw an increase from the previous year. I reported last year that I thought schools were becoming ‘more astute’ by entering only those students who were very likely to participate. So it is pleasing that this ‘philosophy’ seemingly remains within a greater entry as shown by the percentage of non-finishers, which includes non-starters. Entries Finishers Non-finishers % Schools 2017 284 185 98 35% 20 2018 385 283 102 26% 24 2019 231 180 51 22% 17 2020 309 235 74 23% 22 A champion’s badge was presented to each individual winner as they exited the funnel; this was followed, by post, with certificates to the first six and the winning team in each age group. The champions and finishers were: Individual Finishers Team Year 7 Girls Daisy Davis Huish Episcopi 57 King’s Hall Year 7 Boys Charlie Sidhu King’s Hall 70 Taunton Prep. Year 8 Girls Macey Noad King Alfred 56 Hazlegrove Year 8 Boys Ryan Reed The Castle 52 Hazlegrove SOMERSET SCHOOLS ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION Congratulations to the individual champions from four different schools and special congratulations to Daisy Davis and Charlie Sidhu who ‘cemented’ their Senior Championship win. Congratulations also to the team winners from three different schools. Pleasingly therefore champion certificates were distributed to many more schools than in previous years. County Championships – Organisation was identical to previous years, eg: detailed communication with the agent for the new owner from September information and entry forms sent to Area secretaries early in November as the first area championships took place in early December contact made with officials and subsequently duties drawn up Ian Humphreys enlisted to receive entries and produce results First Aid cover booked with Helen Wooton hire of toilets from Yeovil Hire Centre refreshment van booked through Henry Chipperfield with Paul Goodyer site visit in December to ascertain the impact of a new owner course map updated simple programme produced In 2019 Aldon Hill saw a new owner meaning much liaison took place to allow the staging of the championships. This year similar liaison had to take place but it was far more straightforward and indeed on the day the farmer who rents the land was supportive and chatty. The day before the championships I collected stakes from Millfield School and marked out much of the ‘back’ of the course. (Pleasingly I met a couple of athletes and their families walking the course.) Before dawn on race day Richard and I were on the course setting out the positions of the start and finish areas, from which the administration area could be located, and the car park entrance ‘lanes’. Years of identical setting up means the placing of stakes, tape and direction indicators doesn’t take too long. Consequently some time before the first gun all was in place meaning athletes new to Aldon had plenty of time to walk the course in sunshine coupled with a cooling breeze. The champions and finishers (compared to previous year) were: Individual Finishers Minor Girls Daisy Davis Huish Episcopi Academy 48 (-10) Junior Girls Sophie Nicholls Wells Cathedral School 51 (-4) Inter Girls Hannah Blundy Preston School 22 (+6) Senior Girls Amelia Wills Millfield School 16 (+3) Minor Boys Charlie Sidhu King’s Hall School 52 (+8) Junior Boys Josh Cobb King’s College 49 (+7) Inter Boys Joe Ponter Bishop Fox's School 42 (+5) Senior Boys Alex Male Taunton School 21 (+5) = +40 Congratulations to Joe Ponter who retained the Intermediate Boys’ title. The number of finishers is important as the entry fee is based on this number rather than the number of entries. This meant that the subsidy towards the National Championships saw a £80 gain compared to the previous year. This was not anticipated for at the AGM (after much discussion) the car parking fee was increased to £4; in so doing an additional income to the previous year of £283 was seen. Again I must extend my annual thanks to all who helped for without you this event simply cannot be the success it is. A particular warm ʽThank you’ to the helpers and indeed spectators who made their first visit SOMERSET SCHOOLS ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION to Aldon Hill in 2020 and who have added to the ever growing number of admirers of our cross-country course and its surroundings. South-West Championships Report by Richard Bowden The Selection Meeting for the South-West Schools’ AA Championships took place immediately after the Somerset Schools’ AA Championships, at Hazlegrove School where the 6 selectors enjoyed the usual superb hospitality – the delicious food fuelling their deliberations. In fact, selection of the 80 runners and 48 reserves proved completely straightforward as the first 10 in each age group were available and every athlete to be considered had competed at Aldon Hill – so once our policy of automatic selection for the first 4 finishers had been followed, the next 6 selections fell neatly into place. Just 2 of the next 6 were unavailable (in the Under-13 Girls’ and Junior Boys’ age groups) so the reserves were almost entirely finishers 11 to 16. The team was displayed on the website immediately after selection and the webform proved its worth once again as the responses began to flood in within a few minutes of publication. Official selection letters were sent to all the schools and colleges on the Monday so our methods of communication remained most efficient. Just over a week after the Championships we had heard from 63 of the selected athletes and 19 reserves and at that stage there had been 2 withdrawals (in the Under-13 Boys’ and Senior Girls’ age groups). I then sent out an email reminder to the 11 schools of the 17 athletes yet to submit a webform and I am pleased to say that produced another torrent of responses. The last webform arrived on Thursday 30 January (the athlete was unavailable!) so with a week to go the team consisted of 77 selected athletes and 3 reserves. A withdrawal by a Senior Boy at lunchtime on Friday 7 February caused a last-minute flurry of email and telephone activity but the 3rd reserve (a Year 13 runner) was delighted to accept the chance to run, having tried to gain a Somerset vest for a number of years. The Championships were hosted by Dorset Schools’ AA and took place at King’s Park, Bournemouth on a course often used for school and league events. In line with all our South-West Championships, athletes were asked to make their own travel arrangements and this worked successfully, with mini-buses able to park near the team bases in the athletics stand. All aspects of team administration (collection of fees, kitting-out and meeting SSAA staff) went very well indeed, thanks to the invaluable assistance of the 9 Team Managers, all of whom were in place between 10.00am and 11.00am. Almost all the athletes arrived by 11.30am, as instructed, in order to pay the fee, collect kit and meet their Team Manager, so athletes were walking the course by about 11.50am. After atrocious weather at these Championships in recent years (gales in Bournemouth in 2014, torrential rain in Cheltenham in 2016 and Truro in 2017 and the complete cancellation of the event due to heavy snow in Bath last year), we were incredibly lucky with the conditions this time as the athletes were treated to a firm, flat course and even warm sunshine. That good fortune was compounded when Storm Ciara crashed in on the Sunday, for the Championships would certainly have been cancelled had she arrived 24 hours earlier. The following Saturday, Storm Dennis smashed the whole country so the event would have been in jeopardy (or at least some counties would not have been able to travel) had it been scheduled a week later. Somerset won 5 individual medals: Junior Girls’ gold for Sophie Nicholls (Wells Cathedral School); Intermediate Boys’ gold for Joe Ponter (Bishop Fox’s School); Senior Girls’ silver for Millie Wills (Millfield School); Minor Boys’ bronze for Charlie Sidhu (King’s Hall School) and Intermediate Boys’ bronze for Tom Heal (Kingsmead School). There was also very pleasing team success - from the Minor Girls (who beat Devon by just 2 points to secure the team title) and the Intermediate Boys who had a convincing win by 15 points over Dorset.