For those of you that do not know Ashford history that well, Victoria Park in Ashford has been the scene for many great feats and competition in years gone by. Back in the late Seventies it was the setting for a moment in football history as Dynamo Clockhouse took on all-comers and went an incredible 6 games unbeaten in a 5 min each way, winner stays on, competition with other local teams. It may have gone to 7 games but during the seventh game against Hillbrow United, Pauline Potter who was playing as rush goalkeeper for United came running off her line and toe punted a screamer past the Dynamo keeper from the halfway line. It was the ninth minute and surely would have won the game but Dynamo skipper Harry Horcroft picked the ball up and went home with it claiming he heard his mum call him for tea so the game was declared null and void. Fast forward to 1981 and ‘Monkey’ Morris who hailed from Willesborough set a new record in the park which still stands to this day. He scaled the fountain in the park in an incredible 21 seconds but sadly ‘Monkey’ forgot about his fear of heights and was stuck at the top absolutely petrified. It took an hour for the park keeper to alert Monkeys father who did not look impressed as he turned up with his extendable ladder. The onlooking crowd of admirers had meanwhile amused themselves with another competition to see who could knock Monkey off the top with a conker. Thankfully nobody succeeded. Anyway I digress…
Saturday 20th May 2023 was the date for another episode in park history as Keith Haynes and Adam Booth went head to head in the latest Parkrun battle for King Strider and it was Keith who came out on top with an incredible finish time of 19:51 leaving Adam in second place with an equally impressive 20:21. Dave Winchester continued his recovery from injury with a 25:35 finish and Hazel Turner took first Strider Lady with 25:48. Terry Sellen was next through the funnel in 25:53 followed by Jamie Bartlett in 27:25. Don Dewar was the final sub 30 with 29:32. Jason Brice went round in 30:08 followed by Amanda James in 30:49. Next followed two brilliant PB runs with Dee Millen setting her new PB to 32:25 and Michelle Brice recording her new record at 32:59 – Great running ladies !! Rachel Theobold and Kevin York were next round in times of 33:29 and 33:30 respectively followed by Jennifer Watts in 34:05. Julie Nicholson finished in 36:12 and Lisa Fulcher in 37:58 with Julie Foster following them in 41:03 and Sharni Copham in 54:44.
Well done to you all and special thanks as usual to the Strider Volunteers Jason Caldwell, Dermott Carr, Kevan Strand, Simon Jackson, Ned Golding, Dave Warner and Darren Laker.
Parkrun Tourism was again prevalent amongst the Striders this week. Nicola Crawley was tail walker at Colwick Parkrun and walked round in 1:07:49
Sharon Gardner and Vicky Shrubsole visited Canterbury and finished with respective times of 34:29 and 34:39.
Northala Parkrun was the destination of choice for Justin Burden and he completed in 26:23 whilst Andrew Maund took on the Malling event and finished in 20:27.
Mark Niles completed the Sittingbourne course in 21:33 whilst Justine and Jason Wearn chose Kingdom Parkrun and recorded times of 32:30 and 32:32 respectively.
Uckfield saw an influx of Striders with Sally Davidson-Daniel leading the way with 33:12 followed by Lisa Gribbin (33:41), Rachel Misson (33:48) and Siobhan Hagan (34:21).
Last on the Parkrun list is Tamsin Ritchie who completed the Lordship event in 27:35
We had three Strider ladies in Triathlon action this weekend. Nicola Crawley, Lorna Cheshire and Sarah Martins formed a relay team called ‘Nearly Die Tri-ing’ for the Outlaw Triathlon in Nottingham with Lorna completing the 1.2 mile swim in 39:32, Sarah doing the 56 mile cycling in 3:55:18 and Nicola completing the Half Marathon run in 2:06:07. All three trained extremely hard for this event so many congratulations to them.
Well done to everyone who ran or volunteered this weekend and I hope you all have a great week.
Report by Andy Found
