Another Railsport Games success, despite the weather!
The 15th Railsport Games took place over the weekend of 21st and 22nd of June in dreadful weather conditions. But this didn't deter many of the 1,000 or so competitors who made it to Stanley Park, Blackpool. The netball, volleyball, rounders and football tournaments all went ahead albeit in torrential rain on Saturday and gale force winds on Sunday. And with the tremendous efforts of the organisers to reschedule and relocate a numer of the events the games were their usual competitive self.
David Franks, Chairman of Railsport GB, said “I would just like to thank everyone for their patience while the rescheduling took place and thank the organisers for their skills which ensured all competitions were completed. Let’s hope next years weather is much kinder!”
Detailed Results and Pictures now available.
The first sport to suffer was Cricket, with rain falling at the scheduled 10.00am start time and much more rain forecast during the day, the competition was moved indoors resulting in high scoring games and close results. Virgin Trains (Preston) reached the final for the first time, but succumbed to a rampant Rail Gourmet (Euston) team who became the Railsport Cricket Champions for the third consecutive year.
Football with an entry of 75 teams was another sport to suffer with the Astroturf pitches becoming unplayable early in the afternoon due to the amount of water lying on the surface. Inevitably, play was suspended leaving the officials the huge task of rescheduling all outstanding fixtures for the following day. On the Sunday, use was made of the two indoor pitches while playing time for matches was reduced to help clear the backlog of fixtures.
Network Rail’s Square One Grease Balls (Manchester) having beaten the BT Police Leeds “Also Ran’s” 6 – 2 in the semi final, scored a first half goal against the defending champions Unipart Rail (Crewe) and held on to win a closely contested final. In the over 35’s Arriva Trains Cardiff won 1-0 against the BT Police Commissioners from Leeds.
Despite the sodden playing surface Rounders went ahead as scheduled with Northern Rail defeating Virgin West Coast 2 ½ to 2 to win the final.
Network Rail with 10pts were clear winners of Netball’s round robin tournament, C2C and Pensions Management tied on 5pts each for second place.
Steve Myerscough of First Engineering won the 10k Road Race in a time of 37m 52s, Sam Pearch representing Serco (Derby) finished 2nd in 38m 02sec. Rebecca Freeman (National Express) was first lady.
Alexandra Langley (EWS) took the Badminton singles title defeating Erica Blamire (Network Rail York) in the final. Later both ladies teamed up to win the Ladies Doubles final against Polly Logan (Amey) and Cathy Parkin (Jacobs Engineering). Richard Morris (Network Rail) won the men’s singles title and partnered Alexandra Langley to win the Mixed doubles.
Trevor Kerry Network Rail (Nottingham) won the Table Tennis singles, while Graham Bolt, a Network Rail Signaller from Crediton in Devon won the Chess Tournament.
(26/06/08)
Railsport GB cycling team to compete in Russia
Railsport GB will be sending a team to compete in the USIC Championship cycling competition, which this year will be held in St Petersburg in Russia.
The team of six riders has now been selected and confirmed as follows:
- Andrew Beaman
- Ian Cooper
- Richard Collins
- Mike Gill
- John Oldridge
- Graham Wyatt
(12/05/08)
Badminton team wins Euro match three years in a row
April 2008
The Railsport GB badminton team competed in the Euro Group Badminton match held in Huttwil, Switzerland, from 4th - 6th April 2008.
They won the competition (for the 3rd year running!) after beating the Swiss 8-3, Germans 10-1 and Poles 10-1.
Pictured right: Railsport GB badminton team
(08/04/08)
The 19th National Angling Championship
Wednesday 13th August 2008
The national Railsport angling championship will again be held at the Makins fisheries in the midlands.
Download the Angling poster (pdf format, 1.5MB)
For further information and an entry form please contact David Rhodes, Tel: 01623 472 830, 1 Ashcourt Gardens, Sutton in Ashfield, Nottingham NG17 4HD.
(19/02/08)
Gold for Karen at 4th USIC International Orienteering Championships
Watford, England, July 2007
Karen Heppenstall took Gold for Great Britain at the 4th European Railways Orienteering Championships, hosted by Railsport GB in Hertfordshire on the 5th – 9th July, and held over two testing and demanding, but very different orienteering courses.
A Project Manger with Network Rail in York, 30yr old Karen won the Women’s individual race held in Epping Forest by almost a minute from Jana Knapova of the Czech Republic and Brit Horst of Germany. Together with Lesley Ward 9th and Helen Errington 16th Great Britain finished 2nd in the team competition behind a strong Russian team.
The men’s open race was won by Ing Horst of Germany, with Maxim Sychev of Russia 2nd and Britain’s Mike Sprot, an Accountant with South Yorkshire PTE in 3rd place. Great Britain’s team finished 4th. Victor Rudnitskih of Russia won the H45 (veteran’s) category with Great Britain’s Steve Corrigan 10th.
The relays held the following day in Whippendell Wood, Watford, brought further success for Great Britain with 2nd place behind Russia in the men’s race and 3rd place in the women’s event behind Russia and Bulgaria. The successful British relay teams were - men: Martin Ward, Steve Corrigan and Mike Sprot - women: Lesley Ward, Helen Errington and Karen Heppenstall.
Eleven countries took part in the event which was sponsored by Silverlink Trains and supported by National Express. Presentations were made by David Franks President of Railsport GB.
Results of the Individual Competition.
Results of the Relay Competition.
The orienteering maps of the individual and relay race areas, showing the courses and routes of some of the runners, are available on this website: RouteGadget.
(16/07/07)
World Golf Champions!
Railsport GB has won the first USIC Championship of Golf at Clervaux in Luxembourg holding off the challenge of 13 other countries over 2 days of competition.
The 6-man team won the coveted prize by returning the best scratch score in both foursomes and individual formats. France were a close 2nd with Norway 3rd , Finland 4th and Denmark 5th.
The team was managed by Ken Bird (National Express) and Captained by Tony Peters (Eurostar). Pictured (left to right) are:
- Tim Shaughnessy (Driver at Paddington with Great Western)
- Jamie Lacey (Train Manager at Derby with Midland Main Line)
- Steve Walsh (Station Assistant at Dalmuir with First Scotrail)
- Steve Verth (Field Support Technician at Clerkenwell with Thales)
- Tony Hadley (Driver Instructor at Shoeburyness with c2c)
- Allan Cane (Driver at Barnham with Southern Railways)
(02/07/07)
Railsport
Promoting sport in the UK rail industry
Railsport is very thankful to the companies and organisations that have provided sponsorship in 2007, and looks forward to their continued support in 2008.
