29Oct/23

Lloyd mob match 14th October 2023

Firstly thanks to all of you who came a fabulous turn out of 65 runners and 12 Churches -really nice to see so many of you there.

Here are the results – and the years (results) – to be in this a club had to run in all events of the year

1st Chiltern Church Runners (also first for the year with 96)

2nd St Patrick’s Tigers (also 3rd for the year with 59 points) and our most consistent performers of the year – there’s a cup for that!

3rd Holy Trinity Wallington (doing just enough for 2nd in the Year with 61)

4th Grace Church Dulwich (also 4th for the year with 58)

Very close there for 2,3,4!

5th Selsdon Baptist Church (and 5th for the year)

6th Good Shepherd

7th Salvation Army & Berry Lane Methodist & Croydon Jubilee & Springfield Church Springers (also 6th for the year)

11th Emmanuel & Croydon Vineyard

Some of you pushed yourselves on the day, although frankly Lloyd is a push in it’s own right!

So for the Men of the Churches (discounting juniors initially)

James Widdows      1st   GCD

Clive Wickham         2nd   BLMC

Mark Constantinou  3rd   CCR

Junior males

Nathaniel Widdows   1st GCD

Matthew Gray           2nd CCR

Timothy Humphreys 3rd  CCR

And for the women of the Churches (discounting juniors initially)

Kirsty Cotton             1st  StPT

Cindy Woo                2nd HTW

Rosie Edser              3rd SCS

Junior females

Zoey Siu                    1st HTW

Caitlyn Bryon       2nd CJC

Ching Lui      3rd  StPT

Also PB’s (or at least course bests) on the day for Nathaniel Widdows, Simon Bold, Matthew Gray, Timothy Humphreys, & Emily James.

First Timers to Lloyd were Clive Wickham (also celebrating his 100th run, well done Clive), Drew, Ching & Tao Lui, Georgina King, Hannah Black, Victoria Widdows,  Grace Davies, Pui Sai Tam, Winifred Yung, Nicola Humphreys, & Bernd and Cheryl Ann Schulte. Welcome all.

Next year will see the return of the handicap – another virtual, Roundshaw, probably Lloyd & perhaps a new site, maybe Crystal Palace?

23Jul/23

Roundshaw mob match 15/7/2023

by Emily James

William Wordsworth once wrote:


I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.


I’m not sure Wordsworth was thinking of a sky quite like the one we had above Roundshaw Downs on Saturday, but at least at the mob match we were not lonely. With a hundred and sixty-one parkrunners including forty-eight churchrunners, and twenty-two volunteers including two non-running churchrunner volunteers, we had quite a crowd descend on the
course (albeit not Wordsworth’s crowd of daffodils). Nor were we wandering, with several new PBs and some very close competition for the podium spots.


Our first, second and third men home were Ashley, from Chiltern Church Runners, with a time of 19.29, James, from Grace Church Dulwich Runners, with a time of 21.04, and Andrew, from Croydon Vineyard Church Runners, with a time of 23.31.


Our first, second and third women home were Cindy, from Holy Trinity Church Wallington, with a time of 24.58, Kirsty, from the St Patrick’s Tigers, with a time of 26.59, and Zoe, from Holy Trinity Church Wallington, with a time of 26.59.


Our first, second and third children home were Joel, from Springfield Church Springers, with a time of 24.13, Keiran, from Chiltern Church Runners, with a time of 24.27, and Zoe, from Holy Trinity Church Wallington (again), with a time of 26.59.


Well done also to Nike, Hannah and Noor for completing their first ever parkruns at the mob match.


Despite the rain earlier in the week, there were, fortunately, no puddles to dodge or splash in, though there were plenty of snails around, and the ground was still cracked, so we had to be careful where we stepped; I still slipped over in the finish tunnel facepalm but we managed to avoid any major accidents, which is always a plus. There was a bit of a breeze
making the temperature, in my opinion, ideal for parkrunning – not too cold to run well, but cool enough to keep you moving quickly – and the drizzle of rain during the run stayed very light and didn’t last long.


Now, for the part you probably opened this report to find out: the results. Please note, for the score for the year, teams must have participated in all three mob matches.


Team Points this match Score for the year


Chiltern Church Runners – 1 st 29 74


Holy Trinity Wallington – 2 nd 12 49

Grace Church Dulwich Runners – 3 rd 3 47

St Patrick’s Tigers – 4 th 8 46

Selsdon Baptist Church Runners – 5 th 1 33

Springfield Church Springers – 6 th 7 32

Croydon Vineyard Church Runners – 7 th 2 –
Sutton Christian Centre Runners – 8 th 1 –

Chiltern Church Runners are leading the way by quite a margin, but second place is very hotly contested, so it is still all to play for at our next mob match in October at Lloyd parkrun!


Finally, thank you to everyone who came along and made the mob match such a great experience. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Despite having been part of the St Patrick’s Tigers since 2019, and Roundshaw Downs being my home course, this was the first time I have run at a mob match here and it was definitely one of my favourites! Looking
forward to seeing you all again at Lloyd on October 14th

01Mar/23

churchrunner (Inter)National Virtual Mob Match returns

For 2023, the National Virtual Mob Match took place a little later than usual, on 18th February, with a decent turnout at many parkruns around the UK and beyond.

In total there were 230 volunteers, walkers and runners participating for 25 Christian running groups/churches.

A big thank you to parkrun and all of the volunteers who make events up and down the country (and across the world) happen through their dedication and commitment to their local communities.

Where did we run/walk/volunteer?

An incredible 124 different parkrun locations were visited covering Jersey, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England.

A rainbow over Strathclyde parkrun

By far the furthest away of all venues was Deep Run parkrun across the pond in Richmond, Virginia! Amazingly, the alphabet was close to being covered by the first letter of each venue with only Q, U, X, Y and Z not represented!

I sampled a fairly new parkrun close to home at Stockley Country Park, the first in the London Borough of Hillingdon, a fantastic trail course.

Stockley Country parkrun, Hillingdon

Clubs and churches – who ran?

Wrangthorn Runners – The Salvation Army – Tailenders Running Club – Sutton Christian Centre Runners – St Patrick’s Tigers – Springfield Church Springers – Selsdon Baptist Church Runners – Rising Brook Runners – Refresh Church Runners – Lighthouse Church Runners – KMPC Runners – jOG Norwich – HTH Runners – Holy Trinity Church Wallington – Grace Church Dulwich Runners – Good Shepherd Runners – Emmanuel Runners – Emmanuel Church Chuggers – Croydon Vineyard Church Runners – Christian Vision for Men – Christian Runners UK – Christ Church Purley Runners – Chiltern Church Runners – Cheam Baptist Church Runners – Berry Lane Methodist Church

Once again, some familiar names and some new, 25 in all.

Results

This year, we used a simple scoring system which rewarded participation and there were bonus points for the fastest few young people, women and men. A big well done to Christian Runners UK who fielded by far the greatest number of runners/walkers & volunteers totalling 62 people, which included the fastest woman (Rebecca Sprowell) and man (Ollie Campbell).

Club Points Participants
Christian Runners UK 70 59
Tailenders Running Club 31 28
The Salvation Army 26 24
Chiltern Church Runners 25 22
Holy Trinity Church Wallington 18 9
Good Shepherd Runners 11 10
Grace Church Dulwich Runners 11 7
Christ Church Purley Runners 10 10
Christian Vision for Men 10 10
Selsdon Baptist Church Runners 9 9
Emmanuel Runners 7 6
St Patrick’s Tigers 6 4
Emmanuel Church Chuggers 6 3
KMPC Runners 4 4
Rising Brook Runners 4 4
Wrangthorn Runners 4 4
Cheam Baptist Church Runners 3 3
HTH Runners 3 3
Springfield Church Springers 3 3
jOG Norwich 2 2
Lighthouse Church Runners 2 2
Berry Lane Methodist Church 1 1
Croydon Vineyard Church Runners 1 1
Refresh Church Runners 1 1
Sutton Christian Centre Runners 1 1

In an effort to give every club a fair chance, we also calculated the average points per person. Congratulations to Holy Trinity Church, Wallington and Emmanuel Church Chuggers, Woodley for finishing joint top of that table, thanks to a sterling set of performances by the Siu family of Cindy, Stephen, Hazel and Zoe (HTCW) and 2nd fastest female finish for Chris Woolnough (ECCW). Fastest young person was Nathaniel Widdows of Grace Church Dulwich Runners.

Club Points/Person
Holy Trinity Church Wallington 2.00
Emmanuel Church Chuggers 2.00
Grace Church Dulwich Runners 1.57
St Patrick’s Tigers 1.50
Christian Runners UK 1.19
Emmanuel Runners 1.17
Chiltern Church Runners 1.14
Tailenders Running Club 1.11
Good Shepherd Runners 1.10
The Salvation Army 1.08

What’s next?

For those of you based in the south of England, or for anyone who fancies a tourist trip, our next mob match is at Dulwich parkrun on 20th May 2023 – do come and join us if you are able.

Notable mentions…

Cheryl Hudson (Good Shepherd Runners) returned for her first parkrun since breaking her leg back in September last year! We were pleased to learn that Sylvia Symes (St. Patrick’s Tigers) made an impressive return, her first parkrun since lockdown, with the 2nd quickest all-time performance in her age category at Crystal Palace parkrun. Last, but by no means least, Hannah Gordon (Good Shepherd Runners) celebrated a PB in fine style with doughnuts…and why not! 😊

Doughnuts to celebrate a new PB!

…and finally…

A selection of photos for you all to enjoy…

Bedgebury Pinetum
Forest of Dean
Littlehampton Prom
Christian Runners UK
Christian Runners UK
Christian Runners UK
Christian Runners UK
Even a pony!
In front of some grand gates
Banstead Woods
Good Shepherd Runners
Worcester Pitchcroft
Token sorting
11Feb/20

Running in Faith – the National Virtual Mob Match 2020

Another January National, and it looks like we got a good turnout.

In total there were 245 runners (7 up on last year), across 94 parkruns (up 26 on last year year) running for 20 Christian running groups/churches. Please note some runners are not listed in the individual results due to GDPR issues.

Obviously none of this would be possible without parkrun – so a big thank you to them.

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29Oct/19

Nonsuch Inter-Church Mob Match (Oct 2019)

Brilliant to see you all, 14 ran for Chiltern, 14 for Good Shepherd, 1 for Croydon Vineyard, 5 for Grace Church Dulwich 1 for All Saints West Ewell, 6 for Holy Trinity Church Wallington, 16 for St Patrick’s, 2 for the Salvation Army, 6 for Selsdon Baptist, 2 for Tandridge Deanery, 1 for Sutton Christian Centre, 2 for Hook Evangelical, & 1 for Cheam Baptist – so 13 different Churches.

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16Sep/19

Tarrant on Tour – Parts 1-14

So one of the Chiltern Church Runners is going on Tour, big time, and you can follow his adventures here – so here is part 1;

Photo of me running at Bishan parkrun, Singapore. Lesley and I took a taxi to make sure we got there. Nice core team and Volunteers. Slow time as has had to stop as so hot. It was a bit hazy due to Indonesia burning to make way for palm trees. Haze due to the wind direction it also closed the two in KL, so some tourist who had gone there came down and ran East Coast, as the haze was less down here.

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31Jul/19

Roundshaw Inter-Church Mob Match (Jul 2019)

Thank you all so much for coming, 41 ran for Chiltern, 19 for Good Shepherd, 1 for Tandridge Deanery, 10 for Holy Trinity Church Wallington, 7 for the Salvation Army, 1 for Emmanuel, 8 for St Patrick’s Tigers, 1 for Christ Church Purley, 8 for Croydon Vineyard, 1 for Springfield, 1 for All Saints West Ewell, 1 for Christian Runners UK, 2 for Grace Church Dulwich and 5 for Selsdon Baptist – 106 runners in total!

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31May/19

Lloyd Inter-Church Mob Match (May 2019)

Thank you all so much for coming, 17 ran for Chiltern, 9 for Good Shepherd, 8 for St Patrick’s, 6 for Holy Trinity Church Wallington, 11 for Emmanuel, 9 for Croydon Vineyard, 6 for New Life Christian Centre, 8 for Grace Church Dulwich, 4 for the Salvation Army, 6 for Tandridge Deanery, 2 for Springfield Springers, 1 for Church of the Holy Family, 1 for Redeemer, 1 for St Thomas Dulwich, and 38 for Selsdon Baptist 127 – runners in total – a massive total.

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