Athlete of the Year – Male

For the Male athlete of the year, there were a few worthy contenders last year, including last years winner Alan Marriott, who once again provided invaluable contribution to our track and field team. Andrew Norgate, now in the 50-55 age category who represented the club in all the major cross country championships and was second overall in his age group in the West Yorkshire CC League. David Dempsey, still a junior but now performing in full decathlon events and a Yorkshire medallist at hurdles and triple jump. Andrew Pearson, who made a welcome return to cross country running this season and has already had significant successes in local Road Races. He first won this trophy in 1989 and if he keeps going will be a major contender again next year.
But the award for the 2008/9 season goes to an athlete, nominated for his outstanding team event performance in track and field throughout the year, Brook Wilkes
In the West Yorkshire track and field league, he ran all events ranging from 100m to 1500m, was eighth overall in the Junior/Senior men category and was responsible for a third of our total points scored in that category. He was a regular member of our team in the Northern League fixtures where he usually competed in four or five events and finished the day by running a leg in both relays. The fact that The Track and Field Manager, Neil Watson, nominated him for this award demonstrates how much his efforts for the team were appreciated by him. A worthy winner for 2008

Brook Wilkes

Athlete of the year – Female

We did not have so many nomination s for this award this year, because sadly our number of senior women is diminishing, the majority are now well into the veteran ranks, and performances have been few and far between.
One athlete, however, who did shine last year and is a worthy nomination for the trophy is Jordane Allison. Sadly, due to injury, Jordane was absent for most of the cross-country season, but had notable success in track and field last season. I well remember the tremendous tussles she had with a girl from Bury A C in the young athletes league 3000m races; she won them all, but had to fight all the way for her success. She was cheered home by the younger members of the team and I am sure her performance was a big inspiration to all of them. Although only 15, Jordane was also drafted into the senior team for the Northern League where she performed well and gained some creditable results against senior opposition. She is now back in full training and I am looking forward to seeing her perform again in the coming season

Jordane Allison

Most Promising Young Athlete – Track and Field – Female

One of our strongest groups on the track last season were the young female athletes , so this was a hard choice to make but after consideration we have decided the award for 2008 should go to Ama Williams. Ama moved up to the U/15 age group last year so was in the bottom end of the age group, this didn’t deter her and she usually competed in 100,200,metres and the high jump in the young athletes league.
She also competed over 800m and improved her personal best time more than any other girl. Starting at 2mins 57sec at the beginning of the season, she improved to record 2min 45secs in the West Yorks Champs in September. Although originally a sprinter, I think Ama’s best distances will be over 400 & 800 metres and still in the under 15 age group this year I am expecting her to progress further and am looking forward to her achieving more PB’s in 2009

Ama Williams

Most Promising Young Athlete – Track and Field – Male

Many of you may not know this young man, because he only joined us midway through last season and has been doing football training during the winter months. Nevertheless, over this brief period his performances have been sufficient to indicate his talent as a very promising sprinter. He competed in just two Young Athletes League races and was successful over 100 and 200 metres and long jump. He also competed in the West Yorkshire league and was usually in the top three places against some very strong opposition. He also achieved success at Schools level, running for Honley High School and is one of only a few of our young athletes to dip under 12secs for 100metres

Liam Hallam

Most Promising Young Athlete – Cross Country – Female

I think this girls is the youngest member ever to receive one of these awards, but her performances in the U/11 age group do indicate considerable promise. Although competition is limited at this age group, she ran in 3 out of 4 West Yorkshire league races and finished 9th overall, her best position being 8th at the Wetherby Race. She also showed her potential by finishing 4th in the open cross-country races at Barton on Humber at the end of the season. During the cross-country season, she was also competing in sports-hall athletics, and was a member of the successful Kirklees team who won the Yorkshire and Humberside U/11’s championship this year. Rebecca moves up to the under 13’s this year which will greatly increase her opportunities to compete. I hope the promise shown at this younger age group will continue as she moves up and bring her more success in the future

Rebecca Morris

Most Promising Young Athlete – Cross Country – Male

Last year, this trophy was won by Robert Morris, who has continued to shine and has had a very good season in the U/13 age group, but the trophy this year goes to one of his great rivals Lewis Crank. Lewis is also in the U/13 age group and was a member of our team that took the 3rd place medals in the West Yorkshire Cross Country League Individually he finished 17th overall in the league, but unlike Robert, who moves up next year, Lewis has another year at that level with the chance to improve on that position. Lewis is one of the keenest runners we have for racing, he likes to have a go at everything Likewise, in training he likes to run and run and we sometimes have to tell him to stop to prevent him overdoing things. At times he reminds me of that little rabbit with a Duracell battery strapped to his back. I think Lewis has run in all the West Yorkshire races and all the Championships, including the National Championships at Parliament hill in London. I think one of his best races, however was in the West Yorkshire Schools Championships at Leeds.Lewis ran in the Junior Boys race, which is really for years 8 &9 but kirklees allow boys like Lewis in year 7 to run if they are good enough but they are not eligible for the West Yorkshire Team. The course was completely covered in snow and conditions were tough. Lewis set off at the back of the field, but after the first lap, decided he was enjoying it and started moving through the field, he was still running strongly at the finish and was the first boy from Kirklees to finish. He is not one of the tallest of runners, but size doesn’t matter when it comes to cross country running there have been some great small cross country champions in the past, and I think if Lewis continues he could prove to be another one

Lewis Crank

Outstanding Contribution to Young Athletes League

This award is made annually to any athlete we consider has made an outstanding contribution to the Young Athletes League Team. It can be awarded for the most points scored in the competition or for general enthusiasm or willingness to try new events. Well, whichever way you choose this years winner is successful on all counts.
She has competed at all the four League meetings, has scored more points during the season than anybody else, competed in both track and field events including hurdles and is a team manager’s dream, when it comes to team selection. A worthy winner, whos smile and enthusiasm is enough to raise any team

Amelia Garner

Outstanding Contribution to the Club

The Cyril Foster Trophy is awarded annually to the person who we consider has made an outstanding contribution to the club. It can be either for running performance, leadership, coaching, officiating or for generally helping the running of the club in an administrative or social capacity, like this years winner. Unfortunately, he can’t be with us tonight but most of you here tonight know him, and I refer to David Leih. For those of you who don’t know him by name, he’s the chap who collects the cash for training on Tuesday and Thursday nights. It’s not the nicest of jobs collecting money from people, but David doesn’t seem to mind and he does it willingly, always with a smile on his face. Collecting money for track fees and paying it out in hire charges only began with the opening of the new track and it makes a big difference to the amount of money being handled by the club. During the year, we take over £3000 in track fees and it is important that this is handled carefully and diligently. David has always done this admirably. He comes down early and always makes sure the cash and register are in order before leaving. On the few occassions when he is not down, it’s left to me to do the task and I find it a real bind and hindrence to my coaching duties. So I personally am pleased to present this award to David, with the hope that he may continue in the role for a long time to come

David Leih

Best Marathon Performance

The Best Marathon Performance in 2008 was achieved by Donald Kennedy who posted a time of 2hrs 47mins in the London Marathon. Donald won this title in 2006, and is running in London again this year, so I hope he will be back again next year to retain the trophy. We all know he can do 2hrs 47mins now so we will be looking for him to beat that time in 2009, to justify the award

Donald Kennedy

Best Field Event Performance

The Best Field Event Performance is usually awarded for a specific performance in an individual event but this years performance was achieved in a multi-event competition. It goes to David Dempsey for his performance in the English Schools Decathlon competition. David was competing against the best in the country and finished 11th overall in the event with a total score of 5859 points, which was enough to put him in nineteenth place in the UK rankings for Junior Decathlon. For most of us points scored in the decathlon don’t mean a great deal, so for comparison I checked the performances of our last decathlete, Alan Marriott, who you all know for his regular appearances at this function to collect his many awards and I found that Alan’s best score was 5652 points. Now admittedly, Alan’s was achieved in Senior competition, using senior implements, But you can see from the comparison that David is definitely doing well at the event, so lets hope he can continue his progression into the senior ranks and become another champion decathlete

David Dempsey

Best Veteran Performance

The Best Veteran Performance this year was considered to be achieved by the athlete I have just mentioned, Alan Marriott. It is hard to consider Alan as a veteran, because he is still performing so well in open-age competition but he is now approaching 50 and shows no sign of slowing down. This year he won the Discuss and Shot at the West Yorkshire Championships and was a medallist in the other throws. We still rely heavily on him for our Northern League team where he is a prolific points scorer. WE don’t often see Alan in Veteran competitions, not that he has anything against veteran athletics, I think its because he is too busy winning other open competitions. I think it can be said that throwers have a longer athletic career than most runners, so lets hope Alan continues for many years to come and achieves many more awards like this

Alan Marriott

Road Race Championship

The result of the 2008 Road Race League was:-

1st - 175 points

Ian Mitchell

2nd - 105 points

Donald Kennedy

John Howarth

Cross – Country League

The result of the 2008/9 cross country League was:-

1st - 93 points

Andrew Norgate

2nd - 61 points

Richard Hardcastle

3rd - 60 points

Andrew Pearson

Club Road Races 2009 (Handicap)

Winners of the races this year

New course record:
Andrew Pearson in 34 mins 25 secs

U13 boys

Spencer Lambert