Abingdon Town Football Club have no fixtures this season. They appear to be having a year out. According to people I spoke to at the ground they hope be able to get a decent team together and re-apply to join the North Berks League next season. So we will see.

In the meantime other teams are hiring the ground. There was a game on there this afternoon between two youth teams.

The Abingdon Marathon set off this morning at 9am from Tilsley Park. The Marathon has been run every year since 1982 apart from 2007.
5 miles into the race, at St Helen’s Wharf, the runners passed the River Thames. Katherine Matthews – 418 – of Chepstow Harriers was the eventual winner of the women’s race.

Not far behind were Max and Sarah of Abingdon. Abingdon A.C had a few runners near the front.

The Queen of Hearts was running twice as fast to keep up …

“Well, in our country,” said Alice, still panting a little, “you’d generally get to somewhere else—if you run very fast for a long time, as we’ve been doing.”

“A slow sort of country!” said the Queen. “Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!” – Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass

At every junction round the course there were marshalls encouraging the runners, and warning runners to keep to the left.

21 miles further on, Paul Fernandez of Abingdon A.C ran back as the winner having run the 26 miles 385 yards in 2 hours 30 minutes and 39 seconds. He overtook the early leaders.

The Abingdon Marathon has many races within the same race, and the winner of the Army Race was 1161. I never got his name.

At many places round the course spectators cheered on the runners. Back at Tilsley Park there was also a man with microphone to gee the runners on over the last stretch. But he also emphasized it was a windy day and difficult running conditions.

The Tilsley Park leaves were glorious.

As a local historian, Elizabeth sometimes gets given pictures that are not easy to identify. So she wanted to find out if anybody recognises any of the teams and players. Press the small image to see a bigger image All we know so far is that the pictures are by Warland Andrew, The Royal Studio, Abingdon.

This team are pictured outside the Pavlova Leather Company Limited
 
This team have the same kit with a skull and cross bones as a badge.
 
Nothing much to identify this team.
 
The church in the background is St Helen’s. One player has a badge with DFC.

Thanks to Steffan for this

We’re a friendly group who have been meeting to play badminton each Wednesday evening for many years. Sadly, numbers have been down recently and we would be very much like some new members to join our group.

It’s much more about fun than competition and we welcome all ages and abilities. We tend to play doubles and use the traditional scoring system.

The sessions are from 8pm to 10pm on Wednesdays at John Mason school sports hall. People tend to arrive and leave when they can (so we normally start playing properly around 8:15). It costs £5 a session or £40 for 10 consecutive sessions, to cover the cost of renting the hall. If you’re interested in joining in, please just turn up.