Spring Handicap, 27th April 2026
It was a beautiful evening for winding our way uphill, between the cows and their “presents”, in the full glare of the sun.
Jenny Roberts showed that she is well on the road to recovery from her ankle injury to romp home in first place, over 30 seconds ahead of Michael Teasdale. Michael also had a comfortable lead over Vasilisa Sidarova, in what was probably her last handicap before she relocates to Norwich. Though never a club member, Vasilisa has been a handicap regular and will be missed. We wish her well in her new adventure. After that, the runners came in thick and fast with, at one point, only 3 seconds covering 7 places!
The first recipient of the brand new Terry Welsh Cup, presented by Terry’s brother, John, was Tara Hipwood, who managed to overtake the only other finalist to run, Janet Palmer. Both will have another chance to win in July, when they will be joined in the final by Mark Flynn and Til Weber.
The speed merchants on the night were James Adair, Til Weber and Chris Swaddling, with James and Til both going under the 20 minute mark. Fourth fastest was Izzy Neatrour who took the title of fastest female, with Lena Lou second and Ana Prodan third.
As we have a shiny new trophy for the knockout competition, we had a cup to spare! So this will now be awarded to a member of the handicap manager’s choosing to reflect a good contribution or performance. The first recipient, as decided by Alex Harding. was Aaron Mansell for the excellent job he has done in taking on the setting of the handicaps and for streamlining the process of producing the results. I think we can all agree that Alex made the right choice.
To round off the night, the Team Captains, Sarah and Laurie, presented their annual award to Mark Flynn – another popular and well-merited choice!
As ever, thanks to all the volunteers, marshals for another well-run event, and to Anna Round for another successful social.
