Club History & Culture
In June 1982 Robin Walker, from Melton Rugby Club, wrote to the Melton Times inviting runners to attend a meeting to form a local running club. Walker, Jim Bishop and John Brutnell were members of Wreake Runners and were keen to set up in Melton. The inaugural meeting was held on 1st July and 21 athletes turned up in support. Walker secured a base at the Saxby Road All England Ground, then the home of Melton Rugby Club. From there, the club was to move a further three times to Melton Town FC, Egerton Park Cricket Club and finally to the community centre at the Upper School.
Today, the Stilton Striders remains a vibrant community of runners of all abilities. We run socially and we run competitively – always welcoming new members. We are affiliated with England Athletics, and are proud to support a Juniors team for younger enthusiasts.
As well as our regular social runs and formal races, we host a number of additional events throughout the year…
No Watch Race
A traditional part of our summer outrun schedule, the no watch race will challenge your ability to estimate time and distance whilst on the run. The location is announced a few days in advance, but the course is not announced until the day, with only a broad estimate of total distance shared with runners.
The ‘race’ is then a simple one – provide your estimated finish time to the organiser and whoever finishes closest (in number of seconds/minutes) to their prediction wins. Use of any timekeeping device (watch, gps, mobile phone, etc) is not permitted!
Club Handicap Race
Always a great evening, the idea is that start times are staggered (based on our estimate using recent race times, etc) with the first runner going off at 7pm. The fastest runners start latest, such that if everyone runs exactly to our estimate then all will cross the finish line together. It is then a straight race – first over the line wins!
Three Club Challenge
The Three Club Challenge is an informal event that has been held annually between ourselves, Wreake and Barrow.
The emphasis is on participation and is suitable to all seasoned and new members of all abilities and is considered as one of our principle social events as well. In this event – unlike the league races where only the top 8 (or 4) runners count, the score is driven off the number of runners in the smallest team. As an example, if Barrow had 30 runners, Wreake 25 and Stilton 22 then the first 22 runners from each club would be counted. So with teams taking along more runners than the others they have an advantage as being the most likely to score highly – and win!