COMPETITIVE running started late Saturday morning with Dursley Juniors out in force at the Gloucestershire Cross County League with the majority making their debut both from Dursley RC and at the Cross-Country League.

The weather and ground conditions were not typical of cross country.

The warm conditions were far from ideal for the competitors but the dry ground promoted fast running.

Holly Clark started the season off well for the club with 17th in the LU11 category race with Bill Smith also doing well in the boys’ U11, with 20th.

They had great support from Hudson Taylor, Charlie Jones, Jessica Poskett, Lila Heath Olive Jones and Ruby Heath.

Jake Matthews led the Dursley RC U13s home, his brother Ethan not far back with Liam Clark putting in a big effort to finish seconds behind.

James Durden made his debut at U17 level pacing his race well to come home 11th.

Eight senior Dursley RC women were on the start line in the cross country. Margaret Johnson rapidly established herself as the first Dursley RC runner, looking very much in control to finish sixth in category, as her good end of season form continues.

Alice Lewis finished strongly placing third F55. A similarly close race was occurring between Erica Fuller and Janet Matthews.

Andrea Sexton put in a great effort on little training, with Karen Eadon and Eileen Hieron yet again proving that no challenge is too great for this dynamic duo as Hieron finished as first F65.

The men’s senior race was the last event of the afternoon.

This was Dan Anderson’s return to racing after an injury disrupted summer.

Unsurprisingly, he led the Dursley RC team home, finishing 17th with Mike Crompton a couple of minutes behind in 48th.

Just over a minute separated the next five runners, with Matthew Read running a well-paced race on his debut, pulling away from Mike Brown and Dave Durden, with Andy Truswell in close attendance.

Tony Wooldridge pulled back Nigel Sankey who worked hard to catch him on the final sprint.

Mouse Clutterbuck came home ninth, scoring third runner for Dursley RC Masters.

Read, Mike Thomas, Brendan Marrinan and Andrew Eades made their debuts for the club at cross country.

Sunday saw Dursley RC’s serial marathoners clocking up the mileage.

Kate Browning travelled to Leicester to run the 26-plus miles in three hours 47:08mins, placing sixth F40.

Four Dursley RC athletes completed the Birmingham International.

Mark Sprigings produced a sound run of just over three-and-an-half hours, with Emma Denton, Andy Hara and Damian Lai making up the quartet.

Lai reported: “It was a gruelling run.”

Results: Birmingham International: Mark Sprigings, 03:32:49, 510th; Emma Denton, 03:47:41, 1288th; Andy Hara, 04:06:55, 1642nd; Damian Lai, 04:29:15, 2511th Caroline Jones and Sam Martin ran the Mendip 10K, with Martin in first just a few seconds ahead with both making the top ten in their categories.

Results: Sam Martin, 01:12:01, 79th, (8th SenF); Caroline, Jones, 01:12:04, 80th (10th F40) Saturday saw 39 Dursley RC parkrunners out and about, with Neil Hodgson topping the chart both on time and age grading.

Running at Wotton, Matt Rogers was just thirty seconds off Hodgson’s pace with Andrew Oborne 37 seconds back. Junior Oli Norris ran a best at Kingsway.