The Gloucestershire County cross country championships were at Old Down Country Park on Saturday.

Although held so close to the town, few members of Thornbury Running Club qualify, neither residing nor having been born been born in the County.

This did not deter Pete Mainstone who, although currently injured, thought this was an ideal opportunity to get some healthy competition back into the Club, meanwhile swelling the ranks and the coffers of the Gloucestershire AAA.

As no Thornbury runners would count in the Championship placings, with the agreement of the organisers he arranged a simple club competition within the main races with each runner being allocated to either Team 1 or Team 2, and the finish times summed to find the winning team.

What this actually meant was a greater-than-usual number of Thornbury runners, intent on beating as many others as possible, whether Thornbury or Gloucestershire competitors.

The ladies 5.9km race held few surprises with Taryn Roberts (17th place in 30.36minutes), the youngster of the team, racing ahead from the start, though unable to get far away from Emma Barnes (21st; 30.46minutes) who was second LV35 to finish.

Jo Williams (24th; 31.31minutes) kept Barnes in her sights, with Clare Watt chasing (26th; 32.07minutes).

Angela Bushell had to work hard on the hills (33rd; 34.11minutes) and Judy Mills finishing 2nd in the LV60 category (35th; 35.43minutes) worked hard but couldn't close the gap. Maddie Parrott had a cautious start but pulled back several places (37th; 38.06minutes).

Cathy Watkins had been cajoled into entering but it was a tough course for anyone, let alone a cross-country first-timer, and although being far from last place, she elected to retire.

There was a delay to the men's start while an injured female competitor was evacuated from the course and this led to mild consternation from Club Captain Craig Carscadden when a hooter sounded even though none of the Thornbury men were ready for the off.

Relieved to discover it was one of the Farm Park donkeys braying, the men lined up, Mike Willis having shoelace issues which gave him some extra work to do when the race finally started.

The course was already worn by all the previous races, and there were several slippery sharp turns as well as hard if short hills, and the men had to cover it four times to make up the 9.2km distance.

First Thornbury man to show was Andrew Darton whose record in cross country is more of injury than success, though he shows very quick times in road races. He was followed by Rob Watkins, looking strong and resolved with Matt Johnstone on to his shoulder.

The race was totally dominated by the young Cheltenham & County Harriers athletes with 14 finishers in the top 20, seemingly making easy work of the course.

By the third lap Watkins and Johnstone had overhauled Darton, Watkins finishing 32nd in 40.47minutes and third MV45 with Johnstone losing some ground to come 33rd in 41.20minutes. Darton followed (38th; 42.09minutes).

Mike Willis finished a good 2nd in the MV60 age group, 44th in 44.50minutes with the very-much-younger Dylan Roberts (47th; 45.39minutes) also finding the course tougher than he had allowed-for. Only just behind, Jim Williams (48th; 45.42minutes) was pleased to have beaten Nick Langridge, 3rd MV60 to finish in 49th place (46.01minutes). Simon Young (53Rd; 47.30minutes) kept ahead of Paul Thomas (55th; 47.51minutes) who spent half a lap easing back when a hip injury threatened.

In a now-familiar 3-way battle, Steve Dimond finished 62nd in 52.37minutes ahead of Kevin Cundy (69th; 52.54) who had looked in danger of being caught by Hugh McPherson (70th; 52.38minutes). Also in this race-within-a-race came Mark Williams, like Young, something of a stranger to cross country nowadays (64th, 51.44minutes).

As for the winning team: well, the results have yet to be announced, but Barnes, Mills, Willis, Langridge and Watkins can all be pleased that they would have won medals in the main Gloucestershire race.

Other weekend running was at the parkruns, with Garry Slater doing a cross country event at the muddier-than-ever Wotton course, completing the 5km in 21.51minutes which saw him in 3rd place in the age gradings.

Suzy Cundy went back under 30 minutes, running 29.42minutes at Chipping Sodbury, and at Stonehouse Tom Usherwood finished in 20.34minutes.

This Sunday is the Riverbank Rollick, starting at 11am from the Pithay, the course passing St Arilda's Church at Oldbury then dropping to the banks of the Severn which it follows for about a mile and a half before returning via Littleton then fields and tracks to the Mundy Playing Fields.

The race is once again a sellout so there will be no entries on the day and there promises to be plenty of mud to entertain runners and onlookers.

More details about Thornbury Running Club can be found at thornburyrunningclub.co.uk