Tom Morris

Appeal from Birmingham Cross Country League

An important appeal from Chris Holloway of Tipton Harriers who is researching into the history of the Birmingham Cross Country League. I reproduce his letter below…..

I am starting to research the development of the badge used for the various awards in the Birmingham & District XC League over the years to record for posterity.

I would like to ask for help on a couple of fronts from your more “senior” members.

Firstly I am seeking examples of Midland club badges that have included a “wooden gate” as part of the design.

I seem to vaguely recall that older clubs such as Small Heath Harriers or Lozells Harriers may have had this. There may have been others. If so does anyone have a good quality drawing, photograph or picture (or could take one/scan one) of each badge for me?  The badge may be on a letterhead, vest, blazer tracksuit or other item of memorabilia.

My second appeal is to try and trace the various specific designs used for BDXCL medals over the years since 1925 when the league was formed. I understand that the basic design was probably standard across all divisions and placements (1^st, 2^nd 3^rd etc). I have examples from the 1930’s & 40’s but would like to obtain any other variations that may have existed.

What was the badge like in the 1950’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s & 90’s and up to the present day? Did it in fact differ?

Ideally I want to obtain good quality digital photographs that show the detail of each medal.  I can take photographs if I can borrow the medals so if people are willing to lend them to me I would be very grateful to know.

If any of our members can help please contact Chris direct on tipton.harrier@yahoo.co.uk

Perfect Christmas Present ….

Received in my Inbox this morning: –

Dear Secretary,

Re: Book titled My Brother Jeffrey’s Favourite Little Books featuring Who Ate All The Paella?  Stories from the World masters Athletics Champs 2005.

I’ve been down to my last 100 or so copies for a few years now, so have decided to try and safely dispose of them to the good homes of new Masters or those who missed out first time round.  The deal is £4.50 for one, £3.50 every other copy inc. p&p and for every copy sold I will re-imburse your association with £1 per copy for your help. Please note that any money is only going towards off-setting the original print costs (it wasn’t half as cheap then as now!)

All I need from prospective buyers is cheque payable to Kevin Archer, their contact details, any dedication they want in the book and confirmation of their association so you get re-imbursed.

My contact details are:-

Kevin Archer 3 Lower Saint Edmund Street Weymouth Dorset DT4 8AJ Tel: 01305 830096 evenings, 07453698759 day, email kevin_archer45@hotmail.com. That’s kevin (underscore) archer.

About the book.  An attempt at humour with the back drop of the World Masters Athletics Champs.  I got injured there so started writing stories about the characters and just added all the corny jokes that came to mind, but funnily enough not the one about the Chiropodist who only ever ate corn flakes for breakfast!  Characters from all the Associations appear in one guise or another, so your area is represented, including a true but funny piece on the birth and death of Antrim Harriers contributed by Terry Eakin.  The original press and peer reviews in the book are so good I could have written them myself!

So don’t miss out on possibly the best stocking filler since………(buy the book to reveal!)

BMAF XC Relays 2012 – Results

Full results now appear on the BMAF Blog at

http://britishmastersaf.wordpress.com/bmaf-xc-relays

Alex Rotas Photography

Photographic Exhibition

The Photographer, Alex Rotas, has an Exhibition of her photos that she took at the European VAA Track & Field Championships last August plus other action photos now showing at Aston University, Birmingham, (main building on the Aston Triangle, lower foyer),  from 1 Nov-January.

Please visit Alex’s website at http://www.alexrotasphotography.com

Membership Subscription Reminder

We are now collecting 2013 Subscriptions and I would appreciate receiving  your renewals. Please see the “Membership” page, sub-pages “Existing or Lapsed Members”.

We are currently freezing the membership rates for 1st Claim Members awaiting any further developments with the England Athletics Registration increases.

EA Registration Survey

Survey now closed. Report on results coming shortly

EA Registration Survey

The announcement a few weeks ago that the England Athletics registration fees were being increased from £5.00 to £20.00 for track & field athletes and to £10.00 for road runners has sent shock waves through the UKA Clubs and the regional Masters Clubs including our own. Just look at the increase, a four fold increase in one go! How can that be justified? It affects Midland Masters because we register our 1st Claim members with EA as do the UKA Clubs with our other members. We have already had to pass a resolution at this year’s AGM to increase our own subscription, this was announced in plenty of time for 2013, standing orders have been altered and already 2013 renewals are coming in. Now another change!

New members joining us between the 1st October and 31st December continue membership to us through all of the following year. If they have to be registered, we pay immediately but we have to pay again to cover them from the 1st April. Currently we only ask for one £5.00 and we absorb the other payment. At £20.00 we will no longer be able to do this.

Another issue is whether road runners should be singled out for a lower payment. By and large road runners compete all year round. An athlete who for example only competes at shot put in the summer months, has to pay double the road runners registration. Is this fair?

We are seeking your opinions. Please take time to fill in the online survey. Please click on the link below

Take the survey by clicking HERE … Take Our Survey!

Also please feel free to start a discussion using the ‘Comments’ below. And don’t forget the post ratings above…..

_________________

If you have difficulty opening the Survey from the above link, please try this … http://rockontom.polldaddy.com/s/ea-registration

Successful VLM Club Entries

I am happy to announce that the successful applicants for the Virgin London Marathon 2013 club entries are as follows:-

#83547 Andrew Hope and #83497 Tony Jeffs

Congratulations to them and wish them all the best in their training.

Note that we were only allocated 2 entries for 2013

London Marathon Club Entries

Latest News

The Virgin London Marathon Club Entries have now been applied for and all our member’s applications for a place are in. I have received 11 applications, which were all allocated a number as they were received. Our President had this list of numbers and has arranged to draw them out in a particular order. He did not know names. As soon as I know how many entries we get then I can announce the lucky participants, this should be within the next 7 – 10 days.

Tom Morris – Secretary

Related articles

• The spring marathon build-up (foot4ward.co.uk)
• 2012 Miles – Day 270 (London Marathon Confirmation) (thrivecardiff.org)

40th Anniversary Celebration

40th Anniversary Celebration
Our celebrations took place yesterday at the Tamworth AC’s headquarters. An afternoon of fun and frolics was planned by a small team headed by our current President, Adrian Lloyd.

The weather was kind and the forecast of light rain fortunately didn’t materialise. John Walker, our Road/ XC Secretary, organised a “Torch” Relay from Halesowen ( the place where it all began) to Tamworth, timed to perfection, arriving at the start of the meeting and ending with a lap of the track consisting of a genuine Olympic Torch and plethora of past Presidents.

Seconded at the last minute for timekeeping duties with fellow past President, Derek Fellows, we were grateful that our tasks were not too onerous. The show kicked off with a two- man Paarlauf, 12 minutes in duration. What a pity only two teams participated because once everyone had ‘sussed’ out how it worked it proved to be quite a close fought contest. A mixture of techniques was used, run 300m; jog back 100m or run 200m; jog across grass, adding to the interest.

On the track, 1 mile handicap races followed both for race walkers and runners, whilst field events consisted of long jumps and shot put plus welly wanging, the latter proving the most popular! Obstacle races and family shuttle relays rounded of the track events and a demonstration of tug- a – war being the afternoon’s highlight.

After all these efforts everyone fed themselves on jacket potatoes with various fillings and a substantial buffet.

Presentations to the winners were then carried out by Sue Kneill-Boxley, one of the organising team who sorted all the obstacle races, bouncy castle and who contributed in such a tremendous way.

With darkness falling, our Treasurer, Martin Wilkinson, and small team prepared the firework display. Wow! What a way to see off our 40th year, a really beautiful display and I’m sure Tamworth enjoyed it too!

The evening was rounded off with music and dancing.

All in all a very enjoyable and entertaining day. Congratulations to Adrian and his team for organising such a great event.

I’m off now with a little break with the family in Cornwall, so the full report with pictures will appear on the dedicated page in a couple of weeks, my apologies for this delay. But I thought it important to get this post uploaded.

Please feel free to make comments on this or the dedicated page and I’ll do my best to get them all approved before I am back in action.

Tom Morris – Secretary
1st October 2012

40th Anniversary Celebration

The programme has now been finalised although it will have to be remain flexible depending on the weather etc.

Full details can be seen on the dedicated page on this website, a quick link to it http://tinyurl.com/d3fat8x 

Please take a look and download the programme.