The George Becton Trophy is an important part of our summer programme. It is only open to club members and is usually held over two consecutive Thursday evenings in August or September, it comprises a scratch race followed by a handicap race based on times from the first race over our 5K route.

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Originally it was the only club competition first being run in 1999. In 2003 it was renamed the George Becton Trophy in memory of George Becton, an enthusiastic club member who sadly died in 2003.

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New rules were introduced for 2018. The scratch race was reinstated as part of the Club Championship.

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The scratch race sets a marker for the handicap race. Your scratch time will be used for your starting position in the handicap race with no adjustment. However, there will be a limit on how much you can improve on the handicap race to ensure a more competitive scratch race and hopefully a closer handicap race. This limit will be 3% of your scratch time to give your fastest possible handicap time.  To put some figures on that:

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For a runner finishing in 20 minutes for the scratch race, a 3% improvement is 36 seconds allowing for a maximum finish in the handicap race of 19 mins 24 seconds.  So a 20 minute runner finishing in 19 min 10 secs will have 14 seconds added to give an adjusted finish time of 19 min 38 secs taking the runner closer to 20 mins time he achieved in the scratch race.

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Club members running should wear club kit at the race.