Poppies were delivered to the shops last Saturday.

Last year Abingdon raised an outstanding amount of £20,793.20 for the Poppy Appeal – a 63.32% increase on the year before giving us a trophy from the Berkshire Country Royal British Legion Manager.

(Abingdon Legion still comes under the Berkshire County Organisation in the British Legion World!! As it does in the Geneology and quite a few other Worlds).

Mary Cadogan, our co-ordinator would like to thank all the people of Abingdon for supporting the Poppy Appeal and without them we could not have raised such an amazing amount of money.

The Poppy Appeal is in many peoples thoughts with the present conflict in Afghanistan and we are raising money to help the solders and their families both young and old.

The poppies in Abingdon will be on sale for the next three weeks prior to Remembrance Sunday which is on 08 November 2009.

There will be also be street collectors in the town centre and outside Tescos, Waitrose and Fairacres Retail Park, and door to door sellers around Abingdon from 24 October 2009.

If anyone would be interested in becoming a poppy person this year helping sell poppies they can contact Mary Cadogan at the Royal British Legion, Spring Road, Abingdon tel: 07867 658159.

… Near the half-way point runners returned to Abingdon along Preston Road . Number 1075 had a good lead by this point.

Harry has a picture of the leading lady at this point on his blog, and since I have already shown her near the Wharf and the Oxford Mail has a big feature on her, here is one of the second place lady as well, Number 1127.

The race was well marshalled with lots of volunteers. Well organised by Abingdon Amblers…
They were even trialing the latest electronic gadgetry. Each runner had a chip so their exact time was transmitted to a results boards as they crossed the line. The results are available at ChipTiming.co.uk which has the winner, Number 1027, as 2:28:37. So I nearly got it right on this picture…

There were a lot of runners still to come in. This is the 25 mile point on the Wootton Road.

And here is a runner going down the underpass, next to the Abingdon Marathon Mural. (By the way that little old lady came 668th with a time of 04:47:35 – far from last.)

A minute or so before the start this little old lady was trying to mix it with the fast runners at the front – until the stewards asked her to move back.

This is the start proper.

The early leader at the four mile point was 1087.

Followed a little later by the chasing group.

387 was the first lady through, not that far behind.

Some residents of East St Helen Street brought a table and chairs outside. The race began at 9:00. So this would have been about breakfast time.

And here she is again – not doing too bad at all – at the four mile point.

To be continued…

There was a bit of a queue when we arrived this afternoon – probably peek time.

The Craft Fair is under new management this year and they were asking people as they left whether they enjoyed it etc. etc. People here seem to be enjoying it.

As in previous years we ended up buying more wine and food than craft things.

On show there was a new Craft Fair van and signs and a CraftFair website.

Half the stalls change midweek, for the second week, and on Wednesday Evening they have a Charity Gala Evening Opening – costs £2.00 – and the proceeds go to the charities : Maggies Cancer Caring Centres and Sobell House Hospice. Complimentary Wine and Mince Pies will be served.