The Hammer Circle Reunion is an annual end-of-season gathering that brings together athletes, coaches and enthusiasts who share a passion for hammer throwing. Around 70 people attended across the Saturday and Sunday, with Bedford athletes enjoying a hugely successful weekend and taking home a cartload of silverware.

The Club is very sad to announce the death of Ron Noble on Sunday 20^th  September.
 
Ron joined the club in 1980 following a very successful period as a semi-professional footballer playing for Bedford Town and others. After a couple of years competing primarily in local cross country and road races he redirected his talents to coaching the Under 15 Boys. He coached a large group of lads for many years before finally hanging up his stop watch in the late 1990’s. In this role he had considerable success, with both individuals and teams winning medals at both
Area and National level. Our current Boys Endurance Coach James Danobrega was himself coached by Ron in the early 1990’s. Ron was a former winner of the Club’s Peter Kot Trophy for Club Person of the Year.

There will be a celebration of Ron's life on Tuesday 3^rd  November at Mowsbury Golf Club at 2pm.

Ben Philips finished a very creditable 11th at the English Schools’ Pentathlon Championships held in Bedford last weekend. With the pentathlon lacking some of Ben’s strongest events, the javelin, discus and pole vault – the latter of which he is currently English Schools champion, he was always going to find it harder than he did in winning the England U15 Octathlon in August.

Nevertheless, Ben set personal lifetime bests in hurdles (14.97s) shot (12.65m) and 800m (2m 21.06) with his 5.40m long jump only a couple of centimetres short of his PB. His total score of 2676 points surpassed his previous Pentathlon best by over 600 points.

There have been some outstanding results from our junior throwers as the 2026 season draws to a close.

Representing Bedfordshire at the Southern Inter-Counties Match, Holder Botha produced two excellent personal bests. He improved his discus PB by a huge three metres, recording a very impressive 41.52m. At the same meeting, he extended his shot put best to 11.82m.

At the annual Ron Bowden Memorial Hammer Competition at Woodford Green, Mia Flynn and Bismarck Botha claimed victory in their respective age groups.

On Sunday 13th September 15 of the Club’s U16 & U18 athletes made the journey to Chelmsford again to represent Bedfordshire in the Southern Intercounties, coming away with 7 top 3 finishes and 6 PBs.

Our Junior athletes made the long journey to Chelmsford to take part in the EYAL Top Six Final. We finished a very commendable 5th overall, 13 points behind 4th and 35 behind 3rd.  The other 5 teams we were up against were also in the Finals last year. The athletes produced an amazing 44 PBs (16 for the girls and 28 for the boys).

Congratulations to Olive Pyecroft who has broken the U13 Girls discus club record with a throw of 26.99m at the recent Biggleswade Summer Throws Fest.