ANNE Palmer has joined a small, yet illustrious group of Thornbury RC members to complete over one hundred parkruns.

In fact, she reached this milestone on January 27 and, on Saturday, added one more at Forest of Dean parkrun in 34:55 mins with her husband David, who ran 28:50 mins.

As well as being a good runner, Anne has volunteered at different parkruns on 28 occasions in a variety of roles, helping to ensure the events take place safely and with enthusiastic support.

Other parkrun results on Saturday included Paul Harrod, who is making steady improvement, running 19:43 minutes at Conwy.

Kevin Wood produced a fantastic run at Chipping Sodbury with a new personal best of 22:10 mins.

There was another personal best time at Thornbury parkrun, Paul Thomas running 22:10 mins in seventh place overall.

Tim Johnson was a first timer on the same course and finished in 25:53 mins, followed by Rob Watkins in a leisurely 40:01 mins, saving his energy for more serious matters in the afternoon.

Kevin Arnold ran the Cheltenham parkrun in a time of 22:34 mins, which, like Watkins, was to be his first run of the day.

On Saturday afternoon, Thornbury once again fielded a full women’s and men’s team in the latest round of the Gloucester League Cross Country at Pittville Park in Cheltenham.

The weather was dry, and the course was ‘good to firm’. However, the undulating profile and stream crossing, followed by a steep incline gave the runners plenty to think about.

The women’s race was contested over a distance of 6.4K and a team of four Thornbury women joined the 129 runners on the start line.

Laura Orna was making her debut for the club and set off ahead of the experienced Angela Bushell, followed by a returning Maddie Parrott and Judy Mills.

Laura kept her lead over the other Thornbury runners throughout the race, although Angela reduced the gap in the closing stages.

Laura made a great first impression in 66th place in 34:45 mins and Angela was 69th in 35:02 mins. Maddie was 97th in 38:31 mins, followed by Judy in 117th in 41:47 mins.

Pete Mainstone competes in the V65 age category and can elect to race over the 6.4K distance alongside the women.

His time of 39:46 mins (106th place) is all the more remarkable, as it was on the same course three years before that Pete had a serious health scare.

The women’s team was 21st out of 27 and the vets (over 40s) 17th out of 19.

The men’s race was 9.3K and Laura’s husband, Henry, was also making his debut, hoping to emulate his wife’s top position for their new club.

Henry and Rob Watkins were the early pace setters amongst the nine Thornbury RC competitors and were keeping up with each other until the last lap, when Rob surged into an unassailable lead, finishing in 50th place in 39:27 mins to Henry’s 39:45 mins in 58th place.

Nevertheless, it was a promising start from Henry and adds more depth to the Thornbury team.

Moray Sloan was the next Thornbury runner in 126th place in 45:23 mins, with a fast finishing Kevin Arnold overtaking several runners on the last lap to finish 129th in 46:27 mins. Nick Langridge blamed a recent skiing trip on a below par performance, 134th in 47:13 mins, but still finished in third in V60 age category.

Anthony Yates had his best run of the season in 53:32 mins, , with Rob Hopkins next in 159th in 54:09 mins, Mike Bennewitz 162nd in 54:51 mins and Jerry Clothier 163rd in 55:31 mins.

The men’s team finished 13th out of 15 and the vets were 11th out of 16 teams.