With sadness, we report that Tony Watts our President has passed away.

Tony, a 400m (then 440yds) international in his youth, was a founder member of Chiltern Harriers.  He was Chair for many years, and became our President in 2006.  He would have been 95 in June.

Our sincere condolences to Jayne and family at this time.

Update
The club has spoken and written to Jayne expressing our condolences, and recognising Tony's vast contribution to Chiltern Harriers.
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Tony's wish was that there would be no funeral. There will be a Direct Cremation.

CHAC has previously been accredited by Club Mark, a system regarded as the leading measure of good sports governance. Our governing body England Athletics has withdrawn from this process and is instigating its own practice guidance more suited to athletic clubs. Your committee has therefore decided to follow the lead of EA.
As part of this process the committee has already adopted the following new Guidance, Codes, Policies and Procedures;

• Club Standards – Governance
• Club Safeguarding Code of Conduct
• Child Safeguarding Policy and Procedures
• Adult Safeguarding Policy and Procedures

These can all be accessed on the web site from the drop-down menu – About – Club Codes of Practice and Other documents. Please take a moment to familiarise yourself with these papers which guide the way the Club is run and the values to which we aspire
On the web site under the drop-down menu About - Club Contacts- Team managers and officials are the contact details for the committee and in particular the Club’s Athlete Welfare and Child Protection Officer(s).

Longer term members will recall that in the past the Club were accredited by Clubmark run by Sport England/England Athletics which was regarded as the gold standard for the governance of sports clubs. Our governing body, England Athletics no longer participate in Clubmark and have introduced their own guidance - Club Standards. The committee took the decision to follow the lead of our own governing body as their system is more relevant to our club.
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We are therefore in a transition period between the two and as a start the Committee have adopted The England Athletics Club Standards protocols and also The Club Safeguarding Code of Conduct, both of which are now available on the web site under About and then Codes and Forms. These set out high level aspirations which introduce more detailed and specific guidance on a wide variety of governance issues the detail of which the committee will be seeking to introduce by stages. In the interim the original Clubmark procedures (available to view on the web site) remain in place.

​It’s been a while since the EA 5 Mile relays and it looks like it will be several weeks before much real competition, whether on track or road, will recommence.
 
So we are having a virtual 5k Easter road relay race, based around the popular flat and fast circuit of Berkeley Avenue in Chesham, just off Chartridge Lane.
 
Katie Royals has kindly created a google entry form . Please use this to enter and insert an approximate time for 5k.
 
Easter Berkeley Ave Virtual 5km Relay entry form
 
Closing date for entries is Friday 26th March.
 
Over that weekend I will divide up the entries into, hopefully, evenly matched teams of five (or other multiple depending on the number of entries) with the help of other coaches.
 
I will publish these so athletes can see who is in their teams and the window for tackling the run is Monday March 29th to Friday April 9th.
 
Please feel free to send me photos that I can add to the club website along with my report.
 
For those that haven’t run this route before I measured it on strava yesterday at 1650m, so 5k is three full laps plus a short extra finish of around 50 metres (dependent on running line etc).
 
https://www.strava.com/activities/4954959637
 
Athletes can start anywhere but typically on Berkeley Avenue close to the bottom junction with Chartridge Lane. Berkeley Avenue bends to the left and then is gently uphill straight up until a left turn joining back up with Chartridge Lane.
 
Athletes then follow the main road back to the bottom junction with Berkeley Avenue, turning left.
 
Pavements along the whole route are broad and in good condition so there shouldn’t be any need to run on the road itself.
 
Those with strava or other GPS facility, please use that to record your times. Others can use a coach, parent or friend to time them and email the time to me (steve.perkin@chilternharriers.com)
 
Younger athletes should ensure at least one adult is there to supervise.
 
As government restrictions relax on March 29th, athletes could opt to run together but in very small groups only please.
 
Please let me know if you have any queries.

Chris Jones - CEO England Athletics writes
"I am writing to congratulate you on the success that your club has enjoyed this year in the 2019 domestic competition season"    Read Chris Jones's Letter