SUNDAY saw the 28th running of the iconic all terrain race the Dursley Dozen.

Six hundred athletes entered and just under five hundred travelled to Dursley to take part. Stinchcombe was covered in a blanket of snow on Friday and Saturday, however, by Sunday morning there was little left to be seen.

Despite the extremely chilly conditions, the runners received a warm welcome from Dursley Running Club.

A number of anxious faces were to be seen before the start with concern not only about the temperatures but also the state of the course.

A number of Dozen veterans had said they had not seen it so muddy before.

Dursley RC were hopeful of some good results for themselves, with Dan Anderson coming into the event in good form and hopeful of competing for victory.

Behind him in term of pace but still running extremely strongly of late were James Everett, and Mike Crompton.

Who was going to count as the fourth man home for Dursley was open to debate with Tim Britton, Johnny Marks and Joe Browning strong candidates to be supporting the front three.

For the women, Robyn Jackson, a new speedster for DRC, looked likely to lead the women around with Keeley Smith and Margaret Johnson always strong off road, Zoe Lammerton was also one to watch.

The runners counted down to the start and set off at around 10.30am.

Everett and Anderson led the traditional charge up Broadway and into the woods as they began their first ascent of Stinchcombe.

With two significant climbs and a rapid descent, the first three miles immediately created gaps in the field.

At the three-mile mark, the front runners came off the golf course road and into the woods at around 23 minutes, Andrew Gardiner led Chris McMillan, with Dursley’s Anderson in close attendance.

A minute in arrears, Everett entered the woods, with Crompton a further 30 seconds back.

The first woman into the woods was Annabel Grainger, hitting three miles in just under 27 minutes, Wendy Nicholls almost a minute behind, DRC’s Robyn Jackson entered the woods in fourth position a minute a half behind Grainger, looking composed. In the competition to be Dursley’s fourth counter, Britton entered the woods just in front of Marks, both around a minute and three quarters ahead of Browning. Dozen regular Kevin Jackson was on the woodland path just ahead of Jon Tudor and Simon Jones, who was a minute ahead of the trio of Richard Smith, Andrew Truswell and Dave Wood.

Wood had taken to the three mile point to catch up with Smith and Truswell.

After the ascent from Waterley Bottom, Macmillan was first out of the woods hitting the six and half mile point in around 46 minutes, just under 20 seconds behind were Anderson and Gardiner, both working extremely hard up the incline, this did not bode well for their ability to close the gap on McMillan who looked to be in control. Everett was now two minutes down on Anderson and Gardiner, with Crompton just over a minute down on Everett, and they were also working extremely hard.

Grainger looked in full control as she reached this point in around 52 minutes, Nicholls was not making any impact on Grainger’s lead but she had a comfortable one minute cushion on Polly Ainsley of Southville RC, who had a similar lead on Jackson as the trio left the quarry, onto the road until they would reach the hole in the wall to descend towards the muddy depths of the Dozen.

As the hour, passed the leaders were heading for the precipice, having negotiated an extremely slippery ascent they turned for home. McMillan reaching the top of Broadway in about 75 minutes with Gardiner around 40 seconds behind and Anderson the same distance behind Gardiner, Macmillan descending quickly stretched out his lead to almost a minute by the time he reached Dursley and won in one hour 19:33mins.

Anderson closed the gap on Gardiner to 26 seconds, for third place overall and second senior male, in one hour 20:56mins.

Anderson was substantially faster than in 2016 in more testing conditions, and his time would have won last year’s race. All the times were very impressive given the difficult conditions. In the race for first woman Grainger had created an unassailable lead and finished 17th overall in a time of 01:31:15. Wendy Nicholls was just over eight minutes in arrears. Both Grainger and Nicholls looked in total control of their races throughout. Polly Ainsley finished 57 seconds back and Dursley Robyn Jackson just 40 seconds adrift of 3rd place with an impressive run. Dursley with 54 athletes running were making a strong showing at the front, James Everrett and Mike Crompton putting big efforts in to finish 5th and 7th respectively, Tim Britton ran strongly and was ficve minutes behind Crompton with Johnny Marks a similar distance behind Britton. Jackson was the rose between the thorns and behind her a battle was taking place between Dave Wood and Kevin Jackson. Jackson failed to realise Wood was catching him ofn eth descent into Dursley allowing Wood to surge past him over the rise of the Slade it was mission accomplished for Wood who recorded his second victory over Jackson in thirty years. After Jackson, the Dursley women’s race was between Keeley Smith, Margaret Johnson, a resurgent Zoe Lammerton and the ever present Alice Lewis. Alice Lewis suffered the unusual set back of being hit by a deer, knocking her over and disorientating her. Cut and bruised Alice picked herself up and continued but this incident clearly put a dent in her performance, but also gave her the opportunity to show her grit and determination which is a key foundation t her excellent performance season by season. Keely Smith showed her off road credential, and whilst disappointed with her time, should reflect on her excellent 2nd category position; she finished almost two and a half minutes in front of Margaret Johnson, who was a further 01:18 a head of Zoe Lammerton, both runners finishing strongly. The Dozen welcomes back many old friends, travelling up from Launceston in the South West Jenny Mills is regular, running impressively to be comfortably under 2 hours and yet again claimed the F65 prize before heading back home.

Strong running from Dursley paid off and the senior men’s teams won for the second year in a row, beating Cirencester AC, positions were reversed in the women’s senior team event. Thornbury RC placed first in the veteran’s event, with Almost Athletes ahead of Emerson in third. Again, Cirencester pipped Dursley in the female veterans event with Forest of Dean placing a happy third.

Dan Anderson won the Martin Blythe Memorial Trophy for the 5th consecutive year, but James Everett may well pose a challenge in the coming years.