We will once again be competing in the Epsom Downs Cross-Country League this winter.

All fixtures take place on Epsom Downs (KT18 5PP) and will be held on:
Sunday 21st October (one week after athletics finishes)
Sunday 2nd December
Sunday 17th February
Sunday 3rd March

The age categories are:-
U11 = Age 8 to Yr6
U13 = Yr7 & Yr8
U15 = Yr9 & Yr10

Start time and distance:-
U11 10.45 2.2 Km
U13 11.15 2.5 Km
U15 11.30 2.5 Km

Club tops must be worn and these can be purchased from Bob.

Steve McDuell will be the principal coach involved, but any of the coaches will be able to answer any questions you may have. We really hope to have a good turn out this season. As soon as we have more details we will post them.

…and for you parents – if you hanker after organised cross-country having liked/despised it at school – the senior Shufflers are also in a cross-country league and we’d be delighted to talk to you about getting involved! Some parents even turned out and ran last season!

This is the last week of the Summer Holiday’s Summer Camps at Barn Elms.

Both camps will commence at 10am, the first on Tuesday at 10:00am and the second on Thursday at 10:00am. The camps last approx. 90 minutes and cost £7.50 per athlete. This week’s camps will be run by either Steve or Louise, or maybe both.

Please feel free just to show up!

Due to the Prudential Bike Ride and the consequential road closures in the Barn Elms area, there will be no athletics this Sunday. We will resume as normal on Sunday 5th August.

There will be ‘drop in’ sessions at Barn Elms track during the last four weeks of August. These sessions will take place every Tuesday and Thursday mornings between 10:00 am and 11:30 am and will commence on Tuesday 7th August.

The sessions will be run by our Juniors coaches, Steve and Louise. The cost of each session will be £7.50 which will include the track fee. All abilities welcome.

Any further details you may need can be obtained from Louise at Louisekoldfield@gmail.com

An evening’s orienteering on Barnes Common during daylight returns on Tuesday 24th July.

There are two courses available, a long course 5km and a short course 2.5K. All juniors must be accompanied on the long course, but as the short course does not cross any roads, juniors can run without an adult. It would be excellent to see some of the Juniors taking part. If the parents are not up to it for the long course, but their junior athletes are, just let us know!

You will be given a map with checkpoints on it and clues as to how to find those checkpoints – look on it as a glorified treasure hunt. You can run as a group if you are not brimming with confidence. If you are still not sure you can speak to me (Bob), and I can give you any further details you may need.

The headquarters for the event is in The Spencer Arms in Putney, SW15 1HJ The event registration is between 18:00 and 19:30 with the start times between 18:00 and 19:30. It is electronically timed so that you can start when you are ready. Cost of entry is £5. The organisers would appreciate it if you would let them know you are attending so they a rough idea of how many maps to print (they aren’t cheap).

https://www.facebook.com/events/931697447001689/

Always an excellent evening out – and local!!

The fourth of this season’s monthly Junior Handicap races takes place at The Hawker Centre, Lower Ham Road, Kingston KT2 5BH. It is a 7:30pm start time, but please get their around 7 especially if you haven’t registered in advance.

This is just over 2 km on the grassed playing field in front of the Hawker Centre. It consists of 4 laps of the perimeter of the grass area, which will be marked out. After the end of the fourth lap the runners will cross the finish line and go down the finish funnel in the order in which they crossed the line. Minis run one lap of just over 500m.

New or inexperienced runners, if they find 2 km a bit far, can run one lap – they will be given a time, but their results will not count towards any individual or team scores. The event is open to all up to 17 years old.

Please make sure you arrive in plenty of time to register if not having done so before. Registration can be done via your parkrun barcode if you have one, or by filling in a form on the evening.

Well done to all our Juniors who took part in the Parklands Relay last Wednesday evening. To get to the start was a task in itself as the road between Kingston Gate and Roehampton Gate was closed.

Our ladies pulled out an exceptional team performance. All three ladies finished within a six second slot. Juliet ran first and finished her leg of 2.8 miles in 19:43, Niamh then round in 19:49 with Alisa bringing the team home to an excellent 14th position with a time of 19:46. To put this performance into perspective there were 46 ladies teams taking part from the strongest clubs in the area with county runners participating.

For the boys, the lead runner was Hamish Chapple with an 18:58, to be followed by Emilio with 22:12. Harry went off third and returned a time of 20:45 with Peter completing the final leg in 24:05. As you may guess, the standard of the men was way over what our boys could match, but they still finished in 52nd position. The first man went round the course in 13:35!

Mark Klein’s fledgling Junior Tri club were decimated almost from the off when they let us have Harry, Mark’s son, to boost our Boys team. In return we gave them Lily who put in a decent time of 25:32. The team were bolstered by Mark running the final leg in 17:12.

The seniors will be doing a parkrun at Gunnersbury Park on Saturday, so hopefully we may see a few of our Junior Shufflers in attendance.

If you need any information on the event – please ask!

If anyone feels minded enough to do it, there should be a few Juniors doing the 5k parkrun in Richmond Park on Saturday.

If you haven’t done one before – register on the parkrun website
https://www.parkrun.org.uk/register/form/ You will find Sheen Shufflers in the drop down box. When registered, print off your barcode (I cover mine in clingfilm so it doesn’t fall to bits) and bring it with you on Saturday. The run is free, starts at Richmond Gate at 9:00 and you should see a few people that you know there! If you are under 11 you should have a parent or guardian run with you. If you don’t have anyone to escort you, just leave a message on the website and we can see what can be arranged.

The next race will be held on Thursday 14th June.

The event is being held at the The Russell School, Petersham, TW10 7AH

Registration from 7:00pm for a 7:30pm start.

The races are over a roughly 2K distance, and first-timers are give a handicap according to their age.

More details can be found on The Stragglers website:
http://www.stragglers.org/index.php/stragglers-juniors

parkrun barcodes acceptable.