Results

Saturday (7th Feb) saw the conclusion of the latest season of the Birmingham & District Invitation Cross Country League, with RSCAC’s senior men completing their 4th season back in the top division, with the season curtailed to three races due to the snow and ice in January. As ever in Division 1, right from the start of the season in November, competition amongst the 16 clubs to retain their presence is fierce. Team RSCAC started soundly to finish just above the three relegation places, and held that position after the second race.

Going in to Saturday’s final fixture, the men held a lead of 74 points over their nearest relegation rivals. After what seemed like weeks of continuous rain, the course could only be described as very soft in places with patches of excessive mud and areas of standing water more akin to the National Bog snorkelling Championships. Bolstered by returning University students George O’Connor (for his first race of the season) and Nick Crees (for his 2nd), a reserved level of confidence was held that relegation could be avoided. A strong start over the three-lap course saw O’Connor holding place in the lead pack of 9 after the first lap with several other RSCAC runners packing well not too far behind. Lap two saw O’Connor and one other athlete force the pace as the lead pack started to break up. On the final lap, O’Connor surged ahead on an uphill section and retained his lead finishing with a final surge to win the race. Not too long after, the remaining five scorers crossed the finish line led by Will Stead and quickly followed by Nick Cress, Chris Hine, Tony Davies and Adam Sutton with good back up from Tom Lloyd, Andy Bradley and Chris Taylor. In total, 17 runners from RSCAC ran and completed the course on the day.

Over the season, 9 individual athletes finished in the 6 scoring places for the A team (Fin Barlow, Alex Seabright, Nick Crees, David Sutton, Will Stead, Adam Sutton, Chris Hine and George O’Connor, with Will and Adam being “ever present” in all three races.) In total, 30 athletes from RSCAC ran in the three races over the season.

Thanks also go to our team of Officials and volunteers who fulfilled the clubs commitments to the league over the three races. Thank you, Phil Pollock, Paul Jenkins and Ruth Dobbins.

Once the season ending league results were finalised, RSCAC were confirmed as retaining their top flight status by 94 points. Next season will be the clubs 5th consecutive season in Division 1, extending their record stay at that level (the previous best being just two seasons.)

While this is largely a team effort, individual praise needs to be highlighted in two instances. Firstly, in his debut season in the senior ranks, young Will Stead was 5th, 1st and 2nd finisher for the club over the three races and earned the accolade of being the overall top finisher for the club over the three races. Secondly, George O’Connor’s victory in this race is the first ever Division 1 race winner for the club; in a division and league that is widely regarded as the strongest cross-country league in the country. In doing so, George has surpassed the previous best from the club, which stood as a third place in race 2 of the 1990/91 by George’s uncle Ali, and a 9th place by his father (Adrian) in the same season.

This result capped off a great week for George, who finished 14th in the BUCS (British Universities) Cross Country Championships the previous Saturday and a track PB over 3000m indoors mid-week.

As the saying goes – like father like son; and it is understood that next on George’s target list is his father’s 3000m record of 8.18 later in the year. Good luck George.

The club is sad to announce the passing of Bill Price on Friday 19th September

Bill joined the club when his eldest daughter Sharon became interested in Athletics and started training at the club at 8 years old.

This was 41 years ago in 1983. Sharon joined the Sprints squad and Bill started helping with the group as there were few coaches at the time. Over the following years Bill took on and coached a squad of his own. The group grew and grew, and Bill’s youngest daughter Lynn joined 2 years later when she was old enough.

Bill specialised in coaching Sprints and took on a love of Hurdles as well sprints and undertook various coaching qualifications and coaching courses in both Sprints and Hurdles overseeing many successes through his athletes competing at Club, County and National level.

Bill continued coaching to a huge number of athletes over the next 20 years, finally leaving the coaching arena when his daughters left 2005.

Bill was well respected, and all his athletes looked at him as much more than just a coach, he was there to help them through all walks of their life, supporting and guiding them through their teenage years and into adulthood. Bill was often known as the athletes second Dad, and he took great pride in being their friend as well as their coach.

Nothing gave Bill greater pleasure than seeing his athletes train hard, succeed and do the best that they could.  His squad had a lovely family feel and he remained in contact with many of them over the years.

The fixutre list is now available via this link: 2025 Summer fixtures
Help is always appreciated, if you can offer any time please let the team managers or coaches know.

Oh what a night!

Saturday night’s Birmingham Sportshall League Final event of the season finished with some great results for RSCAC. Very well done to all of our athletes who represented the club this season – all the points you won contributed to these team successes.

– U15 girls. Overall WINNERS with All rounder winner Isabel, second place Aiza and third Betsey. Also, seasons best performances for: Isabel (vertical jump and 4 lap) Betsey and Zareen (paarlauf) and Aiza, Anjola, Dyale and Isabel (4×2 relay)

– U15 boys. Second place overall and Jayden was the third best all rounder.

– U13 girls. Overall WINNERS with seasons best performances for: Gracie (speed bounce), Daisy (Vertical jump), Jessica S (6 lap), Mabel and Jessica S (paarlauf)

– U13 boys. Second place overall with seasons best performances for: Charlie (triple jump) and Dylan (shot)

– U11 girls. Second place overall with seasons best performances for: Indie in triple jump, speed bounce and 6 lap paarlauf where she was joined by Taylor for the victory. U11 girls were also awarded the hurdles relay best performance (Besty, Izzy, Brooke and Lila)

– U11 boys. Second place overall with seasons best performances for: Mason (vertical jump); Kehan & Micah (2×2 and 6 lap paarlauf); Daniel M & Cyrus (2×1); Hurdles Relay (Daniel M, Cyrus, Albee & Daniel W); and Circuit Relay (Daniel M, Khari, Micah & Kehan). 

Well done everyone!

In March we will be holding a trial for our Under 11s squad (school years 4 & 5) that like to run distances and particularly love cross country. If your child is interested in this squad and would like to come along to the trial please complete our waiting list form and we’ll be in touch

Our Annual awards night will be held on Friday 18th October, 7pm start, at Hollyfields Sports & Conference Centre, Woodacre Rd B24 0JT.
Tickets can be booked via this link: TICKETS

7pm start, food served at 7.15pm and we’ll aim to be underway with presentations at 7.45pm.
There will be a disco following the presentation.

We will be holding a raffle, so please bring some cash! Any raffle prize donations can be taken to the club house in advance.

We look forward to seeing you there and hearing about all the amazing achievements of our club and it’s members over the last year.

Brian has been awarded Joint Winner of Services to Athletics and Running in the England Athletics West Midlands Regional Awards.
Brian has been volunteering at the club the 34 years and is the lead coach for our Girls Endurance Group. Well done Brian.

• £50  no.33   MEGAN EVANS
• £30  no.17   FAY POLLOCK
• £25  no.3    ALI EVETTS
• £15  no.75   ALEX BUCHANAN
• £15  no.29   LINDA O’CONNOR
• £15  no.14   MICKY BROWNE

Cheques will be on their way to you “lucky lot” as soon as possible.

Thank you to all 100 Club members for your continued support.

John

Thank you to all our wonderful volunteers for their fantastic kit carrying at English Schools today. (Plus Charmaine who missed the photo)