SCHOOLS ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION

Secretary Treasurer Mr. B. Baker Mr. L. Neville 16 Holly Court Fosse House 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 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 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 48 (-10) Junior Girls Sophie Nicholls School 51 (-4) Inter Girls Hannah Blundy 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 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 (); 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. A SOMERSET SCHOOLS ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION particularly gratifying aspect of the Minor Girls’ victory is that the 10 athletes came from 8 different schools: , Hazlegrove School, Huish Episcopi Academy, King’s Hall School, Millfield Preparatory School, Minehead Middle School, The King Alfred School and Wellington School. The table below shows our team performances and the position of the first Somerset runner home.

Age Group Winner Winning Team 1st Somerset Finisher Team Position MG Nancy Taylor (Dor) Somerset Daisy Davies (Huish Episcopi) 6 1 JG Sophie Nicholls (Som) Avon Sophie Nicholls (Wells Cathedral) 1 3 IG Beatrice Wood (Wilts) Avon Hannah Blundy (Preston) 6 5 SG Courtney Howard (Dev) Avon Millie Wills (Millfield) 2 2 MB Christopher Oliveira (Dev) Devon Charlie Sidhu (King’s Hall) 3 3 JB Will Rabjohns (Dor) Devon Jack Harvey (Millfield) 6 4 IB Joe Ponter (Som) Somerset Joe Ponter (Bishop Fox’s) 1 1 SB Oliver Smart (Dev) Avon Matt Howard (Wells Cathedral) 4 2

The athletes showed great pride in competing for Somerset, clearly wanted to do their best for the county and were urged on by a great many family members and friends.

Despite the fact that Jo Pike, Charlotte Fisher, Abi Tickner, Emma Radford-James, Hanna Tarver and Simon Prior were unavailable, I was accompanied by 9 other Team Managers: Katie Cobb, Jane Yandell, Nicola Jones, Adrian Palmer, Jason Allen, Jon Leonard, Frank Tickner, Richard Llewellyn-Eaton and Brian Baker. They demonstrated their usual tremendous loyalty and enthusiasm in providing invaluable assistance with kitting-out, offering useful advice whilst walking the course and encouraging our runners throughout their races.

‘New Balance’ English Schools’ AA Championships – Report by Richard Bowden

The 2020 venue was Sefton Park, Liverpool, and as usual, thanks to Brian Baker’s early booking, the team hotel was to be a Premier Inn a short distance from the course - on this occasion the Widnes Premier Inn. Selection had taken place just 2 days after the South-West Schools’ AA Championships as the selectors met at King’s College immediately following the SSAA Junior Championships on Monday 10 February. As is always the case, thorough consideration was given to each athlete as age group teams had to be cut from 10 at South-West level to 8 in Liverpool.

The website was again used to notify selected individuals and reserves quickly and to indicate confirmation of availability, with selected athletes required to download the detailed information pack and ensure each school had a copy. The schools were notified of the selected team by post and asked to consider offering financial assistance. It was gratifying to note that some were again most generous in their responses. It was just as well that the team was selected and displayed almost a month before the ESAA Championships. While some athletes took only a matter of hours to confirm they had downloaded the information and a matter of a few days to send their 3 forms and payments, others (notably several experienced Seniors) took over 2 weeks to confirm the download and struggled to meet the deadline of Friday 28 February for the submission of the required documents – even though these could be emailed without the payments, if necessary.

Almost inevitably in a team of 48 there were withdrawals – 5 this year and each with a valid reason. Cameron Wallace (King’s Hall School) withdrew from the Junior Boys’ team on 24 February, Poppy Pellow (Senior Girl – Millfield School) withdrew on 27 February, Anna Parkinson (Senior Girl – Taunton School) withdrew on 8 March, Alba Becker Pombo (Junior Girl – Millfield School) withdrew on 11 March and Millie Wills (Senior Girl – Millfield School) withdrew on 12 March, just 24 hours before the coach was due to leave Taunton.

SOMERSET SCHOOLS ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION The 4 reserves who came into the team were grateful for the opportunity, demonstrating the usual pride and loyalty in accepting late call-ups (though regretting the other athletes’ illness, injury or family bereavement, of course). Reserves SG3 and SG4 who were invited to replace Millie Wills were unavailable by the time the invitation could be issued so the Senior Girls’ team operated with 7 not 8 athletes.

Obviously, the coronavirus situation was becoming an increasing concern by the beginning of March but we received frequent helpful communications from ESAA in the lead-up to the Championships.

On 9 March: I wanted to let you know that the ESAA is aware of the problem but wanted to inform you all of the specific challenges the virus and its effects are having on the Association. Although we are only a few days from the Cross Country Championships, we are confident that the event will go ahead as expected, and that the impact should be small. It may be that some of your athletes are not allowed to travel to the event by their school, or by their parents, in fear of the outcome. Government advice at present tells us there is no more danger from attending than at any other time, so, unless something changes drastically, we intend to go ahead as normal. Our first priority has to be the health of our athletes, the officials, and spectators attending our events, and we are confident that the event this weekend does not pose any threat to anyone higher than would normally be the case. On 12 March: I have just received the following information from UK Athletics and thought it worthwhile to pass it on to you. Obviously the situation is changing almost daily, and the government is meeting today and may change the plans and recommendations they made earlier in the week. We need to wait to see what the new recommendations will be regarding all of our fixtures. At this stage, our assumption is that Saturday’s Cross-country Championships will go ahead, and that some parents may decide not to allow their children to travel with their county team. There is nothing we can do about that, obviously. Please tell all athletes to bring soap, so that they can wash their hands while in Liverpool or hand sanitiser. Just in case, I would ask team managers to bring some. If you decide not to bring your team to Liverpool, please let Paul Allison know as soon as you can, so that we aren’t waiting for a team to declare that isn’t coming. It is your decision and that of your county association and county authority, as well as individual schools and parents, whether to bring athletes to the championships, but we are following government advice in the staging of the event.

Pick-up points on Friday 13 March were King’s College at 11.00am, Junction 25 of the M5 (the BP Fuel Station) at 11.30am and Junction 23 of the M5 (Dunball) at 12.00pm. All team members travelled on the Berry’s double-decker coach, accompanied by 8 Team Managers. Jon Leonard showed typical loyalty in driving all the way to Liverpool (joining us for the evening meal and the Team Meeting at the Premier Inn). He was accompanied by Wellington School colleague Hanna Tarver who was making her Somerset Team Manager debut – a very welcome addition to what was already a very strong group.

Registration at the Premier Inn was swift and efficient and the restaurant had been set up to allow the team to eat in 2 sittings (6.30pm and 7.00pm) on the Friday evening. Each age group was assigned a separate table and this helped with the important social aspects. The fact that tables were labelled with the age group and the athletes’ names was a most impressive ‘extra’. The meal was followed by the Team Meeting during which the Team Managers were introduced and athletes were given the opportunity to ask any questions. The traditional team photographs were taken on the Saturday morning before departure for the course.

Coach drop-off was only 50m from the team bases (the new Somerset event shelter proved a great success) with the Start area even closer. Conditions were far kinder than in the past 2 years so fast races were the order of the day. Full results appeared on the website immediately after the Championships but the table below gives an outline of team positions (out of 46 counties and with Somerset now in the B Group) and our best individual performances.

SOMERSET SCHOOLS ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION

Age Group Winner Winning Team 1st Somerset Finisher Team Position JG Zoe Gillbody (Shropshire) Berkshire 290 Sophie Nicholls (Wells Cathedral) 3 34 - 1097 IG Beatrice Wood (Wiltshire) Surrey 284 Hannah Blundy (Preston) 104 33 - 1173 SG Olivia Mason (Cumbria) London 336 Lizzy Ingram (Sexey’s) 75 24 - 868 Aggregate Girls B Counties West Yorkshire 1317 Somerset 3138 12 B Group JB Ben Peck (Suffolk) Kent 153 Jack Harvey (Millfield) 99 31 - 1043 IB Fraser Sproul (Cumbria) Kent 173 Joe Ponter (Bishop Fox’s) 38 18 - 798 SB Matthew Stonier (Kent) Lancashire 196 Alex Male (Taunton) 23 12 - 570 Aggregate Boys B Counties Lancashire 1603 Somerset 2411 5 B Group

Huge thanks go to the Team Managers who supported our athletes so wonderfully well throughout the weekend: Emma Radford-James (JG), Katie Cobb and Hanna Tarver – making a superb Somerset debut (IG), Jason Allen (SG), Jon Leonard (JB), Simon Prior (IB), Adrian Palmer (SB), Jo Pike (Overall Girls) and Richard Llewellyn-Eaton (Overall Boys).

Unfortunately there was no team silverware but we could not have asked anything more from our athletes. In a national event where a top-50 finish is a real achievement, the individual highlights were 38th place for Joe Ponter in the Intermediate Boys’ race, 23rd for Alex Male in the Senior Boys’ event and a magnificent bronze medal for Sophie Nicholls in the Junior Girls’ Championship.

That would normally have meant England representation for Sophie in the SIAB Cross-Country Championships due to take place in Falkirk on Saturday 21 March, but on the Tuesday a joint statement was issued by UK Athletics and the Home Country Athletics Federations:

Covid-19 Athletics Response – statement issued 13:00 - 17 March 2020 The Home Country Athletics Federations (HCAFs) in cooperation with UK Athletics have decided to suspend all planned in person and face to face organised athletics activity until the end of April where the situation will be reviewed once more. This decision has been taken jointly and unanimously following detailed consultation between all five organisations and is in accordance with the directives outlined by the government through the Prime Minister in his statement on Monday afternoon. The cancellation of the SIAB Championships was a bitter disappointment to Sophie but the ESAA Officers should be commended for their decision to award England vests and badges to all those athletes who qualified to represent their country in Scotland.

Finance –

In this paragraph of the report I always repeat a statement from previous years: ʽOnly those close to the financial ramifications of a SSAA season will fully appreciate the projections that take place to make, in my case, the cross-county season break-even: meaning not a loss for the Association and not excessive fees for athletes.’

This year I can report that through very shrewd financial planning the fee for each athlete to compete at the ESAA National Championships was £71, the lowest since 2011! The accounts show a season’s loss of £14.93 within a turnover in excess of £13800. (The season’s account within the full treasurer’s report may be different as other small credits or debits may have been included into these accounts.)

Schools Cup Competition –

The County round of this competition (in the autumn of 2019) sees schools from just outside the border participating alongside Somerset schools in order to facilitate good competition.

SOMERSET SCHOOLS ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION Nine schools entered from the County with Millfield Preparatory, Millfield School and King’s College winning the four age group events. Millfield Preparatory, Millfield School, King’s College, Taunton School and Wellington School progressed to the Regional finals. At the National final Taunton School’s Junior Boys placed 17th; King’s College’s Intermediate Boys placed 20th and Millfield School’s Intermediate Girls placed 21st.

I reported last year and here again I can only adopt my administrative stance in the sound knowledge that during each of the championships there is a large band of officials, helpers and team managers working tirelessly and enthusiastically to who I extend my wholehearted thanks.

Brian Baker

Somerset Schools Athletic Association 2020 Cross-Country Teams

Minor Girls SSAA SWSch Minor Boys SSAA SWSch Daisy Davies Huish Episcopi Academy 1 6 Charlie Sidhu King's Hall School 1 3 Katie Rowe King's Hall School 2 13 Charlie Court Crispin School 3 9 Annabelle Suffield Millfield Prep School 5 20 Thomas Webb Taunton Preparatory School 5 12 Kendra Druce King's Hall School 3 21 Zinzan Sargent Hazlegrove School 2 15 Darcie Cockburn King's Hall School 6 22 Harry Garrett 10 25 Macey Burge The King Alfred School 4 25 Cai Lewis Millfield Prep School 8 27 Alice Mackey Wellington School 7 29 Alex Mott King's Hall School 12 40 Amelie Cook Crispin School 8 32 Oscar Coleman Taunton Preparatory School 6 44 Clarendon Haydn Taylor Hazlegrove School 9 41 Sam Winter Kingsmead School 11 59 Emeral Haran Minehead Middle School 10 52 James Collins Taunton Preparatory School 9 63 Louis Wright Minehead Middle School 4 dns Dexter Townsend Millfield Prep School 7 dns

Junior Girls SSAA SWSch ESAA Junior Boys SSAA SWSch ESAA Sophie Nicholls Wells Cathedral School 1 1 3 Jack Harvey Millfield School 2 6 99 Lucy Shenton Millfield School 3 14 137 Ryan Reed The Castle School 5 21 126 Mackenzie O'Dea Wellington School 4 23 169 Finlay Downes 3 38 175 Macy Noad The King Alfred School 2 49 205 Josh Cobb King's College 1 9 179 Tate Green Millfield School 9 41 290 Evan Smalldon Kingsmead School 4 34 215 Thea Piercy 5 13 293 Archie Nash Millfield School 9 41 249 Skye Fisher Hazlegrove School 6 30 300 Noah Heal Kingsmead School 6 46 265 Greta Siakoufis Queen's College 8 56 335 Charlie Galpin Hazlegrove School 7 dnf 268 Alba Becker Pombo Millfield School 7 dns dns Cameron Wallace King's Hall School 10 35 Hollie Tappin Millfield Preparatory School 10 48 Jack White Taunton Preparatory School 8 61 Lexie Wallace King's College 11 Hal Sinfield Hazlegrove School 11 Martha Macpherson Huish Episcopi Academy 12 William Ladd Kingsmead School 12

Intermediate Girls SSAA SWSch ESAA Intermediate Boys SSAA SWSch ESAA Hannah Blundy Preston School 1 6 104 Joe Ponter Bishop Fox's School 1 1 38 Daisy Pellow Millfield School 2 34 117 Dan Maydew The King Alfred School 3 6 86 Sophia Wilson Millfield School 3 17 138 Tom Heal Kingsmead School 2 3 105 Lydia Louw Millfield School 5 47 260 Dan Fisher The Castle School 5 17 148 Eva Holland Millfield School 4 42 275 Hamish Barry Millfield School 6 16 195 Anya Evans King's School 7 35 279 Toby Watson The Blue School 4 18 226 Abby Hughes King's College 6 41 290 Tommy Hummel Huish Episcopi Academy 7 35 268 India Porter Wellington School 8 52 325 Bradley Glover Preston School 8 47 306 Isabel Hogevold Taunton School 9 56 Lawrence Martindale Millfield School 9 49 Mia Noad The King Alfred School 10 dnf Fred Fisher King's College 10 57 Ophelia Cooper 11 Jake Fisher King's College 11 Skye Mclaughlin Taunton School 12 Sam Fordham Frome College 12

Senior Girls SSAA SWSch ESAA Senior Boys SSAA SWSch ESAA Lizzy Ingram Sexey's School 2 7 75 Alex Male Taunton School 1 5 23 Pia Lewis Millfield School 6 20 100 Matt Howard Wells Cathedral School 3 4 51 Charlotte Brown Richard Huish College 5 15 135 William Aitken Millfield School 4 15 72 Emily Murray The Kings of Wessex Academy 7 27 153 Sam Cobb King's College 2 13 79 Ella Leonard Wells Cathedral School 9 42 199 Sam Ponter Richard Huish College 6 28 152 Imogen Rogers Richard Huish College 10 36 206 Ethan Bennett Millfield School 5 33 193 Jo Keogan Queen's College 11 49 236 Max Nicolle Millfield School 8 41 213 Amelia Wills Millfield School 1 2 dns Max Watson King's College 7 dns 231 Anna Parkinson Taunton School 3 5 dns Leo Stockham Bridgwater College 9 44 Poppy Pellow Millfield School 4 47 dns Sam Dowson Richard Huish College 13 58 Abbie White Sexey's School 8 Andrew Power Richard Huish College 10 59 Lily Della Valle Millfield School 12 Russell Yates Richard Huish College 11 Ella Docherty King's School 13 Archie Tyler Taunton School 12