Yearly archive for 2024

Trophies Officer – Role Description
The main role of the Trophies officer is to order the appropriate quantity of medals/plaques for presentation to the winning athletes at the two main Championship events; the Track & Field Championships and the Cross-Country Championships. Warwickshire also promotes a Road Race League over the summer period which is hosted by clubs in Warwickshire. This league requires medals and four team shields. Calculation of the number of trophies required is usually based on the entries for the respective competitions and orders must then be placed promptly with preferred supplier(s). The Officer also arranges for engraving of presentation trophies. Costs are settled by the county treasurer.

The Trophies Officer is an appointed member of the county management committee and welcomed for attendance at its meetings during the year.
The Trophies Officer assists at the championships with presentation of awards.

The Track & Field Championships (May)
In addition to individual medals these Championships also have three trophies that are competed for; two individual trophies and one team trophy.

1. The Warwick Vase is awarded to the club that attains the most points, calculated by giving the winner of each event 8 points down to 8th place for 1 point, over the whole championships.
2. The Coronation Cup. This is awarded to an endurance athlete of any age group and either gender who attains an EA PB Award grade 9 performance in either the 1500mts or the 3000mts. If a grade 9 performance is not achieved the trophy is not awarded. If more than one athlete achieves the standard then it should be a committee decision which takes the trophy.
3. The Jack Hartley Trophy. This is awarded to the athlete considered to have achieved the best performance in the Championships overall. Again, this might need a committee decision.
   These three trophies have to be presented AFTER the Championships as they obviously need to be carefully considered. They also need to be engraved up to date before presenting to the winners.
   
   The Cross-Country Championships (December)
   These Championships need a variety of trophies and there are 14 age groups.
   Plaques; Gold, Silver and Bronze awarded respectively to the first three individuals in each race.
   Medals; Gold, Silver and Bronze for the scoring members of the winning teams. (This normally means 132 medals in total).
   Trophies The individual winner of each age group is also awarded an annual shield or trophy, depending on the age group, as are the winning teams. These shields and trophies need to be gathered back in from the previous year’s winners by the Trophies officer in time to get them
   engraved up to date ready for presentation at the following year’s Championships. (This is the most difficult task as we no longer hold a “real life” AGM when most of the trophies could be collected).
   
   The Graham Heeley Trophy. This trophy is awarded to the club that scores the most points from all age group races based on 30 points scored for the winner down to 1 point for 30th place. Care needs to be taken here when calculating, not to include individual athletes whose club is not Warwickshire affiliated. Again, this trophy has to be decided after studying the whole of the days results and so usually cannot be presented on the day unless the results programme is able to automate this filtering and scoring.
   
   The Road Race League normally takes in about ten road races promoted over the summer season by various Warwickshire clubs. Medals are presented to the first three individuals in each age group of U/20, Senior, O/35, O/45, O/55 and O/65 for both male and female.
   The full results for this league do not become available until after the final race which is usually the Rugby 10 in October. (When Warwickshire had a “real life” AGM, these medals were presented at the AGM. As this this is no longer the case, it can be a longer process to get them to the winners via club representatives)
   “Ever present” medals are usually given to those athletes who take part in every race in the league. This means making a separate order to the medal suppliers as it is not known until after the final race who the “ever presents” are.
   
   Special annual awards
   Finally, there are two more trophies that Warwickshire present. One being the Ellis Trophy, which is presented to the Warwickshire athlete who is considered to have achieved the best performance, regardless of event, throughout the year (including international performances).
   The Endurance trophy is presented to the Warwickshire athlete who is considered to have achieved the best endurance performance over the year.
   The winners of both of the above trophies are chosen by the President of the Association. But he/she is able to consult others to make the selection if needed. The winners are to be announced at the AGM. Before then, the trophies officer needs to retrieve the two trophies from the previous year’s winners, and then after the announcement of the present year’s winners get them engraved up to date ready for presentation.
   Sept 2024

This year we have an exciting new venue for the Warwickshire cross-country championships to be held on Saturday 14th December; we will be at Solihull Riding School.

Attached to this message is the prospectus and the entry form.  Team entries are preferred, individual athlete entries will also be accepted albeit with a small surcharge. All the details you need are on the forms.  Entries are to be sent to secretary@warwickshireathletics.co.uk.

Please do encourage athletes to compete in this championship – trust me, there’s still some cachet to saying “I’m running in a county competition this weekend”.

Please take note of the closing date – we need to be firm that NO late entries will be accepted as we need time to compile all the entries, order numbers, prepare the event programme, etc. (we’re all volunteers with day jobs too).

Clubs are asked to identify a minimum of two marshals to assist on the day. Marshals help to keep athletes safe and on the right course and greatly enhance the championships for everyone.