Chairman's Chat            

There's nothing like a bit of healthy competition to make you run a little faster; I've seen it on Club Nights, in Sprint sessions and even Hill Repeats. But there's one thing that makes you push a little harder still and that's a Mob Match.

For those of you who don't know what a Mob Match is, here's a brief explanation:

In a Mob Match, points are awarded for the position you finish in - If you finish 1st, you get one point, 10th gets ten points and 642nd place gets you 642 points. Points scored by runners in a team are added to form a team score and these scores are compared to find the winning score, the lower being the best. Sometimes all runners' points are added to form a team score, on other occasions, the top 10 or 20 runners scores are counted. If a team doesn't have the required numbers, missing runners are give the last place score. EGRC have had a modicum of success in Mob Matches but often lose out to the bigger, more established clubs in the area, Bristol & West AC and Southville to name but two.

Next month sees the Club Championship race The Keynsham Dandy (Sunday 17th November). I saw a Facebook post last week that said that Bitton Road Runners had 31 entrants in the Dandy. I checked EGRC runners and found we also had 31. There was only one thing to do.....

I contacted BRR Chairman James Wade and suggested that we make the Keynsham Dandy a Mob Match between our two clubs. James accepted the challenge which also has a Chairman vs Chairman wager attached; the losing Chairman will buy the other some cider. 

In the spirit of friendly rivalry, James suggested that EGRC would be welcome to join BRR runners a their post-race gathering at the Bonzo Lounge in Keynsham post-run - what a nice gesture and I for one will be attending (in the hope that he'll be buying the drinks!!).

So, those of you that are running the Keynsham Dandy need not worry about Club Championship points any more - your priority is to finish in front of someone in a Blue and Yellow vest!! In fact, don't just finish in front of them, finish ahead of them with lots of other runners between you. What do points mean? For me , Cider!!! And more importantly, for all of us, bragging rights!! 

If you haven't got a place in the Keynsham Dandy (It's now sold out), please come along and support and do join us in the pub after.

Enjoy your running.

Neil Newman

Chairman