Dec 2011

Admin stuff: Some important reminders

First Reminder: For the next fortnight (Mon 28 / Wed 30 Nov & Mon 5 / Wed 7 Dec) we don’t have any indoor facilities at BHS, so anyone coming along should be prepared for outdoor running. On Wed 30^th we will meet in the car park if the school is closed with strike actions.

Second Reminder: About half the junior membership fees for the current membership year (1/10/11 – 30/9/12) have been received, which means about a half haven’t, so if you’ve forgotten, you’ll find a copy of the membership form at  http://www.harmenyac.org.uk/Mship_form.doc

Third Reminder: Winter is now upon us, and those families who were around last year may remember that we had a lot of cancellations due to snow conditions on the roads and school closures. We’ll do our best to give as much advance notice as possible if we do have to cancel training, but sometimes this isn’t possible, and we coaches can be stuck in the snow / traffic after work. So if the weather does hit us again, please use common sense, and if delivering children to BHS, please stay on to confirm to check that we’re there and training is on.

Weather permitting our last nights at BHS are Mon19/ Wed 21 Dec, and we resume 9 / 11 Jan.

Results

Cross country League match 2 Sunday 20^th Nov

We didn’t realise there would be so many alternative events on (schools swimming gala, scout & guide camps, gang show rehearsal, Currie minis match, a sleepover plus an injury or two), but even so we had a fair turnout across the age groups. Pride of place goes to the U11 girls who had a strong team of five runners (Beth Wedgwood, Beth Campbell, Amy Panton, Mhairi Hyslop and Ellie Stewart). The girls were 4^th on the day, and after two matches are sitting in 3^rd place. We’d like to see big teams out at the last match at Broxburn on Sat 14 Jan, and with full teams we could move up the standings in all the age groups.

Detailed results on the East league web-site at http://www.eastleague.co.uk/index.htm

After two matches our team positions in each age group are:

U11 Girls:              3^rd          

U11 Boys:             9^th           

U13 Girls:              14^th        

U13 Boys:             10^th             

U15 Boys:             16^th        

In the adult age groups, the Women are 10^th and the Men are 28^th .

Primary Schools Road Relay Championships

Lucas Johnston and Alex Bates were two thirds of the Currie Primary School team that competed in the Primary Schools Road Relay Championships at the end of October.  The boys were 19^th place out of 46 teams.  Lucas did the first leg in 5:36, school friend Peter did 6:04, which was very good for someone who had never tried to race like this before, and Alex did 5:24, overtaking several runners.

School participation in athletic events is patchy to say the least, and often depends on enthusiastic parents. More information about School competitions is at http://www.ssaa.co.uk

Forthcoming Events

As well as cross country races there are few indoor opportunities:

Open Graded Meetings at Grangemouth Stadium (National Indoor Athletics Academy)

There is a series of monthly Open meetings at Grangemouth on the following Wednesday evenings: 7 Dec, 4 Jan, 1 Feb and 21 March. These are open to anyone, and participants can do whatever events are being staged for their age group.

I have a limited number of flyers / Entry Forms for anyone interested. Details are at www.falkirkcommunitytrust.org

If there is enough interest, we could organize squads to go along to the Feb and March evenings.

Scottish Athletics: Indoor Championships and Superteams, Kelvin Hall Glasgow

Dates and entry forms for the Indoor Championships are now available on the Scottish Athletics Website: http://www.scottishathletics.org.uk/index.php?p=80&findCurrent=1  (filter on Track & Field, Kelvin Hall). Selected Dates:

U14 Combined Events               Sun 19 Feb (60m Hurdles, Shot Putt, Long Jump, High Jump, 800m)

U14, U16 Championships         Sun 4 Mar

There a few who should be thinking about entering these.

For these championships the age bands are:

U14: Born between 1 Jan 1999 and 31 Dec 2000

U16: Born between 1 Jan 1997 and 31 Dec 1998

Superteams is a relatively new event for teams of 4 boys or 4 girls in the U12 Age Group - born between 1 Jan 2001 and 31 Dec 2002. This will be held on Sat 11 Feb.

We could raise quite useful boys and girls teams, so we’ll contact families in Jan to see if there is enough interest to enter a couple of teams.

Training Update

Saughton Track on Thursdays: We’re looking to build up the squad attending trackwork on Thursday nights, so the age limit will be reduced to 11, and we’ll also take interested 10 year-olds who’ve performed well at Cross-country races or at Saturday morning Parkruns.

Weather permitting we’ll aim to start in the New Year, and a separate note will be going out to families with members who would qualify.

Farewell to Robyn: Roby Hewat who has been coaching at BHS for the last few years (when college studies have permitted), has moved into a full-time job and is no longer able to coach in the evenings. Robyn joined the club as an 11-year old, and starting helping at coaching whilst still at Currie HS as part of their community support programme. We wish her all the best in her work career..

New young helpers: A number of Currie HS students who are current or former members are doing their junior Duke of Edinburgh Award and as part of theis will be helping out at coaching at BHS.

Rachel Birrell, Alice McNab and Calum Kennedy will be helping on Monday evenings, and Laim Clark will help on Wednesdays.