2026 Awards

2026 Award Winners

HRRL top points scorers: Caroline Brown & Stavros Valourdos

SCCL top points scorers: Mollie Dyer & John Harfield

Club Champions: Flo Seager & Chris Dettmar

Handicap competition winner: Kev Durrant

Consistency Award : Steve Clay

New Member Award: Ed Rolls

Young Achiever: Flo Seager & Angus Cockburn

Personal Achievement: Paul Hawes

Mike Squirrel Plate: James White

Bill Allcock Top Training Partner: Annett Heitsch

Good evening everyone and thank you so much for coming out this evening to celebrate the club and to look back on and celebrate the hard work that so many have put in and achievements 

This is my third year as Chair of Liss Runners, a position I feel truly honoured to hold. After a long period out last year all the support from fellow club members with getting back to the sessions and returning to racing has been so appreciated and really driven home again what we are all about. Making sure everyone is encouraged to get the most out of their running whatever their goal might be.

This year again has brought about big changes. The most significant perhaps being the introduction of junior and youth membership. I, and many others, were keen to be able to offer that same support and encouragement to a younger demographic. Help foster that love of running and community from a young age. Personally I feel that the Under 18s we have had join to date have done themselves and us so proud in both their attitudes towards sessions and personal achievements.

I’d like to extend a huge thank you to the juniors for this alongside a thank you to all our current members for making them so welcome and treating them as they would any adult joining the Club. I genuinely think engaging in a sport where we converse on an equal footing is invaluable for both the juniors as they mature through school and college and for us older runners to demystify the youth that often get a really unfair portrayal!!  

The club has continued to welcome many other new members through the year and it’s been a pleasure to see new faces turning up, putting on the red vest and making use of all we can offer.

Hampshire Road Race League

I'll start with our awards for the Hampshire Road Race League. 

We’re now into the new season which started with Totton 10k and then Overton 5 mile earlier this month and leaves our men’s and ladies teams both in a very respectable 3^rd place currently.

These awards recognise the achievements in the previous 2025 to 2026 season and what a season it was, especially for our women! 

Again we found ourselves battling with Lordshill in the league, with Winchester ladies flying along at the top of the league unchallenged!! It points higher on  was great to not only come 2^nd but comfortably on just 21 points, Lordshill finishing up on 29. Our men did have a harder time of it last season, partly down to a couple of runners suffering with prolonged injuries. We have found ourselves relegated to league 2 having been promoted the year before, it goes to show how important it is not to rely on the same faces at each race, the more of us going to each and every race the better! I’d like to take this as a great incentive to all show up and work our way back into that top division!

The HRRL organisers award mug for those that ran seven or more events in the season. This year, the recipients of the mugs from Liss Runners are:

Neil Hancock

Andy Paton

Stavros Valourdos

Karen Potts

Cari Brown

Catherine Seager

We also have awards for the top individual overall points scorers from the club in the road race league, this year these are:

Stavros Valourdos

Caroline Brown

Southern XCL

Moving on to our awards for the Southern Cross-country league. 

The cross-country season starts in October and the league consists of five or six rounds spread throughout the winter, although due to several cancellations we found ourselves finishing up on Easter Sunday this year. It turns out Liss like to prioritise running as we had a fantastic final turn out (including families to cheerlead) which was wonderful! 

We definitely achieved the David and Goliath victory in our 2024/25 season managing to take first place! 2025/26 was very much about still getting out with big teams, enjoying the races and seeing how we got along. I’m so proud to say we finished up in second place and I think with the best atmosphere of all the clubs at each event!

For anyone new to the club these are free for affiliated runners (just £2 for non affiliated) and no pressure on time, so please do come along!

The awards for this league are based on both attendance and finishing positions at each race. Both of our winners for the season/ managed to attend all the races and contributed hugely towards that second place so a huge thank you to you both. This year the female and male winners are:

Mollie Dyer

John Harfield

Relays

In addition to the leagues Liss also takes part in two relays.

South Dows Way Relay

The first is the South Downs way relay where we’re usually invited to enter two teams. We had hoped we might have held on to the extra team we were given in 2025 but unfortunately due to the popularity and restrictions we were back down to 2. As captains and chair this was a big blow as it is great to offer the chance to as many runners as possible to take part and are lucky enough to have the depth in our club to easily field 3 or 4 teams!

We decided to stick with the traditional men’s and ladies’ team with our all-important reserves and drivers in place too. By some miracle our ladies team all got to the day uninjured and well, the first time I can remember where a reserve wasn’t needed! Unfortunately, our men’s captain was still recovering from an injury which meant Ed Rolls very kindly stepped in to take his legs, ironic as he’s also now been called up as our new men’s captain!

It takes place on the first Saturday in June and in the run up we enjoyed the most beautiful few days, from the Sunday again lovely weather. Sadly for our teams the same could not be said for the Saturday! They genuinely battled torrential rain almost continually (bar a break in the sun when Anna preformed a ‘sun dance’ prior to her first leg), 40mph wind and hail … 

Thank goodness for Flo’s suggestion on the Friday to take a dry robe – they may have saved the day for the ladies team – the outgoing runner sheltered under one waiting for their team mate to arrive, whipping it off as they approached and quickly wrapping it around the incoming runner!

We also had a couple of worries on the day with Amy getting hurt on her first leg but miraculously, with help of team physio Liz and doctor Kate (we’re not silly when we pick the teams) managed to carry on through and finish all 3. In the mens’ team Paul also had a hamstring niggle which did put paid to his day after his second leg. It was lovely to see the men rally around and rearrange the remaining runs to mean Ed took on a 4^th leg with Mitch swapping his shorter one for the notorious 9 mile leg 17! The sun came out just in time at the end to enjoy Ed’s triumphant battle to the finish line and the drinks Robin had kindly arrange for both teams. 

A big thanks have to go out again to both drivers, Robin and Mel, who were instrumental in keeping spirits high and the vans on track throughout the day, Stuie for his time keeping and Tom and crew marshalling up at Sustainability Centre.

Emsworth to Basingstoke Relay

Moving on to the Emsworth to Basingstoke relay. 

2026 saw a wonderful 5 teams representing the club, Rose’s Rebels, Flapjack Friends, Liss Stunners, Liss Less and Beathless and The Cow Tippers! As always it was great share some banter throughout the day and fantastic to have several extra teams out for Liss – red vests took over the start line as they also did at the Selborne Arms afterwards! The Liss Stunners finished as first female team and in 4^th place overall, with our Flapjack Fiends winning 1^st Mixed. 

As is tradition the leading Liss team are awarded the Ann Parnell Memorial Cup. The Liss Stunners are:

Cari Brown

Amy Corbett

Emma Burrows

Sandra Hunter

Anna Wemyss

Catherine Seager

Handicap Competition

Now on to our awards for the club handicap series.

Firstly, I'd like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who gave up time to help and support throughout the season, especially Robin, Julie and Tanya for on the evening support, David for his spreadsheets as always and to Tom for setting up the routes so beautifully!

As always, the first race in the series is Trevor’s challenge, and this race decides the club champions. This year the Champions were:

Chris Dettmar

Flo Seager

Handicaps are a great way to push your limits each month, it’s amazing what you can find when you can feel yourself catching up with someone ahead whilst feeling the person behind getting closer! 

It’s great to be able to see the monthly races and points come together to highlight those that have managed to continually improve over the Summer. It was closely fought up to race 4 where a potentially winner started to emerge. By race 5 it was clear that, bar a disaster, if this runner showed up for the final run they were the 2026 champion. So this year the winner of our Handicap trophy is Kevin Durrant.

Our final session awards are based on recognising individual efforts, results, and contribution.

Consistency Award

The first of these awards is for consistency in training. As the name suggests this award celebrates club members who have strived to maintain a great balance of consistency and effort in their weekly of training, as well as being regular attendees to club sessions and races.

When thinking about who might win our men’s award there were a few names that instantly came to mind. Obviously Stavros is a given to consider, I think James almost logged a concern when he wasn’t present for a Wednesday session he’s that reliable! 

A mention needs to go out to Tom White too who rarely seems to miss an interval or handicap session!

But our winner this year is someone who shows up regularly to host of different sessions through the week alongside enjoying the cross country and road league races. A keen track goer but just as likely to be found tackling the Tuesday hills chatting around the social runs or heading off for a headstart whilst we all enjoy a break on a Sunday. All of which generally unexpected as he’s highly unlikely to put his name down ahead of time and is often caught screeching into the car park a minute before we all set off. I might add some of these sessions are attended despite advice to maybe rest up for a few days! Our 2026 winner is Steve Clay.

The winner of the ladies consistency award has been a member of our club for so long I had to check back – it turns out more than 15 years! 

She’s taken part in many races for us over the years, although don’t ever suggest cross country if you would like a polite reply!

I believe the only excuse she might have for missing a Wednesday session would be that she’s literally not in the area, so much so if she is away she has to message around to be sure someone else has a key to get everyone in! Maybe a reason she turns up and wins her age category at every Gibbet Hill race – those Bill’s Hills really do do the trick!

This year’s award goes to Rose Lewis.

New Member Award

We introduced this award last year having enjoyed an influx of new members to mark those that come in and really get involved from the get-go. We are so luck at Liss Runners that so many people come in and offer help, turn out for races and generally give their energy to the club which makes this a tricky one to choose

I’d like to mention a couple of names that have been nominated as on most years I’m sure they would easily have won!

Mollie Dyer joined just over a year ago and straight away made an impression with her infectious enthusiasm. A regular last year at track and torchy trails she has thrown herself into the races too, loving the XC events. She is now Welfare Officer at the club too.

Our juniors have all made a great impression, specifically Vicky, Angus and Flo who have all got so involved with the sessions and races, Angus even taking a few of the track sessions in Jayne’s absence.

Mitch and Amy both joined us more recently but have been keen to take part in the relays and making a really positive impact both with keeping spirits high and achieving great results.

I’m not sure torchy Tuesdays or Thursday socials would be quite the same without Terry’s impressive range of random knowledge! 

So onto our winner. 

This person has literally thrown himself into everything since joining 18 months ago. From not running for years to attending every Tuesday run, regularly attending Thursdays and Sunday long runs alongside parkruns and races. 

Last year he was one of the runners drafted in last minute to take on the Southdowns relay for us and, as mentioned, represented our men’s team again this year.

When any events do come up he’s likely to be one of the first to offer help of some kind.

He’s recently stood up to take on the role of Men’s captain so may well be even more known to a few of you when he’s checking in over the next few months to see if you’ll be attending at various races!

I know when joining it was partly down to keeping himself busy to help having tragically lost his partner Heidi and it was really wonderful to see him achieve London marathon in her memory less than a year on. 

He continues to go from strength to strength with his running, plenty more PBs to come I believe!

Our 2026 winner is Ed Rolls.

Young Achiever’s Award

A new award for 2026, nominated this year by Jayne Jefferies, track coach and run leader for the club.  It’s aimed a runners from ages 12 – 25 years of age.

It was with great enthusiasm and relief after a positive voting outcome at this year’s club AGM that Liss Runners could finally open their doors for younger people to join. 

I personally believe introduction to club sports at a young age is crucial for health benefits and mental development.  

We now have a junior 12–15-year category and young members 16-17 years category.  Senior is from 18 years and over.  

It seems fitting to introduce a new award to recognise our younger athletes, this award will cover young achievement from 12 up to 25 years of age.  

Male Young Achiever’s Award 2026 

This young man who has only turned 18 years old this summer has made a huge impression on me with his positive attitude to sport and life in general.  

He is a multi-talented individual who loves getting involved in anything sporty.  He already has achieved high success in sailing for his age but has now moved into the world of running.  

He also rides his bike with his dad at the local Liss Cycling Club, and his Mum is also a keen runner and member of the club.  

He started over the Winter months with the torchy runs and socials; he then took part in the club’s cross-country events at Alver Valley and Bourne Woods in March/April.

He was keen to give track sessions a try and so he did with his Mum which was great.

He was keen to learn and so modest he didn’t even realise how good he was.  He had never done athletics for a club before or ran around a proper track.  He bounced around the track almost effortlessly and was making it look so easy with the biggest smile at the end.  On his first track session he did a mile time trial in 5 min 32 seconds, he had no idea how good this was.  I knew he had much promise and would only get better.  

He grew in confidence and entered himself in the Portsmouth 5000 track event and won his heat with a PB of 18:03 he executed this race perfectly, again no experience of how to tackle a 5k around the track, it was impressive.  

He won the Serpent Trail 10k (which is more like 11k !) in extreme heat in July of this year, which I had the honour of seeing him cross the finish line after giving everything he had to win.  I couldn’t believe how hard and fast he had run nearly 7 miles in the heat. But I could believe it, as I knew he was a very capable and naturally talented runner, who has just got better as the year went on, even after some niggling injuries he was smart and sensible with his training to try and stay race fit.  

He ran our own Harting 10 race back in August with his quickest time over 15k again on a hot day and with hills.  

He also has done countless QE park runs with a good amount of sub 20 mins like this is easy!  It is a tough park run but what’s nice is that he always encourages his Mum as well.   

He also came 8^th place in the Trevor’s Challenge for his first handicap experience which was amongst some of our best club runners.

He shows so much promise to continue to do well, and I hope he can keep it going, as I know he always puts his family and his studies first.  

So, I have no hesitation in this year’s Young Achiever’s male award going to Angus Cockburn.

Female Achievement Award 2026 

This young lady has done so much over the last year, that I can’t mention every race or event she has entered, it would take too long, and even more impressive she’s fitted it in around her GCSE’s in her final year at school.  

My first impression of her was a shy and reserved girl, and cautious about being encouraged to do the local park run on Saturday mornings with her mum.  To my surprise she kept at it, and then came along to the track sessions, where she enjoyed the planned session and listened carefully to my lead, which I love she’s a quick learner, which seems to be the usual case with younger athletes, which is why I like helping them so much.

She surprised me further by taking on possibly the worst type of event I would contemplate the Brutal race series.  In no time at all she had got on the podium several times and then won twice.  This was an incredible achievement and a very brave thing to do, as pre-race nerves are something we all struggle with, particularly when your new to races.  Her resilience to this though was developing and she did not let it stop her continuing her quest to try out more events as she got the running bug.

She then became Liss Ladies Club Champion after winning the Trevor’s Challenge, taking over the baton from her mum.   She took part in the Emsworth to Basingstoke relay where she had the biggest smile to see me when I came to cheer everyone on, which was so lovely.  To watch her mature and grow in confidence has been so rewarding.  

Her running progress has been significant building to a sub 43 min PB at Totton 10k HRRL.  Her hard work has paid off, and she attends every club session she can and has represented the club at every opportunity when age has permitted her to do so.  

I hope she keeps loving sports and so it is with a huge well done and congratulations to Florence Seager for the Female Achievement Award 2026.   

Personal Achievement Award

Moving on to our personal achievements award.

I always struggle with this one, we genuinely have insane achievements monthly, if not weekly by our members!

Our ultra community have continued to set themselves the most extreme challenges and have completed so many over the past year it’s impossible to list. I think madness just breed madness as more and more of our members are entering these and the support for them is wonderful to see. Dot watching has become a regular pastime thanks to them all!

We had a large number taking on various distances at Lakeland earlier in the year which was great to follow.

Sarah page has continued to impress most recently achieving joint second British female at UTMB Mont Blanc finishing hand in hand with Charlotte Fisher which summed up her class as a runner, but also just the wonderful friendly person that she is!

Phil Avery also ticked off another ultra at the Mont Blanc CCC doing us all proud.

Imogen took on several crazy challenges over the past 12 months, namely the Devil of Highlands, Lakeland 50 and most recently Ultra 4 Charity Albania.

Joe Hogan took on the GU36 race around the island of Guernsey, planting a little seed for a few of our ultra runners for next year!

The Serpent Trail is always a great one for our runners being so local and giving opportunity to run whatever your distance.

Joe Sykes, Cari Brown, Kate Parker, Steve Clay, Kev and Emily Durrant all took part in the 50k with superb performances from all, a real push in the heat that we had that day too!

Anna Wemyss came 1^st lady in the 20k earning a place on the hall of fame and Angus finished 1st in the 10k race.

There’s been a huge amount of marathons run over the past year with Emily White representing us at London for her first ever marathon and clearly enjoyed it as she’s back next year for more! Chris Redmond continues to tick off more of the big 6 and hitting great times as he does so. He’s missing tonight as he’s out running Berlin alongside Kate and Daniella tomorrow, another chance for some quality tracking!

Aido is ticking off more and more in his aim for the 100 marathoner club, currently to be found running the overnight Two Towers Ultra run to add to the number!

A large group set off to Valencia last December and ended up in far sunnier hotter conditions than they may have expected. I think we were all slightly jealous of them seeing pics of the post race beers in 25 degree heat, but I’m sure that will have made the run a toughie. Liz managed to achieve a new marathon PB of 3:45 taking 20 mins off her previous despite the most difficult of years, a real testament to her mental strength!

There’s been a number of PBs in the shorter distances too with JD knocking off so much time in the half marathon and 10k distance, great to have him on board for the first time in his vest at Totton 10k (another PB). Ed Rolls also PB’s with his first sub 40 (many more to come), Emily White achieved her PB in 46 mins and Flo Seager managed to get under the 43 mins, a goal she set at the beginning of the year.

There are so many more inspiring members in the club that I haven’t even got space to mention within the limited time we have this evening.

So, onto our winner. I think all Chairs look for slightly different things when looking for the winner of this award. I like to find someone who has put in just that little bit extra to get ultimately reach their goal.

Our winner this year has been a member of the Club for a number of years, featuring in fact on our photo round at last year’s awards.

Ending last year by achieving a 3:19 at Valencia marathon, within minutes of his overall PB, his fitness was obviously at an incredible level.

However, he had clearly set his sights set on an even bigger challenge! Bring on Marathon de Sables …  270km in the Sahara Desert, carrying his own food and gear and all in aid of the Rosemary Foundation. 

Granted he had just retired, so what else was he going to do with his days?!

Watching his preparation was quite incredible, taking part in the Pilgrims Way a couple of months out to cover 68 miles over 2 days was a great ‘mini Marathon De Sables’, coupled with lots of miles taking in our Sunday long runs and out with Kate and Warwick to support each other to get that time on feet. Add in the VO2 max testing to then incorporate acclimatisation training it really was a mammoth effort just to get to the start line.

The whole club seemed to follow along for those 6 days watching in awe as you ticked off each daily challenge, days 4 & 5 merging into 1 as you covered over 62 miles in that brutal heat and conditions. 

So, this year’s Personal Achievement Award could only go to Paul Hawes.

Mike Squirrel Plate

Onto our Mike Squirrel plate for contribution to the club.

Again, there are many deserving candidates. 

Mel Jensen, since joining Liss has always thrown her hat into the ring wherever she can help. Whether running, childcare or baking she’s quietly been around in the background making everyone’s life that little bit easier!

This year she offered up help as needed very early on for the South Downs Relay, ultimately being drafted in as our driver on the ladies’ team. Upbeat, playlist ready and all eventualities covered she was a godsend on a tough day!

Then we found ourselves looking for a Run Director to take over from Andy Turner and thank god she stepped forward there too! Very relaxed (at least outwardly) she took the role in her stride introducing chip timing for the first time and increasing the cut off to enable a few more runners to feel confident enough to enter. The day was a huge success, as a thank you we’d like to present you with some flowers, a tiny gesture for all you have done this past year!

I would like to extend that thank you to all our team leaders and their teams below them who managed to put on such a brilliant day for the local running community.

Tanya Roberts has taken on role as Treasurer this year. Always, again supporting in the background she has been a club member since childhood and continues to support everyone despite her own set back with running.

When the 40^th celebrations rolled around her position as treasurer seemed to blur into caterer and organiser too, taking the reins and leading us all to a fantastically successful celebration.

Tanya is managing a very rare weekend away at the moment but I will be sending some flowers to her too to enjoy once she’s back.

This time last year Paul Turner kindly offered to look into and arrange our first Liss Runners training camp. After some initial research it seemed weekends within the UK and without young kids was the preferred option. Fast forward to the Spring of 2026 and they’d settled on the Brecon Beacons, sourced the most perfect accommodation and location and managed to co-ordinate 17 club members to enjoy the most wonderful inclusive yet challenging few days. It came together seemingly effortlessly but will have been down to a wealth of knowledge, joint experience and effort from them both.

We have host of members who have kindly taken on their Leadership in Running Training and head up the sessions through the week. Without all of them being willing and able to help we wouldn’t be able to offer so much, so a huge thank you to everyone and thank you to the next group who I know re all ready to get their final videos ready when I sort myself out to arrange them!!

And so, on to the winner.

This person is instrumental in almost every part of our club and it’s running. He’s happy to remain in the background with most of these jobs, although sadly not so much in the background when handing out sarcastic comments at sessions and races! Because of this I don’t think people maybe see all the time he dedicates to our club.

A trained leader he regularly heads up a Wednesday training sessions and offers up at least one pub run each year for us to enjoy.

With all the changes within EA for insurance, documents and the introduction of our under 18 membership he has poured over the paperwork alongside Liz and several other committee members to ensure everything is suitably and correctly covered.

When it comes to Harting he heads up the publicising, clearly with a few changes this year very successfully given we had to close entries ahead of the day, plus is around through out the day for any role given. Not to mention Mrs W’s annual cake offerings!

This year he offered, possibly regretted later, to look into other options for Comms and in doing so discovered Teamo. It was due to days, if not weeks’ worth of work and meetings that he was able to bring it to us to run the trial and eventually adopt this as our main App. 

For the 40^th celebrations James and Rose went back through the archives to try to ensure every person who has been a member was given an invite and monitored this to keep track on where we were with attendance.

Most recently he’s been working with Stuie to implement a new kit offering, where orders are placed online and delivered to home alongside introducing a wider range of items to covers all needs.

All this alongside dealing with me having the occasional mini breakdown!

A huge thank you and well done to our Mike Squirrel plate winner, James White.

Bill Allcock Top Training Partner

Onto our final award of the night, and a particularly special one, The Bill Allcock Award. Bill was always incredibly welcoming and supportive and this is what our Top Training Partner Award is here to celebrate.

We had several nominations in for who might fit this description. 

I had several nominations and ideas in my head for who might best receive this.

Andy Paton is a stalwart of the club. A member for 15 years he is a regular at our Wednesday sessions and races, but in the past year he has inadvertently adopted the Sunday long runs as his own. Always encouraging and arranging lifts for various events I feel he is one of those faces many new members will comment on making them feel very welcome and supported.

Richard Pegdon is the epitome of upbeat, happy and supportive. There is no session he attends where he wouldn’t welcome you with a huge smile and then proceed to offer up jokes throughout, maybe a little song to keep everyone’s moods up! A truly uplifting person to enjoy a run with.

But the award this year is going to someone I see as a fixture of our social runs. 

She oversees the weekly sessions, taking on the lions share as weekly leader but all the time encouraging others to step up if keen.

Always sure to introduce herself, she offers a sense of reassurance for those coming along for their first time and the regulars among us look forward to seeing her and knowing we are in capable hands. She’s happy to lead from the front or support as tail runner dependant on what each session requires. All of the above sums up what you’d want in fellow runner and session leader, and we are very lucky as a club to have her.

This year’s winner is Annett Heitsch.

Closing

Hopefully you have seen an announcement regarding our club kit. We are aware we are somewhat behind the times in being able to offer our members a wider range of items and a more efficient way to select, pay and have items delivered.

Having reviewed all the different suppliers out there, we are making a change and modernising our approach. We have selected a new supplier and in partnership with them we will be launching an online club shop. This will be accessed via Teamo. We will be expanding the range of club branded wear, adding things like base layers, cop top vests, dry robes, shorts and leggings. Items can be personalised with your initials. And we can put together product bundles, for example a full race day set. You will be able to complete the process all online which includes payment and delivery options.

And the good news is that the prices from our new partner are in most cases lower than current prices (excluding delivery). We hope to have some sample items made available for members to review. 

We will need a little bit of time to get this up and running, but are aiming to have the club shop open sometime in October. In the meantime, in preparation for the launch of our range, we are making available some items at a 50% discount. So don’t miss out on a bargain.

Thanks again everyone for coming this evening and supporting the club. Congratulations to all our winners and thank you again to every member for making this such an inclusive and wonderful club. Enjoy the rest of the evening!

Catherine Seager