A HUMID overcast evening with increasingly heavy drizzle welcomed the 407 starters to the Berkeley 10K, making it one of the biggest fields of recent years.

The race for the men’s prize started to take shape within the first half mile with Brett Halliwell taking an early lead a few meters in front of Ian Radford of Black Pear Joggers with Mark James of Cheltenham Harriers a further 10 meters behind.

Halliwell extended his lead on Radford as they completed the first circuit, only for Halliwell to pull up with a hamstring injury on Hamfield Lane.

This left Radford now being chased down by James with Robin Loftus of Stroud not far behind him.

Radford held on to finish in 33:16.

In the women’s race Gemma Hargraves of Almost Athletes started quickly followed by Shona Crombie Hicks. Hargraves established a comfortable lead over the first lap with Crombie-Hicks falling back to fourth, Naomi Easton of Stroud AC came through into second place but some way behind Hargraves. Hargraves held on finishing strongly to finish in 38:14.

Behind second placed Easton, Crombie-Hicks recovered and came through strongly passing Nicki Morgan and almost catching Easton to come home first F45.

Dursley’s fifty starters were led home by Joe Browning who finished in under 40 minutes, knocking 6 minutes off his previous best at Berkeley, and he can now hopefully push on having breached this psychological barrier. Behind him Nigel Sankey worked hard having completed a Half Marathon the day before to be second DRC runner in, behind Sankey Thomas Smith (1st U20) led home a posse of Dursley men on the forty one minute mark, with Carl Fivey pacing Mark Sprigings, another Tewkesbury finisher, around the course only to drop away at the finish. Kevin Jackson squeezed in between these two with another good run placing 5th M55,

Tony Wooldridge was a little way behind placing 2nd M65. Zoe Lamerton had a fine run to finish first DRC woman with a personal best and 2nd F35. Others running PBs including Louise Biddell, Julie Fenn, Audrey Harris, Tracey Strickland, Sue Jones Lise Young and Jadie Cotterell who manged to pip Alice Lewis to the line, Lewis 3rd F55. Clair Norman ran her first race and Beth Alexander ran her first ever 10k.

Elieen Hieron running the day after a half marathon placed 2nd F70.

All results are provisional Results PROVISIONAL) Joe Browning, 42nd, 39:51; Nigel Sankey, 48th, 40:12; Thomas Smith, 58th, 41:07, (1st U20); Mark Sprigings, 68th, 41:37; Kevin Jackson, 69th, 41:42.8, (5th MV55); Carl Fivey, 70th, 41:48; Tony Wooldridge, 79th, 42:39, (2nd V65); Zoe Lamerton, 109th, 44:56, (2nd V35); Jadie Cotterell, 120th, 45:59, (8th SenF); Alice Lewis, 124th, 46:03, (3rd V55); Julie Easthope, 135th, 46:39.6, (4th V35) David Saunders, 144th, 47:07.5, (5th V65); Matthew Wortley, 149th, 47:00; Tony Waye, 188th, 49:10; Audrey Harris, 191st, 49:20, (8th V40); Charlie Strickland, 208th, 50:35; Lucy Kirmond, 211th, 50:37 Daniel Gabb, 230th, 51:37; Charley Palmer, 236th, 52:11; Louise Biddell, 241st, 52:46.2, (10th V35) Lise Hindshaw, 245th, 52:54; Steve Rugman , 246th, 53:23; Liz Halford, 248th, 53:26; Lisa Young, 265th, 54:17; Tracey Strickland, 292nd, 57:11; Garry Strickland, 293rd, 57:10; Clair Norman, 295th, 57:05; Becky Court, 296th, 57:06; Julie Fenn, 303rd, 58:04; Steve Barnes, 319th, 59:08; Emma Keating, 320th, 59:10; Dominique Pemberton, 333rd, 59:53; Sue Carter, 334th, 01;00:06; Jackie Pennington, 338th, 01:00:07; Diana Gore, 341st, 00:26; (10th V55); Kevin James Proctor, 342nd, 01:00:20; Sallly Williams, 348th, 01:01:21; Gordon Lewis, 349th, 01:01:24; Nicki Cowle, 353rd, 01:02:11; Jo Fearns, 355th, 01:02:08; Eileen Hieron, 356th, 01:02:11, (2nd V70); Claire Rees, 361st, 01:03:49; Sue Jones, 371st, 01:06:52; Veronica Higgins, 386th, 01:09:10; Rebecca Halford, 387th, 01:09:15; Annie Hidden, 388th, 01:09:15; Becky Whatling, 392nd, 01:10:24; Charlie Taylor, 396th, 01:12:20; Avril Bagnall, 398th, 01:12:42.

Sunday the 14 the saw the Tewkesbury Half Marathon, as ever it was run in warm conditions, Dursley Running Club’s eleven runners were led home by Nigel Sankey in ninety five minutes with Fran Amigoni again first DRC female home in 01:50. Eileen Hieron was placed 4th in the F60 category in her first ever Half, Graham Tudor 10th M60 category, Claire Searle ran well to place 21st F40. Shona Darley, Michelle Ball and Karen Eadon all ran personal bests.

Results: Nigel Sankey, 83rd, 01:35:40; Jonathan Tudor, 107th, 01:38:15; Mark Sprigings, 119th, 01:39:31; Graham Tudor, 206th, 10, (10th M-V60), 01:48:22; Francesca Amigoni, 242nd , 01:50:00; Pete Dunn, 303rd , Finished, 01:53:16; Shona Darley, 354th, 01:56:35; Michelle Ball, 470th , 02:02:55: Claire Searle, 575th, 02:11:23; Karen Eadon, 647th, 02:18:20; Eileen Hieron, 649th, (4th F-V60), 02:18:27

On the same day two DRC Juniors took part in the County Championships with Luke Davis placing 4th in the U13 1500m event in a provisional time of 04:50, Aoife Johnson competed in the U15 200ms placing 6th in her heat

Thirty six DRC athletes runners were out at Kingsway parkrun led home by speedster Robyn Jackson, running the course for the first time she posted a time of 19:14 placing 11th overall with an age grading of 76.95. At the off road Wotton parkrun Mark Braiser ran a scintillating 19:19 a mere 5 seconds off his parkrun best achieved at Kingsway pancake flat course, Alice Lewis is also on top for a PB and an age grading of 82 percent.

Fifteen athletes achieved personal bests, at Kingsway: Kris Rymer, Mark Owen, Andrew Eades, Andy Hara, Chris Curry; Ben Houghton, Sam Stevens, Sarah Willcox, Samantha Hill, at Wotton: Mark Brasier; Alice Lewis, Anthony Matthews, Caroline Whitlock and Pete Wintle. Alan Honey came 4th overall and won his age category at the Okanagan parkrun Canada in 22:32.