2019 Mota at Charlton-on-Otmoor

2019 Mota-vation Series at Charlton-on-Otmoor

Today, in my series entitled "where I was taking photos this time last year", I'm looking at the first race of the 2019 Mota-vation Series. This Series consists of 5 races, that are mainly road races that are mainly about 4M in length. The Series is organised by Kidlington Running Club (KRAC) and the Series is described on this web page.

The first race of the Series takes place at Charlton-on-Otmoor, a small village in Oxfordshire that is about 11M NE of Oxford. The 2020 version of the first race was planned to take place tonight (Thu Apr 30th) but this (and the other races in the Series) has been cancelled.

By the way, you can click on most of the photos on this web page to see the photo in hi-res.

The route of the race

The above image is taken from KRAC's website. It shows the race route that was used in the years up to and including 2017. It's a figure of eight with the "middle road" of the eight (the one with the 2M marker) done twice.

In 2018, just before the start of the race, there was a crash on the race route just after the 3M marker on the junction at the start of the middle road. So at the last moment, the race organiser revised the route so that it avoided the crash. The revised route was two laps of the larger circle of the figure of eight. This revised route was also used in 2019 and it was also to be used in tonight's race. This revision changed the length of the route from 4.0955M to 5.1968M. KRAC also provide another map - it shows the revised route.

Below I'll show some photos of the runners that did well in the 2019 Mota-vation race at Charlton-on-Otmoor. However, first I'll take a look at Charlton-on-Otmoor and Oddington, the two villages that are visited en-route.

The village of Charlton-on-Otmoor

The above photo looking back at the High Street in Charlton-on-Otmoor was taken by Shaun Ferguson who has kindly released it with a Creative Commons Licence. It shows the Crown pub and the Church of St Mary the Virgin.

Wikipedia says "Charlton-on-Otmoor is one of the seven 'towns' of the Otmoor. It dates back to the 11th century and it sits on the northern edge of the Otmoor on a ridge of Cornbrash". The seven 'towns' that encircle the Otmoor are Beckley, Noke, Oddington, Charlton-on-Otmoor, Fencott, Murcott and Horton-cum-Studley.

Another Wikipedia page says "the Otmoor was until the early 19th century unenclosed marshland that was watered by the River Ray and which was regularly flooded in winter. An Enclosure Act was passed in 1815, under which the area was extensively drained. This disadvantaged the local farmers and led to civil disturbances known as the Otmoor Riots."

This web page explains that "before Enclosure, any cottager who lived in one of the seven towns had right of grazing for their cattle, sheep and geese on the moor".

Wikipedia also has more details about the Otmoor Riots: "The George and Dragon pub in Charlton-on-Otmoor (which closed in around 1980) was where locals formed the Otmoor Association in 1830, leading to the Otmoor Riots in opposition to plans to drain and enclose Otmoor. The rioters achieved their objective, and the villagers continued to farm a four-field open field system. A subsequent attempt at enclosure in 1858 was successful."

This web page from a research project at the University of Warwick says "On September 6th 1830, some 400 people congregated on the moor, and some began to damage the signs of enclosure. Magistrates, coupled with support from the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Yeomanry Cavalry, and the arrival of four troops of Dragoon Guards arrested some 60-70 persons and took them to Islip for a preliminary examination. Some 40 or more were subsequently dispatched to Oxford Gaol to await trial. Being the first Monday in September, Septmber 6th was the first day of St Giles's Fair in Oxford. As the prisoners were carried in wagons toward the gaol in Oxford Castle, the revelers in the fair set upon the accompanying escort, with stones and cudgels, and forced them to flee towards the castle, whereupon the prisoners were set free by the crowds."

The above image is taken from this web page about the Otmoor Riots.

Wikipedia points out that the word 'Tchure' is a "common Midlands dialect word for an alley". It also says "The Tchure in Charlton-on-Otmoor is an old alleyway that is now a bridleway - Oxfordshire has identically named alleys in Deddington and Upper Heyford." The above photo is taken from the Wikipedia web page. I looked in Google Maps for the Tchure that's in Charlton-on-Otmoor. It's off the High Street which is the road that is used at the start of the race. Although I found the above name plate in the Street View of Google Maps, interestingly in the road map version of Google Maps it's called 'The Chure'.

The "English Eye" provides a web page about the Tchure that's in Deddington. It says "Tchure is an old Oxfordshire term meaning 'alley', though some reckon it also means 'sewer', probably the open kind, not uncommon in times before the Victorians pioneered the mains water systems we enjoy today. ... Deddington is not alone in having a tchure - I've tracked down several others, including ones in the villages of Chadlington, Charlton-on-Otmoor, Steeple Aston, Upper Heyford and Souldern. Mind you, the names seem to vary, as the word can be written in several ways, including 'tewer' or 'chewer', spellings that are more like that possible sewer derivation."

The village of Oddington

These days one of the most significant features of the village of Oddington is its Church. The above photo of the Church was taken by Michael who has kindly released it with a Creative Commons Licence. This web page says "The Church of St. Andrew dates from the late 13th century and early 14th century although major restoration was carried out in the 19th century. At the west end of the church is a large pietà, decorated with Maori totems, created as a memorial to Maori servicemen killed in the First World War. The churchyard too has a Maori connection in the form of the grave of a Maori princess, Maggie Papakura, who lived in the village as Mrs Staples-Brown."

Photos of those who were first in each of the male categories

Time for some photos of runners doing the 2019 Mota-vation race at Charlton-on-Otmoor. First, here are photos of those who were first in each of the male categories. These photos are ordered by the position of the runner.

Dan Blake (111, unattached) was 1st and the 1st SM finishing in a time of 00:27:28.

James Bolton (305, Woodstock_Harriers) was 2nd and the 1st MV40 finishing in a time of 00:27:31.

Owen Knox (487, Banbury_Harriers) was 10th and the 1st MU19 finishing in a time of 00:28:55.

Fergus Campbell (515, Headington_RoadRunners) was the 1st MV50 finishing in a time of 00:29:45.

Brian Green (619, Oxford_City_AC) was the 1st MV60 finishing in a time of 00:31:21.

Roy Treadwell (81, Oxford_City_AC) was the 1st MV70 finishing in a time of 00:35:59.

Photos of those who were first in each of the female categories

Next, there are photos of those who were first in each of the female categories. These photos are ordered by the position of the runner.

Diane Foster (822, Headington_RoadRunners) was the 1st female and the 1st FV35 finishing in a time of 00:31:05.

Lauren Hawtin (722, Oxford_City_AC) was the 2nd female and the 1st SL finishing in a time of 00:31:53.

Tia Williams (Banbury_Harriers) was the 3rd female and the 1st FU19 ifinishing in a time of 00:33:12 - no photo.

Sarah Rendell (976, Alchester_RC) was the 4th female and the 1st FV45 finishing in a time of 00:33:44.

Clare Curnow (30, Cherwell_Runners_and_Joggers) was the 1st FV55 finishing in a time of 00:37:57.

Kate Williamson (65, Eynsham_Roadrunners) was the 1st FV65 finishing in a time of 00:40:02.

Photos of those who were first for each running club that is not mentioned above

Finally, here are photos of those runners who were first for each running club taking part that is not mentioned above. These photos are ordered by the name of the running club.

Josh Beech (109, Abingdon_AC) was 8th and the 6th SM finishing in a time of 00:28:41.

Clyde Goodwin (537, Bicester_AC) was the 61st MV50 finishing in a time of 00:41:17.

Juan Angel-Gonzalez (148, Bicester_Tri) was the 9th SM finishing in a time of 00:29:08.

Rosie Davies (716, BRAT) was the 10th SL finishing in a time of 00:36:23.

Lars Orth (184, Didcot_Runners) was the 20th SM finishing in a time of 00:30:29.

Patsy Smiles (983, Harwell_Harriers) was the 64th FV45 finishing in a time of 01:04:08.

David Bannister (303, Hook_Norton_Harriers) was the 16th MV40 finishing in a time of 00:32:33.

Graham Hope (162, Kidlington_RC) was 7th and the 5th SM finishing in a time of 00:28:26.

Tracy Makin (958, Oxford_Tri) was the 10th FV45 finishing in a time of 00:39:19.

Eric Cugnet (127, Radley_AC) was the 29th SM finishing in a time of 00:31:45.

Richard Popiel (577, Silson_AC) was the 22nd MV50 finishing in a time of 00:34:41.

Nigel Bunn (512, Tring_RC) was the 7th MV50 finishing in a time of 00:31:37.

Roger Seed (382, Vale_of_Aylesbury_AC) was the 12th MV40 finishing in a time of 00:31:56.

Matthew Jobson (169, White_Horse_Harriers) was the 10th SM finishing in a time of 00:29:12.

Tegs Jones (354, Witney_Road_Runners) was 4th and the 2nd MV40 finishing in a time of 00:28:03.

Footnotes

If you did the race in 2019 and want a reminder, then here's a link to all the photos that I took. There's a calculator on that web page that makes it easy to find the photos of a runner given their time and you can find the time from the results. Here's a link to the report of the race that appeared in the Oxford Mail.

If you did the race in 2014, then you'll remember the torrential rain that accompanied the race. I sat in my car to take photos so that I didn't get my camera wet.

Click on the above photo to see the report of the 2014 race that appeared in the Oxford Mail.

If you want to see the reviews I've done on other 2019 races, then here's a link to a web page that includes an index of the reviews of 2019 races.

My next review will be of the 2019 Oxon AA Road Relays as at one stage they were provisionally planned to held on Sunday.

Metadata

This web page is at www.oxonraces.com/blog/2020-04-30-charlton-on-otmoor. It was created on 27th April 2020 and last updated on 30th April 2020.

I maintain a web page for runners that provides a list of races near Oxfordshire and the latest results. Visit www.oxonraces.com and follow @oxonraces