1/12/24 12noon All results are now up. A big thank you to all the officials and volunteers who helped out on the day.
It is with immense sadness that we share the news that Mary Davies passed away on Friday, November 1st, 2024. Talgarth-based Mary, 86, was married to chief timekeeper Arthur. Both were well known as long-serving volunteers of athletics in Wales with Mary receiving a Welsh Athletics Meritorious Award in 2016. Former club cross-country team managers may remember Mary as one half of the duo of ladies – Rose Johnson was the other half of the duo – who, for many years, dealt with entries at the five Gwent League fixtures each winter.
Our sincere condolences to Arthur and their children - Cheryl, Gareth and Sian. Mary’s funeral will be held at 2pm on Friday, November 29 th at St Gwendoline’s Church, Church Road, Talgarth, Brecon LD3 0BH. Family flowers only. Donations in lieu of flowers to Parkinson’s UK, please.
10/11/24 6:20pm Senior results are now up, and all juniors apart from U17/20 men, who got completely muddled up in the finish funnel. A big thank you to Peter for wading through the data, and all the officials who helped out on the day.
Please let us know of errors and omissions (they're already coming in). When you contact us, it helps if you specify the race number worn as well as athlete and club names and positions.
10/11/24 1:30pm We're still working hard on the results from yesterday, hopefully we'll have something later this afternoon. This fixture is always a hard one to process, as we have to extract non-league runners, while ensuring that we do capture all league runners. Turn-out was massive, and we also need to make sure that we've correctly recorded more than 40 funnel switches to get you all in the correct order.
We're aware of the errors in the published Cardiff Cross U11 leading boys, and that the published CX U11 girls times are too slow by 1 minute 10 seconds. We may have to delay the U17/U20 men's results until Monday, you can see [the reason why here]
18/10/24 All club counts and fees dues have been added to the Fees and Clubs page. We've emailed payment details to all flagged as 'Principal Contact' on our mailing list.
13/10/24 All results are now up. A big thank you to Neil Thomas and his team for organising a great event. He even contacted the politician who manipulates the weather to arrange for a sunny day! Starting this season, only Team Managers can report wrong or misspelled names. They should correct names in the online declarations and only then contact Neil / Peter to highlight the changes made.
29/9/24 Details for Pembrey are now on the fixtures page. However, clubs with outstanding debts will not be allowed to compete (as listed here).
05/06/24 The Gwent League AGM will take place on Friday the 21st June 2024 at the Village Inn Junction 32 of the M4, 19.30hrs to 22.30hrs. If attending, and if there is anything you want on the agenda, please let [Roland (cc Derek) know] as soon as possible. The minutes from last year's meeting [are here]. Further information to follow. Plates and medals will be available for collection at the AGM, but not Gwent League T-Shirts.
Please ensure that your club has paid all match fees for the 2023-24 season [as outlined here].
20/3/24 Plates and medals will be available at the AGM, but you can find details of how to expedite delivery of junior medals, payment of match fees, and the date of the AGM, in our [Latest Newsletter].
3/3/24 11:00: SORRY! First issue of junior results was calculated using last year's rules (last fixture compulsory) which was changed to best 4 out of 5 at the AGM. This has now been corrected.
3/3/24 10:00: All results are now up. We're really sorry that we weren't able to do the presentations on the day, details will follow for the delivery of medals.
1/3/24: There are various bits of news about the location of registration, junior presentations, check your numbers etc. in our [Latest Newsletter].
11/2/24 11:00: Thank you to Brian Fox and his team from Swansea Harriers for a classic cross-country event yesterday. Alas, the event was marred by thoughtless parking, blocking access and causing complete gridlock of the car park, as well as long term damage to verges. Emergency vehicles would not have been able to get to our event or to the conference held in the Discovery Centre. To say the Park Rangers were displeased is putting it mildly, and we may not be able to use this venue in the future.
Rant over, all results are now up.
09/02/24: We regret that there won't be any Gwent League t-shirts for collection tomorrow (the order sent off a fortnight ago hasn't arrived). We'll be restocked for Pontypool.
05/02/24: The Course Map, Timetable and Event Information are now up on the Fixtures page. Please [see our newsletter] for notes about parking, surviving the cold, and numbers. Team managers: Please make sure that all runners wear the correct number as allocated online in advance. Don't just give them out randomly and expect us to do the allocation!
03/12/23 09:30: All results are now up. Don't expect them always to be this quick!
1/12/23 19:30: It's going to be chilly, but the event is going ahead as planned! Expect mist in the morning, which will keep the temperature around freezing.
30/11/23 13:00: I had intended to put out another newsletter, but time is against me. You'll find information about road closures and car parks in the [Event Information]. NB All coach bays are now reserved (Les Croupiers, Aberdare x2, Cardiff Met), but space for 1 more minubus. Drivers please respect the coach parking bays which will all be used, shared transport saves a lot of space. [Parking Charges Here].
Team Managers please take time to re-read the information on numbers in the [Previous Newsletter], there are some recurring issues there.
20/11/23 13:00: The Course Map / Timetable and Event Information are now up on the Fixtures page. NB There are a couple of road closures which may affect you, in particular if coming via The Portway/Shirehampton Road allow 10 mins extra for the diversion. As always, parking close to the park will be difficult, but there is plenty of parking 800m or so away.
12/11/23 13:00: All results are now up... 15/11 12:00 ...and all notified corrections made... 17/11 12:00 ...and winging their merry way to Power of 10. If they are not showing, you need to refresh your browser (some are not very good at spotting when a page has changed).
16/10/23: All results are now up... 23/10/23 ...and number of finishers from each club:
13/10/23: We have just been informed that:
There are reminders about declarations, payments and The Naughty Step [in our latest newsletter].
It's also a sad time for the league as it lost one of its long-standing officials during the off season; Jeanette Jenkins from Fairwater Runners Cwmbran passed away in July. Jeanette, along with husband Martyn, was a long-standing timing official for the Gwent League as well as taking part in women's races. She will be missed by not only the Gwent League, but by the Welsh running community in general.
20/9/23: It would appear that a number of clubs are still in debt to the league for 2022-23 match fees, some by quite a large amount. Please [check your club's balance here], and if it is one of the offenders, please arrange payment as soon as possible (or contact your club's manager or treasurer as appropriate). NB The balances are based on a late summer bank statement, and if payment has since been made, my apologies and [let me know] to take your club off the naughty step.
22/6/23: The agenda for tomorrows meeting [is here] and a list of league committee members/vacancies, and dates to next winters fixtures [is here]. Note that the Cardiff Cross Challenge will this year be the second (November) fixture. We're sorry that these have gone out so late, somehow they disappeared into an electronic black hole.
31/5/23: The AGM of the Gwent League will be held on Friday 23rd June from 1930 to 2200 (“7:30pm to 10pm”) at the Village Hotel Cardiff Jn.32, CF14 7EF. Please send any items which your club wants to be put on the agenda to [Roland (cc Derek)] by Saturday.
Uncollected medals (and hopefully plates) will be available at the AGM. We are (as always) short of volunteers to help out with the committee and on the day, so if you might be able to help out in any way please also contact Roland as above.
9/3/23: Final counts of the number of seniors (£4 each) and juniors (£1 each) from each club are now [on the website]. Please arrange for a single payment for your club for the total amount due (payment details are in [the latest newsletter]).
6/3/23: A big Thank You to Dimitri Vorres and his team from Pont-y-pwl & District Runners for staging a highly successful final fixture last Saturday. Full results are now [on the website]. Please report any corrections/fill in gaps to Neil (juniors) or Peter (seniors) by Tuesday lunchtime. If team managers would like to order additional junior medals, [details are here].
3/3/23: Registration for athletes who turn up on the day without a number is in the Iron Heritage meeting room upstairs in the Leisure Centre. Other last minute arrangements and instructions, including junior presentations and out of bounds areas, are contained in our [latest league email].
22/2/23: The Course Map and Timetable, and the Parking Information for the final league fixture at Pontypool, are now on the Fixture Page. We hope to do the junior presentations (both individual and team) at the event, but please check back here nearer the time for the location and timing of this.
Details of Lost Property found at the Margam Park fixture, and other information, is contained in our [latest league email].
12/2/23: A big Thank You to Brian Fox and his team from Swansea Harriers for putting on a great event yesterday. Full results are now [on the website]. Please report any corrections/fill in gaps to Neil (juniors) or Peter (seniors) by Tuesday lunchtime. NB A number of runners ran in 'lost' numbers, which causes omissions in the results as we only record the 'latest' number for each athlete. There are still also a number of spelling anomolies; if your name is spelt wrongly in the results, please check that your team manager has spelt it correctly on the entry system.
28/1/23: The Course Map and Timetable, and the Parking and Event Information for the fourth league fixture at Margam Park, are now on the Fixture Page. Please note that this event will be held at the far end of Margam Park, with parking and the course at a different location to those used historically.
6/12/22 11:30am: Revised junior results with all notified errors addressed have now been uploaded. Please let us know of any further problems by midnight tonight (Tuesday). Unfortunately, we don't have times for the U15 boys race, which may or may not turn up at a later date.
4/12/22: Many thanks go to Neil Thomas and all those from Carmathen Harriers for organising such a great event. All results are now up. If you can't see them, please refresh your browser (a common problem). There are some issues with the number of times not matching the number of finishers in both U15 races (we'll revisit this and add correct times over the next couple of days).
If your name appears as Athlete Unknown in the results, please ask your team manager to contact Peter with your name, category position and club so your number can be correctly allocated.
If your name is spelled wrongly in the results, please ask your team manager correct this on the Registration App, and then contact Neil (juniors to U20) or Peter (seniors) with the correction needed for the match 3 results.
2/12/22: We're really sorry, but the latest batch of Gwent League T-Shirts haven't arrived, and as we're out of most of the popular sizes, we won't be 'doing' T-Shirts tomorrow. On the plus side, the plates for leading senior teams have just arrived.
30/11/22: As well as information on the Fixtures Page, there is a comprehensive [guide to the event here]. The site will feature a Traditional Christmas Fayre with a selection of crafts and local produce stalls, entertainment and toboggan rides (which are popular with the youngsters). Please pay particular attention to the Car Parking directions, as you will need to pay before you leave (you won't be allowed out without a paid ticket and you can't pay at the exit).
We're cautiously optimistic that the 2021-22 plates for leading senior teams [listed here] will be available on Saturday. If they are, you will find them in the T-Shirt Tent. If not, we'll have them at Margam Park.
We've updated the declarations page of the website to cover lost numbers, which are also covered in more detail in our [Latest Newsletter]. We've also added a new [Eligibility, Guests and Individuals] page to the website, to answer some 'Frequently Asked Questions'.
16/11/22: All results are now up, including teams. If you can't see them, please refresh your browser (this is a common problem). There were some problems with runners being given the wrong number, and BIG problems with a couple of clubs handing out numbers at random!
13/11/22: Initial results are now up. As this was a new system, and there were some anomolies with allocation of numbers, this is taking a bit longer, but I'm sure we'll get more streamlined for the next match.
NB Junior results are the 'raw' race results for individuals only (in pdf format). Over the next couple of days we'll be integrating them with the previous match to identify overall leaders, starred runners, and team results. A couple of known anomolies with times in the U13 and U15 girls races. If you spot any other errors or omissions, please let us know (contacts on results page).
11/11/22 UPDATE: Blaise Castle Main Car Park can be paid for with coins or using the app only (not cards, not notes).
We will be using the preferred route indicated by dashed lines on the course map (corner by D and route from G to H).
9/11/22: There's a lot of news about the new registration system, parking, the course, and Power of 10 results in our latest newsletter. If you missed the previous newsletter, which has details about the payment of fees, you can find that here. As always, full details are the Registration page and the Fixtures page of this website.
18/10/22: All results are now up. There are some missing times in the Y17 men because they weren't captured on the Gwent League stopwatch. We're sorry about this. The list of all participating clubs has also been updated; The number of finishers for each will appear later this week,
13/9/22: (Not really a Gwent League matter this, but...) As a knock-on from separate preparations for The State Funeral of Her Majesty the Queen, Sunday's Swansea Bay 10k is suddenly without 50 stewards/marshals. If you, your club or friends could help out it would be greatly appreciated. Please contact Nigel Jones.
8/9/22: We have just emailed out a full briefing on fixtures (as far as they are known) and other news from the AGM here.
The AGM of the Gwent League will be held on Friday the 17th June from 19:00 to 22:00 (“7pm to 10pm”) at The Village Hotel Cardiff CF14 7EF (M4 Jn32).
13/6/22: Update: Peter Burton has been looking at how we could support advance online registration of athletes (agenda item 11a). He has produced a short video of his prototype registration system, which you can view here. NB Having such a system is a prerequisite whether we move to bar code scanning or chips (and it would even make the current system easier to manage!). This can be discussed at the AGM.
7/6/22: The agenda for the meeting can be found here. The minutes of last year's meeting are here. A list of officials, proposed dates for fixtures, and possible venues is here.
Clubs are invited to send up to two voting delegates to the meeting (others can attend as observers). We are (as always) short of volunteers to help out with the committee and on the day, so if you might be able to help out in any way please contact Roland. Uncollected medals will be available at the AGM.
25/3/22 19:00: For news about uncollected medals and T-shirts, to order additional team medals, and queries about the awards, please see our latest newsletter. 26/3/22 9:30am: Counts of senior and junior runners at the final fixture are now on the Registered Clubs page.
20/3/22 11am: Junior and women's results are now up, men's will follow shortly.
A big thank-you to Derek, Russ and various helpers for getting the junior presentations done at Swansea. We may have made a mistake in the U13 girls teams on the day (2nd should be Cardiff, 3rd Swansea), due to mis-calculating the number to add for an incomplete team. However, we hope that you will agree that it was much better to make the presentations as best we can, rather than collecting the medals at a later date. NB while the results show a number of equal places, the medal order is sorted by the best place in the final fixture.
13/3/22: Yes, it's on! However, the Swansea Parks department were very concerned about the potential for damage in some boggy places, so the lap has been re-routed and shortened around C on the course map. This means that the small and large laps are each 200m shorter, and race distances will now be U11 = 1,5km; U13 = 2,3km; U15 = 3.0km; U17/20 = 4,6km; SW = 6km; SM = 9km. Many thanks go to Brian Fox and Nigel Jones for ensuring that the fixture could go ahead.
10/3/22: We have news about presentations at the final Gwent League match at Swansea, the payment of race fees, results not always appearing after they have been posted, and a fresh call for helpers, all in our latest newsletter.
21/2/22: All results from the Fourst Gwent League Match at Blaise Castle are now up. Please let us know of any corrections by Tuesday lunchtime, so we can finalise them and get them off to Power of 10.
I've been fielding a number of queries from people who can't see them. If they aren't visible, the most likely reason is that your browser needs to refresh the page (MS Edge is particularly bad at this).
A big thank you to all the volunteers, both from hosts Westbury Harriers, and league volunteers from all over South Wales, for making this event happen in very difficult weather.
18/2/22: Yes, it's still on! Storm Estice has been and gone without much damage other than some debris. It will be windy with showers, so do bring extra strong tent pegs! Other than registration and picking up T-Shirts, use of the club house is only for officials, volunteers, and first aid. Please do not use it as a shelter, there isn't space.
I had hoped to put Gwent League T-Shirts out the front, but given the weather forecast they will be inside in the ladies changing room, turn left in the main room. This year registration is in the main (front) room, accessed from the front. We won't be using the rear (playground) access.
The charges in the main car park are NOT yet in effect (they will start on March 3rd).
10/2/22: The details for the Gwent League match at Blaise Castle are now on our fixtures page. An overview, payment of fees, and reminder about guests, is provided in our latest mailing.
22/12/21: Season's greetings to all the many participants, coaches, managers, marshals, officials and parents/taxi drivers involved with the league over the year. We thought you might appreciate this sneek preview of the new course you'll be facing at Blaise Castle (U11s miss out point F on their first lap). The landlord at The Slaughtered Lamb is again offering foaming pints of Old Thumper to all finishers (half pints for Novices after the fiasco last time).
11/12/21: It is with great sadness that we have heard of the passing on December 6th of Liz Collins, wife of the league's founder John H Collin. The funeral will take place at Llanelli Crematorium, 2pm on Wednesday 15th December. For further details please contact the funeral Director 01792 581924.
11/12/21: Many thanks go to Neil Thomas and all those from Carmathen Harriers for organising such a great event. You might like to read all about the Carmathen Harriers tradition in the league, and experiences of Club President Hedydd Davies MBE.
5/12/21: All results from the Third Gwent League Match at Brecon are now posted. If you spot any errors (including spelling mistakes) please let us know by Tuesday lunch-time before we send them off to Power of 10 (email addresses are on the Results page). There were issues with the U17 and U20 men's results due to some clubs not making it clear which finishers were in which age group. If you're down in the wrong category please let me know.
3/12/21: We still have medals and plates for the following clubs. Please arrange for one person to collect all items for your club from the same table as the league T-Shirts:
Medals: Aberdare, Bristol, Lliswery, Merthyr, Neath, Pontyclun, Pontypridd, Porthcawl, San Dominico, TROTS
University Medals: Bristol, Cardiff, Swansea, UWE
Team Plates: Bristol, Bristol Uni, Cardiff Uni, Forest of Dean, Martyn+Jenette Jenkins (Sheilah Crump), Micky Morris, Southville, Stroud, Swansea Uni, Torfaen, TROTS, UWE
1/12/21: As well as details on our Fixtures page, host club Carmarthen Harriers have also provided an excellent guide to Saturday's event.
Our latest mailing includes additional details (including car parking and payment of fees), instructions for clubs participating in the West Wales Cross-Country Championships, and a 'reminder' about running as a guest.
15/11/21: Results from the Second Gwent League Match at Brecon are now posted. If you spot any errors (including spelling mistakes) please let us know by Wednesday lunch-time (email addresses are on the Results page). We need to get the results off to 'Power of 10' and late amendments don't make the process easy!
2/11/21: Arrangements for the Second Gwent League Match at Brecon are now on the Fixtures page. Please take the time to read them carefully before travelling.
Because of lack of manpower, we would appreciate it if clubs would pay affiliation fees and participation fees for the first and (guestimated) second fixture as descibed here. We have posted counts for junior and senior runners from each club on the Registered Clubs page.
Our latest mailing also includes an update on registration, league T-Shirts and the collection of 2019-20 medals, as well as an update on the linked distances ballot, and the clash with the English Schools Cross-Country Championships.
19/10/21: Results for the First Gwent League Match at Cardiff are now posted. If you spot any further errors please let us know (email addresses are on the Results page). We had hoped to switch to include first names rather than initials in the senior races. This has been done for the women, but we've stuck to initials with the men as time was pressing (we use a database of old results to speed the inputting of names). First names will follow for the men in due course. We did have problems with some of the times, but hope they are now a reasonable representation.
We've been informed of participants in the U11 girls', U15 boys' and U17 women's races testing positive for Covid-19 after their races. Since it is likely there were others too, please be alert to the onset of symptoms in participants of all races. Being an outdoor event, the risk of onwards transmission is low but (since runners were close together at the start and while racing in packs) not negligable.
FOUND: A bag containing trainers (dark grey size 6 Nike), Nike girl shorts and black skin top. If you lost this, please contact webmaster who can put you in touch.
14/10/21: We've just emailed out further guidance about the First Gwent League Match at Cardiff, news of the second fixture, and the results of the Ballot. If you're not on our mailing list, you'll find it here. Information about arrangements was also send out last week which you'll find here.
30/9/21: The most popular option in round 1 was Option 2 (men and women run in different races, over the same distance of 8km). Voting is now open for the second and final round, to establish whether this option is preferred to the Status Quo (men and women run in different races, over distances independently determined at the AGM). Please ask your club to consider this issue, and arrange for a senior representative to cast the club's votes.
There is a link for voting, together with a more detailed description of the options, in this email sent to all on our mailing list. Please don't vote if you are not authorised by your club. Voting closes on Sunday 10th October.
30/9/21: Provisional results from round 1 were circulated to all on our mailing list in this email. Votes/request for template from 2 clubs were somehow 'lost', and the final tally is:
Option 1: 11 votes Option 2: 20 votes
Option 3: 14 votes Option 4: 10 votes
23/9/21: We've updated the list of registered clubs, and have added all known club contacts to our mailing list, but don't have any contacts from the following clubs:
Aberystwyth AC
Clevedon AC
Croft Ambrey Running Club
Danecroft Primary School
Evencode School
GoodGym Race Team
Millfield School
Porthcawl Runners
Taunton AC
Thornbury RC
University of Bath AC
University of Swansea AC
University of West of England
Weston Athletic Club
If you are a team manager or a committee representative, and your club listed above intends to participate in this year's Gwent League, please sign up to our mailing list
Don't forget that Round 1 Voting closes this Sunday.
18/9/21: We had a productive Gwent League Zoom meeting on Wednesday night (our first!), discussing the various options to link the women's and men's races. These are summarised here. NB these proposals cover the senior races only, and would only take effect after Cardiff (over which, as part of the British Athletics Cross-Challenge Series, we have no control this year). There will be no change to junior race distances.
The next step is to establish which of the four options is the favourite amongst clubs. Please ask your club to consider this issue, and arrange for a senior representative to cast the club's votes. NB The league does not hold a comprehensive list of club contacts, so, if you are not on your club's committee, please alert someone on your club committee who can engage with this.
There is a link for voting, together with a more detailed description of the process, in this email sent to all on our mailing list.
Please don't vote if you are not authorised by your club. Voting closes for this first round on Sunday 26th September. There will then be a second round to establish whether or not this option is preferred to the status quo.
3/9/21: We had a productive AGM earlier in the summer, discussing and refining options for linking the men's and women's race distances. These are summarised here.
'Town Hall' Zoom Meeting on Wednesday 15th September at 6:30pm
We'll be holding a meeting via Zoom to present these options in more detail, and field any questions. There won't be a vote at this meeting, which is purely so that league members can get a better idea of the pro's and con's of each option. If you attended the AGM you will probably be familiar with these anyway.
You can find further details, including a link for registration, in this newsletter which has just gone out to all those on the Gwent League mailing list.