East Regional Council

Council Members

• Matthew Dalton (England and East Chair)
• Paul Brooks
• Tim Cook
• Paul Pickard
• Trevor Bunch
• David Cripps

Co-optees

• Elaine Forrest
• Phil Blundell
• Justin Hubbard
• Joe Mower
• Rosslyn Hamlyn

You can get in touch via eastchair@englandathletics.org

Matthew Dalton (England and East Chair)

Matthew is a member and trustee of Peterborough and Nene Valley AC and held several committee and volunteer positions at Peterborough AC since joining in 2006. Matthew was Chairman of the club from 2013 to 2018. He remains an active athlete, coach and official (level 3 timekeeper and level 2 field judge).

Away from our sport, over the last two decades Matthew has held several volunteer positions including being an elected member of Peterborough City Council for 10 years, a trustee of the culture and leisure trust Vivacity and a governor of a local secondary school. As his day job, Matthew is a Director of Dalton Seeds, the largest family-owned business of its type in the country.

Paul Brooks

Paul is the Chairman of Luton Athletic Club, Honorary secretary and officials’ secretary of the Bedfordshire county athletic association and a Level 4 Field Official.

As such he has a wide experience of the challenges faced at club level with costs, facilities and volunteers. Also the challenges faced by competition providers from putting on the County Championships and an Open each year plus a cross country match in the Chiltern League.

He officiates throughout the year at local league matches and also at national level and sees the challenge of getting sufficient officials to enable competitions to run to a safe and high standard.

Tim Cook

Tim started running in 1985, intending to run one half marathon raise some sponsorship and then retire, but as he crossed the finishing line he was completely bitten by the running bug and hasn’t stopped since. Never a fast runner, always in the middle of the pack, he’s now nearer the back but still enjoys entering events all over the world, from 5km to marathons.

He has recently stood down as Chairman of Werrington Joggers in Peterborough, but continues as an Endurance Coach, Road Race Official, Guide Runner, Time Keeper and Course Measurer and is pleased to help any runner or running club in the East Region if he possibly can.

Paul Pickard

Paul became involved in Stevenage and North Herts AC just over 10 years go after his children had all joined the club. He has been the club’s chair for the last four years. Paul also coaches the middle distance group and is both a Field and Photofinish Official as well as an occasional athlete. He joined the Regional Council six years ago.

Paul works as a secondary school teacher and is also a governor at the school where he works.

Trevor Bunch

Trevor caught the running bug after securing a charity place in the London Marathon 20 years ago and have been competing in road and cross country ever since. His volunteering experience began with committee roles at Haverhill Running Club but over time that has increased to coaching, officiating and race organisation. He is currently Road Running Secretary for Suffolk County AA and was co-opted onto the East Region Council in 2019. Trevor’s passion for running and coaching led him into a career in clinical research focussed on the relationships between physical activity and health.

David Cripps

Having started out in IT, David transferred his managerial skills to a new sector and spent his last 25-years before retirement as a NHS manager delivering GP services and served as Governing Board Member of his local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).  David started to run in his twenties to lose weight, joined a club and went on to become Essex Marathon Champion, medal in the SEAA Marathon Championships and run a 2:31 PB.  A past County AA Committee member, David has been an Endurance coach for 36 years, with a particular interest in steeplechase, and is currently training to be a Starter.

Elaine Forrest

Elaine is Chair of Brentwood Beagles a club that she (along with others) founded in 2022 to help meet the need for more athletics clubs in Essex. A qualified athletics coach and official across various different disciplines, Elaine is also a proud athlete parent of daughters who focus on middle distance running. Elaine is also the track and field secretary for Essex AA and part of their executive committee, as well as the general secretary of the Eastern young athletics league. Away from athletics, Elaine works in professional services and is Chair of governors at two secondary schools as well as serving on the governing body at a primary school.

Phil Blundell

Phil is a director of Newmarket Joggers where he also serves on the executive committee as Training Captain. His particular interests include expanding the opportunities for longer-format track competitions. Phil is also an event director at Coldham's Common junior parkrun and a core team member at Fulbourn Hospital parkrun.

Outside athletics Phil is employed as VP, Engineering at BrightSign, LLC.

Justin Hubbard

Justin came back to athletics in his late 30s, just to continue his passion for fitness. He was approached by his local club to compete for them in the masters league, which he thought sounded good fun! Competing for Colchester and Tendring Athletics Club he was approached by the club to assist them in developing the youth in the local area via coaching. To be able to give something back to the sport as a volunteer is something about which Justin is passionate.

Over the last few years Justin has become a coach specialising in sprints. In his day-to-day work Justin runs an athletics centre in Chelmsford.

Joe Mower

Joe has been involved in our sport since 1967, when he joined Ipswich Harriers. He has held a vast number of volunteer roles in our sport over the decades since. Having joined the county committee in 1972, he is the current Chair of Suffolk AA. Having been Honorary Secretary for 25 years he is the current Chair of the Eastern AA.

Other positions of very significant note are that of Chairman of UKCAU from 2005 to 2008 and President of the English Cross Country Association in 2003.Joe is a qualified Starter, Starter’s Assistant and Endurance official.He has been Chair of the eastern panel for road race licences since 2012.

Rosslyn Hamlyn

Rosslyn is a member of Werrington Joggers having caught the running bug in 2008. She became involved in coaching when her son joined the junior section of the club and is now qualified to Event Endurance Level. Rosslyn is an active road and cross country runner taking part in races from 5k to Ultras. She is also involved in the Greater Peterborough Athletics Network with the successful Try the Track sessions and the bi-monthly coaches get togethers.

Rosslyn works as a primary school teacher.