THERE was a real turnaround at Thirsk and Sowerby Harriers' recent virtual AGM, with Duncan Fothergill standing down from the committee after an eventful statutory three years as club chairman, and thanks were expressed to him for his hard work in the job.
Helen Ashworth will take over, the first female chairman in the club's more than 40 year history, with Hilary Coventry as her vice chairman.
Other new members are Tom Levi, new men's captain, and Rosie Gatenby, women's captain, with Adrian Saunders, Matt Jones Jody Sygrove and Andy Butcher bringing in more fresh blood, and Gemma Cropper a co-opted member.
Rob Burn continues as the ever enthusiastic head coach, with Trish Radford and Tracy Hayden continuing to share the job of secretary. The remaining committee members are Geoff Bullock, Liz Wordsworth and Sharon Keegan. Nigel Morgan stands down after many years of loyal service, and no doubt will continue to help with coaching. Others standing down are Ken Wood, Olivia Mulligan and Drikus van der Westhuisen, to whom thanks were expressed.
Looking back on the year, it has been one of the strangest in the club's, or anyone else's for that matter, history.
One highlight, maybe the only one, was that the Thirsk 10 was able to be held in March with almost 1,000 finishers, probably one of the last big events of the year before lockdown, and just scraping in by the skin of its teeth.
The Sessay Swift 6k, usually held in August, was not so fortunate, but a virtual competition was held over the course between Thirsk and Sowerby Harriers and Easingwold Running Club for the Marian and Ian Codling Shield, with ten runners from each team to count. Thirsk and Sowerby Harriers were the worthy winners.
After only three real events able to be held in this year's club championship, Rob Burn has cleverly designed a virtual championship, with huge numbers of members taking part each time, self timing and able to run a prescribed course, once lockdown had been eased, over any of four days. Before that, it was self measuring and self timing anywhere within members' locality.
Ian Codling had the task of working out the age adjusted times for each person, with points awarded on that basis. There was a team event, the Kilburn "World Mountain" race, described as the ultimate summer challenge, with 15 teams of six completing the challenging course, and prizes donated by a local sponsor.
Monthly time trials have continued, self timed, with a club handicap each term, again self timed, and the Easter Handicap raised more than £1,000 for the Community Works food bank. One real bonus of the year has been the opening of the track at Sowerby Gateway and the club and its members have made full use of this superb facility, both on club nights and at other times.
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