The first of this winter’s Sportshall league events took place at Tanbridge House School and saw the Blue Star’s Boys team finish in 2^nd place, scoring 200 points, behind winners Crawley (233 pts), but ahead of Haywards Heath (155pts), Brighton (144 pts) and Chichester (47pts), whilst the Girls team were just edged into 3^rd place scoring 206 points, behind winners Brighton (223 pts) and Crawley (207pts), with Chichester 4^th (96pts) and Haywards Heath 5^th (70pts).

In the Under 15 Boys events Ed Crossman performed well in his 3 events, securing wins in the Triple Jump, with a leap of 7.47m, the 4 lap race in a time of 45.5s, and finally winning the B string Shot competition with a throw of 8.04m. The Triple Jump saw Ted Lane win the B string with 6.92m. Craig Harris ran 21.7s to finish second in the 2 lap race, with Lane winning the B race (22.0s). Harris jumped 2.25m to take second place in the Standing Long Jump, where Jessie Mackarel took second place in the B event.  Harry Long chalked up a second place finish in the Under 13 Boys 2 lap race running 22.8s, whilst team mate Seth Bond ran 23.1s for second place in the B race. Bond went on to also finish second in the Vertical Jump with a leap of 48cm. Will Gosden ran well in the 4 lap race to finish second in 49.2s.

In the under 13 Girls events Kyla Ball was an impressive winner of the Standing Long Jump, where she leapt 2.21m. Ball then went on to leap 59cm to win the Vertical Jump. Lila Cox won the B string with a leap of 44cm. Ellen Pratt finished 2^nd in the 4 lap ‘A’ race  in a time of 50.3s, with Ball winning the B race in 49.1s. Pratt had earlier taken another 2^nd place in the B string of the Standing Long Jump with a jump of 1.97m, and another second place came in the 6 lap race with Emma Harrison running 1m20.8s. The Under 15 events produced good points, with Sophie Hogton winning the Speed Bounce with a score of 76, and then finished 2^nd in the Standing Long Jump with a 2.25m jump. Macy Lawes finished 2^nd in the Vertical Jump with a leap of 49cm, with Ella van der Veen jumping 42cm for 2^nd place in the B event. Lawes then threw7.74m for another 2^nd place in the Shot event. The Under 11 Girls events saw several youngsters competing for the first time and there were some promising results with Leyla Carrillo, with a score of 48, taking 2^nd place in the Speed Bounce A string and team mate Evie Delahunt scoring 44 for second place in the B event. Delahunt took another second place in the B string Standing Long Jump with a leap of 1.73m, with Jasmine Cartwright jumping just 1cm further which secured 2^nd place in the A string. This was a promising start to the season.

The first of this season’s Sussex Cross Country league fixtures took place adjacent to Goodwood racecourse and saw over 600 runners compete across the various age groups. The Blue Stars best team performance came in the Under 15 Boys race run over a 4k course, where the team were led home in 7^th place by Charlie Ferris who had a good run to finish in 15m03s, he was closely followed by Reuben Marsden who also ran well finishing in 10^th place (15m27s) and with newcomer Alex Power running 16m06s to take 25^th place, the team finished in an excellent 4^th place of the 18 competing teams. Also in this age group Jesse Mackarel finished 27^th (16m08s), Dominic Barber 32^nd (16m43s), Ed Cox 39^th (17m22s) and Ryan Rothe 42^nd (17m43s).

There was another good team result in the Under 17 Men’s race, run over 5km, where Ash Williams ran well to finish in 8^th place (17m17s), he was followed by Sam Richards who had a strong run to finish close behind in 12^th place (17m42s) and with Tom Clark 25^th (20m07s) and Charlie Beckley 26^th (20m36s) the team finished in 5^th position. The Senior Men’s race, where over 140 runners toed the line, saw Luke Burgess run well to finish in 8^th place, running 26m30s for the 8km race, and with Harry Eaton finishing 19^th (27m42s), Andy Dunstan in 54^th (30m54s), closely followed by Dean Angell and Ryan Bowyer in 57^th and 58^th places and Pete O’Connell 67^th the team took 7^th place in Division 1. Elspeth Turner lead the Team home in the Senior Women’s race having a good run to finish in 13^th place running 19m30s for the 5km race, with Lorraine Hayes finishing 59^th (22m42s) and Miranda Huisman 69^th (23m50s), the team took 7^th place.

Laurie Mackarel was the first Blue Star to finish in the Under 13 Boys race, running 13m01s for the 3km race which saw him finish in 31^st place, with Isaac Burt 36^th (13m06s) and Tom Hays (13m08s) the team finished in 12^th place. In the Under 13 Girls race, also run over 3km, Emma Harrison ran well to finish 28^th (14m26s). She was closely followed by Emily Oliver in 32^nd (14m41s) and with Alexander Pinder  41^st (15m23s) and Lydia Barnett, despite two falls, finishing 42^nd (15m30s) the team also finished in 12^th place.

This was a promising start to the season with a large number of athletes competing for the first time especially in the younger age groups.

The Sussex Cross Country Relay Championships were held at Goodwood, on an area adjacent to the racecourse and saw a good number of teams competing in each of the age group events. The first races of the afternoon were for the Under 13 Boys and Under 13 Girls age groups, where teams of three each ran a lap of 2800m. The Blue Stars Girls team finished in 9^th place with Emma Harrison running 12m34s on the first leg, Olivia Sharpe 11m38s on the 2^nd leg and Lydia Barnett running 12m45s on the last leg. The Boys team saw Isaac Burt lead the team off, running 11m30s, he handed over to Micah Turfrey (12m17s), with Tom Wood running 12m04s to bring the team home in 12^th place.

The under 15 Boys race, also run over 3 legs of 2800m, saw Dominic Barber lead the off, running 10m46s, he handed over to Charlie Ferris, who ran an excellent 9m44s to gain places, and Reuben Marsden, who also had a good run, saw the team home in 8^th place, running 9m56s for his leg. The Under 17 Men’s team finished just outside the medals taking fourth place, with Ash Williams leading them off, running an excellent 13m25s for the 4000m lap. He handed over to Sam Richards who ran 14m01s, with Charlie Beckley running 16m29s on the final leg.

Luke Triccas went first for the Senior Men’s team, where teams of 4 ran over stages of 4000m each. Triccas ran 13m27s and handed over to Harry Eaton, who ran the fastest time for the team of 13m05s, Ryan Bowyer took over and ran 14m56s, with David Maclean running 16m45s on the last leg to bring the team home in 6^th place.

The Barns Green Half Marathon and 10k races held the next day, saw Maxwell Dumbrell dominate the 10k race, leading from the start he ran an impressive 31m59s, with Bradley Burke, despite going off course, finishing 5^th in 38m36s. The Half Marathon saw Harry Eaton turn out again, having run the relays the day before, and have a good run to finish in 12^th place, running 81m52s, whilst Elspeth Turner had an excellent run, to not only finish as 3^rd Woman, but also take the first Over 50 Woman prize, running 86m36s.

The Sussex Combined Events Championships, the usual finale to the track season, took place at Sutton Arena in conjunction with the Surrey Championships. The Blue Stars picked up two medals from Sophie Hogton, in the Under 15 Girls Pentathlon and from Phoebe Penston, in the Under 13 Girls Pentathlon. Hogton began her competition by leaping a personal best 4.85m in the Long Jump, and then followed this up with a 75m Hurdles run of 12.64s, she then threw 6.56m in the Shot and cleared 1.29m in the High Jump to set two more personal bests. The final event, the 800m, saw her run 2m53.56s to total 2256 points for the Pentathlon to secure the silver medal just 80 points behind the winner. Penston’s Pentathlon, also saw her start with the Long Jump, where she leapt 4.03m, she followed this with a 13.03s run in the 70m Hurdles and a 5.30m throw in the Shot. She then unfortunately failed to clear a height in the High Jump, which put pressure for her final event the 800m, but showing a tremendous determination she ran 2m45.83s to catch her closest rival to snatch the bronze medal with a total score of 1521 points.

In the South of England Under 15 Inter Counties held at Oxford, two Blue Stars competed, with Alina Hillicks throwing 28.76m to take 7^th place in the Under 15 Girls Discus, having earlier finished 11^th in the Hammer event with a new club record throw of 27.20m. Emily Hutchinson, competing in the Under 15 Girls High Jump, cleared 1.40m to finish 10^th.