Festive message from Rod Davies at Welsh Masters Athletics...and renewal fees are now due.

By Don Hale

Festive message from Rod Davies at Welsh Masters Athletics.

https://donhaleblog.blogspot.com

www.welshmastersathletics.co.uk

Somehow we find ourselves in the middle of December: it doesn't seem five minutes since some of us were at the BMAF championships in the heat of Derby.

Membership fees are now due: -

This means it's time for us to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and to remind you that your membership will expire on New Year's Eve. 


Perhaps renewing will be a nice little job for a quiet day over the festive period. It's now much more straightforward to do so on the BMAF website. Go through it to sign on to Opentrack, and go to your membership profile. 


You should find a yellow button alongside WMAL marked Renew. If you don't, check the expiry date, which will probably be 2024. This means you have renewed already but forgotten you did - perhaps too much sherry?


If you leave it till January, you will need to check Expired Roles.



Some of you will be heading to Cardiff this weekend to compete in our 3000 indoor championship - good luck, and don't forget to collect your medal!


As for the rest of the indoor championships, we are in negotiations to include them in the Non Thomas Open at Cardiff on 21 January. 


Negotiations to include the outdoor championships in one of Welsh Athletics' are much less advanced. We have a fall-back option of returning to Yate.

Don Hale is a former award winning investigative journalist and now a best-selling author who has created a very popular blog post linked to numerous social media sites. donhaleblog.blogspot.com/2025.

Comments

Post a Comment

Your comments are welcomed

Most recent posts

Surgery pair Emily and Sarah complete their amazing 100k Sahara Desert Trek for St David’s Hospice.

By Don Hale
Image
*Pictured above - Practice nurse Emily Carr and Practice manager Sarah  Corkish-Brown are shown at the end of their charity trek. Surgery pair Emily and Sarah complete their amazing 100k Sahara Desert Trek for St David’s Hospice. Exclusive  report by Don Hale donhaleblog.blogspot.com/2025   Two determined members of the hard-working Bodreinallt doctors' surgery team at Conwy have just completed their extraordinary 100k Sahara Desert Trek and helped to raise  over £42,000 so far for St David’s Hospice. Practice manager  Sarah Corkish-Brown and Practice Nurse Emily Carr  signed up for this huge undertaking some time ago and finally celebrated their success over the past couple of days, and were part of a group that fundraised for this essential local organisation. The trek organisers claimed that entrants would ‘r ediscover true adventure in the awe-inspiring Sahara Desert.’ Their five-day trek covered 100km passing through Morocco’s forbidding landscape...
Read more

Fast pace at North Wales parkruns as the sun shines again - full results round-up.

By Don Hale
Image
*Pictured above - Harry Driscoll (Meirionnydd) finished third at the Conwy parkrun. Fast pace and good weather for a change at most NW parkruns - full results round-up  ... Report by Don Hale. Photos courtesy of Pat Finnie. donhaleblog.blogspot.com/2025 A total of 242 finishers enjoyed the unusually bright sunshine and moderate weather conditions last Saturday morning at the picturesque Conwy 5k course, which again attracted a large number of mixed ability athletes and visitors. The pace from the leading pack was fast and furious right from the start on Conwy Cob with the first eleven finishers all dipping well under twenty-minutes, and just ten seconds separated the first two men home. Visitor  Robert Foster  eventually confirmed his top placing with a fine debut run in just 17 minutes and 22 seconds, and he finished narrowly ahead of  Cai Curtis-Roberts , who was second in 17.32, with  Harry Driscoll  (Meirionnydd RC) third with a new course PB in 17.41....
Read more

Unfortunate mix-up costs NW runner and others an extra 5-mile trek!

By Don Hale
Image
*Pic tured above - Mike Hayton and Kay Hatton at Newborough. Unfortunate mix-up costs NW runner an extra 5-mile trek!   Three members of North Wales Road Runners competed in the challenging Newborough Trail 10k race on Sunday, but unfortunately one athlete at least was misdirected into the adjacent half-marathon race at a late turn point and ended up running an extra 5-miles! Despite the drizzle and the winds Kay Hatton  continued with her excellent top form and won her VW60 age category in 58.07, with colleague  Mike Hayton  claiming the second spot in his VM70 cat in 73.02, but fellow master veteran runner  Rob Fryer  faced an extra unplanned 5-mile trek after a mix-up at an important turn marker, eventually finishing in 97.53.  This was a great shame for Rob, who like Kay, has been in excellent form of late, and Kay said he was going well until about 9k, when he was somehow misdirected away from the shorter course.   Rob later confirmed: ...
Read more

North Wales Indoor Christmas Open meeting at the Deeside Athletics Indoor Centre on Saturday 13th December.

By Don Hale
Image
  *Pictured above - Pat Finnie from NWRRC is shown winning the veteran's 60m race at the Deeside Indoor Athletics Centre. North Wales Indoor Christmas events: Special Track & Field event...Paul Brooks from the North Wales Regional Athletics Council has provided some details about the NW Christmas Open Indoor meeting at the Deeside Centre...but hurry as entries are needed asap! *Further details on the N.W.R.A.C, Face book page:   https://www.facebook.com/groups/755410871224908 donhaleblog.blogspot.com/2025 North Wales Indoor Christmas Open on  Saturday 13th December   ENTRIES CLOSE THURSDAY 4th DECEMBER. To enter click on:   https://welshathletics.org/.../north-wales-indoor... Closing date is Thursday 4th December. *To enter, please click on :  https://welshathletics.org/.../north-wales-indoor... The closing date is  Thursday 4th December , and  if you’re interested in helping out, or you need any further details, please contact   Amy Edwa...
Read more

Arwel Lewis given special Services to Athletics award by Welsh Athletics.

By Don Hale
Image
*Pictured above - Welsh Master athlete Arwel Lewis at the awards ceremony. Arwel Lewis given special Services to Athletics award by Welsh Athletics... Special report by Kay Hatton from the NW Regional Athletics Council. donhaleblog.blogspot.com/2025 Huge congratulations to Arwel Lewis who was presented with the Services to Athletics Award at the Welsh Athletics Awards evening last weekend.   Arwel competes regularly for Eryri Harriers in all disciplines and has competed for Wales on the road, cross country, trail and mountain. He also puts in a huge amount of time as a volunteer for his club, is a race adjudicator and a race organiser.  Arwel is also the fell/trail representative on the NWRAC and WA General Council, Welsh Athletics  mountain/trail secretary and team manager as well as Welsh Ultra representative and team manager. Such a well-deserved award! A modest Arwel later acknowledged:  “I am very honoured and feel very privileged to have received the Welsh Ath...
Read more

Welsh Master David Gibson, celebrates winning a unique hat-trick of silver medals at three World Major Marathons this year.

By Don Hale
Image
*Pictured above - Master Veteran David Gibson celebrates after winning a silver medal at the New York Marathon to complete a unique hat-trick of World Major Marathon Championship awards. Introduction by Don Hale.  donhaleblog.blogspot.com/2025 Welsh Master David Gibson has completed winning a unique hat-trick of silver medals in three World Major Marathon events this year! This is an incredible achievement for this extraordinary Master Veteran, who competes for Wales Masters and his club Tri Hard Harriers, and has recently returned home following his latest success in the New York Marathon. www.welshmastersathletics.co.uk This is David's exclusive story: As a Welsh M70 Master, I competed in the 2025 Age Group World Marathon Championships at the recent 2025 New York Marathon and came away with the M70 category Silver Medal.  Tackling this race just six weeks after getting another M70 Silver Medal at the 2025 Berlin Marathon, and four weeks after a M70 win in the 2025 Cardi...
Read more

FASCINATING NEW SEARCH FOR THE WORDS PUZZLE BOOK...by author Val Crowson.

By Don Hale
Image
Val Crowson publishes a fascinating new SEARCH FOR THE WORDS book... Coast and Country - a North Wales online magazine  promotion.  donhaleblog.blogspot.com/2025 The author of this brand new  Search for the Words  puzzle book is Val Crowson , a retired teacher, who previously used word searches in the classroom to help promote the learning of topics and vocabulary extension.  Val lives in South Africa and she is married with three children and six grandchildren, and now retired, she has collated and created several new wordsearches with the idea of publishing them within this exciting new book.  NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON:   https://amzn.to/4qH1IqC   ABOUT THE NEW SEARCH FOR THE WORDS BOOK by Val Crowson. A collection of 200 distinctive and individually created wordsearches just for you to enjoy! Words can be found horizontally, vertically or backwards, but not diagonally.  The letters that make up these words can be used more than once and can ...
Read more

Wedding anniversary on the run for Ben and Sarah at a ‘Beautifully Brutal’ 60k ultra Coast to Coast race.

By Don Hale
Image
*Pictured above - Sarah Ferguson Hudson and her husband Ben at the ultra. Wedding anniversary on the run for Ben and Sarah at a ‘Beautifully Brutal’ 60k ultra Coast to Coast race. Report by Don Hale. donhaleblog.blogspot.com/2025   North Wales endurance athletes Ben and Sarah Hudson went on the run last Saturday during an unusual way to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary by competing in the ‘Beautifully Brutal’ Pen Llyn Coast to Coast Winter Ultra race. This extremely tough event followed a highly challenging and undulating course over a distance of some 60km (37.5 miles), and this experienced pair of endurance runners ran together, and despite Sarah suffering from a heavy cold, they both finished well in 10 hours 53 minutes and 41 seconds.  The event attracted a wealth of top international ultra runners, and the NWRRC members eventually shared joint 147th place overall. Ben was also the 91st male and the 86th British finisher, with Sarah the 54th female and the 87th Bri...
Read more

Joe Cocker set to be honoured at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Los Angeles…

By Don Hale
Image
  Joe Cocker set to be honoured at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Los Angeles… Report by Don Hale.  donhaleblog.blogspot.com/2025   Sheffield’s famous late rhythm and blues/rock star JOE COCKER is amongst a unique group of prestigious top music performers set to be honoured at the 40th Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Los Angeles on Saturday 8th November 2025. This year’s Inductees included: Bad Company, Chubby Checker , Joe Cocker , Cyndi Lauper, Outkast, Soundgarden, The White Stripes, Salt-N-Pepa, Warren Zevon, Thom Bell, Nicky Hopkins, Carol Kaye and Lenny Waronker. A brief extract from Joe singing a recording of ‘Georgia on My Mind’ will also be used by the event organisers during his induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I was fortunate to have been able to record some amazing facts about the early days of Joe Cocker’s stop/start career with  Terry Thornton , who was Joe’s first manager, and the person who b...
Read more

Wet and windy parkruns - but they still attracted plenty of tourists.

By Don Hale
Image
*Jonathan Kettle (NWRC) finished third at the Conwy parkrun last week. Wet and windy parkruns - but they still attracted plenty of tourists...full results round-up... Report by Don Hale donhaleblog.blogspot.com/2025 It was another wet and windy day for most North Wales parkrunners last Saturday morning, yet it still failed to deter a wealth of keen visitors and participants to many a ‘splash and dash’ 5k course. Conwy was no exception where 225 hardy entrants braved the elements and the waterlogged riverside route to record some exceptional times given the circumstances. The first runner home at Conwy however, remained unknown at the time of writing, but there was just six-seconds between the second and third finishers, which included visitor  Jonty Brown  (Buxton AC) on his debut in 18 minutes and 13 seconds, with  Jonathan Kettle  (NWRRC) third in 18.19. Visitor  Beatrice Cordingley  (Sale Harriers) was the first female finisher (7th overall) with a new P...
Read more