Bedford and County AC’s 18 year-old Pole-Vaulting sensation, Frankie Johnson, is 6 ft 2 inches tall. “I’ve never been the smallest kid, or the slimmest, and everyone’s always said, ‘you should be a rugby player, you should be a thrower.’” Proving them wrong has helped to motivate Frankie to become a record-breaking pole vaulter. Four years ago, Frankie shot to the top of the UK all-time under 15 list with a jump of 4 metres, 32 centimetres. An indoor Under 17 record of 4.92 followed two years later. This season Frankie’s highest vault of 5.15 topped the country’s Under 20 rankings, and put him in ninth place overall in the UK. He was the youngest member of the senior top ten.

Did you know that you could save money on the cost of next year's club membership by officiating over this summer?

The officials discount scheme has been relaunched and is open to people over 16 years of age, with the discount either for you or your young person's membership fee next year.

The idea is to increase the number of officials supporting home and away matches for SAL, BAL and UKWAL with no distinction being made between qualified and unqualified officials.

Additionally we wish to encourage more people to become qualified officials. Therefore this discount also applies to qualified officials in the EYAL and YDL.

Bedford and County celebrated their successes on the Road and Country at a well attended awards evening last Tuesday.

Following detailed reports from each of the team managers, nine athletes received Endeavour Medals having competed in all the races for the club, 12 received inscribed salvers as Club Champions in the respective age groups, and a further six Team Manager’s Awards for their persistence, dedication and enthusiasm.

The club particularly excelled at Southern and National Team Championships, placing in the top three in six different competitions, gaining medals at six different competitions.

Venue: Bedford International Athletic Stadium

7.30 – 8.00      Light Refreshments

7.30                 Start Slide show

8.00                 Introduction by Rob Simmons (RS)

Several of Bedford & County’s finest runners made the trip down to Ipswich on Saturday evening to contest the Ipswich Twilight 5k which incorporated the England Athletics 5k road championships.

The quick, flat course along with a stacked field suggested fast times could be on the cards and Bedford’s athletes delivered.

The Bedford and County AC AGM will take place in the Committee Room at the Stadium on Tuesday 14th May.

You can find the Agenda and minutes from the last AGM on our governance page

We are looking for x2 members to volunteer to undertake both the Field and Track Courses.

Under the Gamechangers Funding, we can support six members to undertake an Officials Level 1 Course (x2 Field x2 Track and x2 Timekeeping)

There are Track and Field Officials Level 1 courses being held at Bedford on the 14^th of July.
 
Further information and booking details can be found here: https://athleticshub.co.uk/course-list/eng  

Tuesday 14th May 2019 7.45 pm

Committee Room (upstairs)

If you are in any way unhappy about any aspect of how the club is run, this is your chance to have your say, either by expressing your views at the meeting, using your vote, or even nominating someone or standing yourself for election.

Any nominations should be made within 14 days of the AGM.

Governance

In December of last year Bedford and County AC were successful in our application for Gamechangers Funding. 

To date we have used this funding to support ten of our members to become Coaching Assistants. Their enthusiastic input to Beagles has been inspirational and several of these young club members will shortly also act as coaching assistants in Beagles Plus. 

April sees the start of the outdoor track and field season. Next Saturday at Stockwood Park Luton is the Bedfordshire Open meeting (c/d 1/4/2019). The following weekend at Bedford Stadium the first Southern Athletics League match on Saturday 13th April and the first Eastern Young Athletes match on Sunday 14th. The NYDL starts on Saturday 27th April at Harrow and the Masters League on Wednesday 1 May at Sandy. Get in touch with your team managers now and let them know you want to compete.

Over the last weeks a lot of work has taken place to modernise the club website.  Andrew Davies has provided the design and groundwork for the new site and Rob Lands has consolidated the old website to ensure we have an archive.  Over the last weekend Andrew has worked hard to move our domain and website to a new provider.  We still have work to do to ensure the new site carries all the information, if you think anything is missing let us know. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Many thanks to Andrew for his work.

Weekend 9 & 10 February 2019, British Athletics Championships, Birmingham

Pole Vault: Frankie Johnson, a club record of 5:05 metres for fifth place.