News in Sidmouth

Following the Government's roadmap for exiting lockdown restrictions, Guidance from England Athletics, updated 8th March and last week's SRC committee meeting, club runs will be commencing in a Covid secure environment on Monday 29th March, and the off-road season begins on Monday 5th April.

The club appreciates it is very much a live programme, liable to change if the Government issues new restrictions and the EA further guidance after updates from DCMS and Sports England, but is looking forward to seeing its members again.

Week 8 of lockdown three saw beginner, Dawn Pike, complete her three mile non-stop run with SRC chairman Terry Bewes becoming a fully-fledged Mighty Green, a great achievement.

The participants of Terry's lockdown challenges were deceived into thinking the 'daffoldil run' sounded a lovely route to take you past the glorious displays of daffodils appearing all around Sidmouth.

Not all Mighty Greens are runners.

Jeanina Puckey, the Sidmouth Running Club's Auditor, recognised that many people are struggling through this pandemic and wanted to help them out. So, very generously, she decided to forego her annual fee from the Club for this year and asked that it be donated to the local food bank.

The league season is over for the first teams of three East Devon football clubs – Sidmouth Town, Axminster Town and Honiton.

The South West Peninsular League has decided to curtail the 2020-2021season with immediate effect, despite the fact the government has indicated that football can recommence as from March 29th.

To sign up and commit yourself to a beginners' course in January can be daunting at the best of times, never mind during a restrictive lockdown period, but this week saw three SRC beginners complete the course.

Starting with a bench mark run and following the training programme under the guidance of chairman Terry Bewes with support from the club members, the beginners built up their stamina and mileage over a five week period.

The Mighty Greens were presented with a Chairman's Sunday Special: Valentine's Day. Seeing as how the last Chairman's special involved running in the sea we were relieved it was MG Sarah Burston who came up with the idea of running a Strava/Garmin route in the shape of a heart or a design of your choosing associated with Valentine's Day.

With a male and female prize up for grabs Bex McDonald was the first to run and submit a perfect heart shape that had been devised by fellow MG Zsa Zsa Croft. Google Maps proved very useful and similar heart routes were also run by Mark Norton, Yasmin Salter, Jenny Kay and Alexa Baker.

A month into Lockdown#3 and Sidmouth Running Club members are still rising to the challenges that Chairman Terry Bewes is creating.

Rising because one of the challenges involved a four mile run plus running up and down between the parking meters and beyond between Jacob's Ladder and Foxes Corner, over 500 feet of elevation gain in a short distance. This wasn't the most popular of challenges!

East Devon cricketers will be competing this summer in the very first local T20 tournament, commencing in June.

With recreational sport still in lockdown, it is not yet known whether the Devon Cricket League will be operating a full programme or tiered mini-leagues as with last season.

It doesn't happen very often in the Sid Valley, but the light dusting of snow which fell on parts of the week two off-road challenge route meant a new experience for some Sidmouth running club members.

Possibly the most dangerous part was getting out of the house after the rain which had followed the snow froze and the pavements and roads were decidedly dicey!

Sidmouth Running Club chairman Terry Bewes has laid down the gauntlet again and this time round over 70 members have risen to the challenge(s).

New for this lockdown and alongside Terry's challenges which are based in the vicinity of Sidmouth, run leader John Chesters has devised the OGLE (Ottery Group Lockdown Exercise) challenges for running club members living in the Ottery area. These challenges involve checkpoints and trig points, and it has been great to see on the running club's FB page where the runners have been and what they have or haven't found!