ATHLETICS: Dursley Running Club's Brown beats Ball in a sprint finish

The weekend started on Saturday morning with Nicki Cowle and Julie Forggatt at their 50th parkrun at Wotton, with DRC supporting them and the event saw a larger than normal field of 185 completing the course, forty of which were Dursley runners.

The evening saw nine DRC athletes at Staverton airport for a one mile sprint along the runway. Once the hooter went, Joe Ball was off like a scalded cat about 15 metres ahead of Mike Brown with Dave Durden around 20 metres further back.

Brown just managed to overhaul Ball at the finish. Jon Tudor surpassed his expectations with a solid return to racing at speed with a sub six run.

Meteor Mile Provisional Strava Results: Mike Brown 05:20; Joe Ball, 05:23; Dave Durden, 05:38 Jon Tudor, 05:55; Tony Ball, 06:39; Anthony Matthews 06:39; Alice Lewis, XX:XX; Julie Froggatt XX:XX; Eileen Hieron XX:XX

Sunday saw DRC athletes competing at the Andover Trail Marathon, Wolverhampton Marathon, New Swindon Half Marathon, the Oldbury Ten and the Woodchester Park off road event.

Kate Browning competed her fifty-ninth marathon completed the course with a strong run of 03:43:17 placing 2nd in her category and 65th overall. Neil Hodgson completed the Andover Trail Marathon supporting a friend around the course in 05:04.

At Swindon it was a case of three PBs for DRC runners, Joe Browning led the team home with an excellent run, he ran under 85 minutes for the first time placing 36th over all, going through the first 10K in 37:17.

Mark Sprigings ran really well completing his second half in 7 days and in just over 90 minutes produced a 3-minute personal best, Liz Halford was first DRC lady home running also a PB Results: Joe Browning, 36th ,01:24:22 (30th SenM); Mark Springings, 98th 01;30:44; Liz Halford 1026th 02:02:02; Kevin Proctor 1449th 02:14:58.

Oldbury 10mile saw 40 DRC runners on the start line. Conditions were marginally favourable in that whilst cool and wet the wind was blustery. Regardless of the conditions and distance DRC runners stepped up to the plate, with 11 top ten finishers and a number of first timers completing the distance.

Kevin Jackson is flying at the moment, coming home first for DRC, 32nd overall and 2nd MV55 in just over 68 minutes. Joe Ball ran steadily after a great run the night before to finish as second DRC runner in 70 minutes with Matt Hazell Livall third home for the club.

Margaret Johnson was first DRC woman home and 2nd in category. Other top ten categories finishers were Garry Strickland, John Delafield, Steve Barnes, Simon Jones, Soos Moss, Shona Darley, Julie Froggatt (having a big weekend), and Damian Lai.

Running personal bests were Margaret Johnson, Caroline Jones, Damian Lai, Louse Biddell, Sam Hill, Shona Darley, Ian Cole, Matt Hazel-Livall, Julie Fenn and Lise Young so PBs and benchmark times for them.

At the back Jo Fearns and the redoubtable Karen Eaden supported each other around with Karen managing to run all the way despite not having run since mid August, very impressive!

Tracey Goodwin was the club’s Lanterne Rouge getting in well under two hours.

Results: Kevin Jackson, 32nd , (2nd M55+), 01:08:28; Joe Ball, 43rd, , 01:10:32; Matt Hazel Livall, 48th, , 01:11:42; Garry Strickland, 49th, (4th M50+), 01:11:50; Simon Jones, 55th, (7th M40+), 01:13:02; Margaret Johnson, 68th, (2nd F50+), 01:14:22; Ian Cole, 73rd, 01:15:34; John Delafield, 91st, (6th M55+), 01:18:07; Caroline Jones, 95th, 01:18:58; Damian Lai, 118th, (10th M40+), 01:21:00; Antony Ball, 127th, 01:22:51; Jadie Cotterell, 128th, 01:22:51; Suzanne Moss, 150th, (7th F40+), 01:25:48; Kevin Rea, 151st, 01:25:48; Shona Darley, 154th, (8th F40+), 01:26:00; Lise Hindshaw, 160th, (10th F40+), 01:26:15; Charley Palmer, 174th, 01:27:48; Tara Truman, 180th, 01:28:21; Charlie Strickland, 183rd, 01:28:31; Andrew Eades, 192nd, 01:30:19; Louise Biddell, 195th, 01:30:44; Lisa Young, 197th, 01:30:53; Steve Barnes, 207th, (6th M60+), 01:32:12; Michelle Ball, 225th, 01:35:19; Annette Keevil, 226th, 01:35:19; Steve Rugman, 228th, 01:36:02; Julie Froggatt, 231st, (9th F50+), 01:36:27; Dominique Pemberton, 242nd, 01:38:38; Julie Fenn, 260th, 01:41:08; Nicola Cowle, 259th, 01:41:08; Sally Williams, 291st, 01:49:00; Julie Furneaux, 298th, 01:50:49; Sarah Willcox, 300th, 01:51:01; Ian Roberts, 303rd, 01:51:45; James Moss,AKA someone else????? 304th, 01:51:45; Samantha Hill, 310th, 01:52:16; Nicky Grant, 149th, 01:52:17; Karen Eadon, 314th, 01:53:19; Jo Fearns, 315th, 01:53:21; Tracey Goodwin, 321st, 01:56:16.

The icing on the weekends cake for DRC was Woodchester Manor with a strong turnout from the club’s quicker runners James Everett, Mike Crompton and Tim Ennis forming a strong team as the first three home counted, backing them up in case of emergency were Mark Brasier and Dave Durden.

A fast start saw a Cheltenham Harrier disappearing off into the distance with Crompton, Everett and Ennis struggling to keep in contact and hoping that the hills would take their toll.

This was not to be and James finished second for DRC four minutes down.

Provsional Results: (Strava Times): James Everett 2nd 50:10; Tim Ennis 5th 53:19; Mike Crompton 6th 54:00; Dave Durden 58:57 (2nd MV50); Mark Brasier; Paul Gebbett 01:01:30; Nigel Sankey; Alice Lewis; Paul Lewington; Erica Fuller.

A mere 48 DRC runners made it to parkrun with the majority going to Wotton to celebrate Nicki Cowle and Julie Froggatts’ 50th parkruns. Mark Brasier delivered the fastest DRC parkrun of 19:03 at Wotton with the highest age grading of the week at 73.32% with Annette Heylings reaching 70% at Kingsway.

Steve Barnes was first home at Kingsway. Pbs (or course bests) were all at Wootton: well done Chris Barnes, Mike Hanman, Julie Fenn, Sam Martin, Margaret Badger, Terry Cother, Veronica Higgins and Carley Heath. Charley Palmer did some parkrun tourism in deepest Dorset, 12h home at the Moor Valley event

Kingsway: Steve Barnes, 119th , 27:24; Annette Heylings, 128th, 28:09; Ian Cole, 239th, 39:14; Anne Harris, 252nd, 58:47. Andover: Neil Hodgson, 23rd, 20:25 Moors Valley Country Park , Dorset: Charley Palmer, 12th, 25:31, First Timer: Stonehouse: Erica Fuller, 35th, 27:47. Wotton: Mark Brasier, 3rd, 19:03, PB; Shona Darley, 29th, 24:20; Catherine Pinnock, 35th, 24:52; Chris Barnes, 45th, 26:24, PB; Sam Cother, 65th, 27:45; Tracey Strickland, 68th, 27:52; Mike Hanman, 71st, 28:08, PB; Garry Strickland, 73rd, 28:09; Pete Dunn, 77th, 28:15; Steve Rugman, 94th, 29:24; Debi Jones, 105th, 30:20, First Timer; Oliver Norris, 110th, 30:31; Becky Court, 113th, 30:39; Deborah Moulder, 114th, 30:43, First Timer; Julie Froggatt, 117th, 30:47; Nicki Cowle, 118th, 30:48; Julie Fenn, 119th, 30:49, PB; Andrew Eades, 120th, 30:50; Lisa Hindshaw, 121st, 30:52; Sam Martin, 122nd, 30:54, PB; Antony Ball, 123rd, 30:55; Margaret Badger, 124th, 30:56, PB; Jackie Pennington, 129th, 31:07; Terry Cother, 136th, 31:26, PB; Rachael Goatman, 139th, 31:44; Clair Norman, 141st, 31:54; Nicki Squire, 142nd, 31:57, First Timer; Veronica Higgins, 144th, 32:04, PB; Jo Fearns, 145th, 32:05, First Timer; Angie Sinton, 146th, 32:11;Carly Heath, 149th, 32:33, PB; Janet Matthews, 154th, 33:52; Ian Roberts, 155th, 33:53; Aby Cairns, 158th, 34:42; Tracey Goodwin, 159th, 34:43; Lisa Young, 161st, 34:58; Sam Stevens, 163rd, 35:17; Charlotte Taylor, 164th, 35:18, First Timer; John Delafield, 171st, 37:12; Denise Billings, 172nd, 37:31, First Timer; Matt Hazel-Livall, 178th, 39:06;