DURSLEY Running Club’s Dan Anderson travelled down to the Slaughterford Nine on Sunday and showed he was a returning to form with a second place in the Severn Sinner in late December.

The Slaughterford Nine is a multi-terrain race over steeply undulating countryside, with three quarters of the race off road.

The race was an integral part of Anderson’s build up to the Dursley Dozen, and this was very much a training effort for him, placing third just two and a half minutes behind the winner Jim Webb of Team Bath.

This sets him up well for the Dozen in just two weeks’ time. Racing behind Anderson was Jon Tudor, who ran well to finish well to finish just outside the top third of finishers.

Results: Dan Anderson, 3rd, 55:28, (3rd SM); Jon Tudor 118th, 01:19:27(34th SenM)

On the same Sunday Annette Heylings ran the Lliswerry 8 in “heavy rain and howling gale!” finishing in one hour 16:37mins (third F60) whilst 15 DRC athletes ran the Staverton 10 Mile Race.

The race, part of the Glos. AAA Road Race Series. Bitingly cold and damp conditions may have been ideal for the faster runners but not so inviting for the majority.

At the front for DRC were Nigel Sankey, Simon Jones and Joe Ball, with the former two managed to average under seven- minute mile pace, Simon knocking ten minutes of his 10 mile PB. Ball showing good pace awareness.

Karen Eadon and Nicki Cowle who completed their first 10 miler, Cowle commenting that it was a “hard run”. Damian Lai ran a huge PB, fifteenminutes quicker than in 2016. Joe Ball was first MU20, Alice Lewis first FV55 and Dave Saunders first MV65, all round great results for DRC.

Results: Nigel Sankey 57th 1:09:04; Simon Jones 60th 1:09:28; Joseph Ball 70th 1:11:59 (MU20/01) Mike Brown 85th 1:15:20; Darren Richards 88th 1:16:04 (MV40/10); David Saunders 102nd 1:18:17 (MV65/01); Alice Lewis 105th 1:18:37 (LV55/01) Pete Dunn 113th 1:20:47; Damian Lai 118th 1:23:17; Antony Ball 121st 1:24:16 (MV45/13) Jadie Cotterell 122nd 1:24:16 (SL/09); Charley Palmer 130th 1:25:39 (LV40/10) Mark Western 138th 1:27:59 (MV50/11); Nicki Cowle 165th 1:38:24 (LV40/14) Karen Eadon 181st 1:45:38 (LV45/12)

The previous weekend Rachael Barker ran the TFSE Fan Dance. The event is a gruelling 24km non-navigational race over two sides of Pen Y Fan 2,907 feet (886m), the highest mountain in the Brecon Beacons taking in Jacobs Ladder on the return.

Barker was an excellent third female and eighth overall, The weekend saw 23 DRC athletes parkrunning with Graeme Tudor fastest for the club in 23:02 placing 2nd VM60 at Kingsway with a personal best.

There were several course bests: Shona Darley, Chippenham 24:59, Lisa Hindshaw, Chipping Sodbury 26:34 and Pete Dunn 28:14 at Pomphrey Hill. Ronnie Williams returned to Kingsway and was close to running a PB placing first SW30-34.

Nick Fennel and Audrey Harris ran their first ever parkruns. Janet Mathews was first VW35 at Bognor Regis, .John Hieron was another category winner first VM80 at Kingsway, recording a 65 per cent age grading, with Kevin Higgins and Graeme Tudor recording 67 per cent and 70 per cent respectively.