THORNBURY RC had another memorable day as the third round of the Gloucestershire Cross Country League rolled into Wotton-under-Edge on Sunday afternoon, writes Matt Johnstone.

The undoubted stars of the show for Thornbury were the ladies’ team, who have quickly developed into a strong unit. Rosie Allen spearheaded the effort in the women’s 6.4K race. Rosie kept pace with the group behind the lead runners and finished 26th out of 144 runners and 3rd under 20 in 26:34 mins.

Hannah Kinlock-Haken led Laura Orna for most of the race, but Laura paced her effort very well and picked off several runners on the final lap and finished in 32nd place in 27:17 mins with Hannah in 35th in 27:26 mins. The top 3 ladies combined to produce the best team result of the season, finishing 8th out of 31 teams.

Melanie Wilson had a very encouraging debut performance in 52nd place in 28:44 mins. Clare Watt held off the customary late charge of Jo Emerson to finish 64th overall in 29:41 mins and a very impressive 2nd in the LV55 age category, Jo was 71st in 30:04 mins. These 3 runners comprised the B team and and were 18th overall and finished a very creditable 7th out of 19 teams in the vets competition.

Angela Bushell ran well in 89th position in 31:32 mins and Judy Mills was in good form and finished in 127th in 35:55 mins. Jerry Clothier competed in the 6.4K race and was 125th overall and 3rd in the MV70 age category.

The seven Thornbury men had been set a tough act to follow as they gathered at the start of the 9.6K race in a field of almost 200 runners.

Nick Williams made his way through a very congested pack in the opening stages and settled into a good rhythm, which he maintained to finish in 48th place in an excellent time of 36:03 mins. After a promising start, Matt Johnstone went into damage limitation mode for the final lap and was the next Thornbury runner to make it to the finish in 66th place in 37:36 mins.

Henry Orna, Dave Beard and cross-country debutant Will Hamilton were never far apart, and it was the long striding Henry who gauged his effort best to finish ahead in 93rd in 39:12 mins. Dave and Will caught and overtook one another several times, but it was Dave’s ultra-marathon experience which came to the fore as he took the lead in the closing stages to finish 100th in 39:27 mins. Will was 109th in 39:43 mins. Steve Allen was making a welcome return after a longstanding knee injury and sprinted down the straight to finish 143rd in 42:55 mins. Kevin Arnold completed the squad in 175th in 45:57 mins.

The men’s team finished 14th out of 21 teams and the vets were 10th out of 16th.

The 10k Christmas Cracker in Weston-super-Mare is now in its 31st year and 10 Thornbury runners made their way to compete with the crowds on Sunday.

Paul Thomas was the first Thornbury runner in 121st place 44:18 mins, followed by Hugh McPherson 334th 51:15 mins, Mike Bennewitz 463rd 53:53 mins, Paul Clark 843rd 59:34 mins, Arthur Renshaw 832nd 1 hour 49 seconds, Mark Williams 930th 1 hour 1:26 mins, Kate Cooper 1134th 1 hour 4:46 mins, Sylvia Fox 1637th 1 hour 15:10 mins, Helen Renshaw 1961st 1 hour 39:22 mins and Val James 1962nd 1 hour 39:22 mins.

Brendan Griffiths was back for his second race in as many weeks, this time in the Mallards Pike Night Race in Forest of Dean over a 5.3 mile course on 6th December. The race included a mix of footpaths, bridleways and purpose-built mountain bike track in the cover of darkness, with the runners using their head torches to light the way. As well as running in off-road events, Brendan is an experienced motocross racer, so he’s adept at negotiating muddy trails and he finished the Mallards Pike course in 22nd place in 40:06 mins.

Thornbury runners took part in 5 different parkruns on Saturday. Pamela Macleod ran the Newport course for the first time and ran 34:19 mins and Kevin Arnold set a new personal best in Eastville park with a time of 22:17 mins.

At Chipping Sodbury David Palmer ran 29:43 mins, followed by Anne Palmer in 32:38 mins. At Lee-on-Solent, Karen Carr ran 27:29 mins.

Andrew Darton was first finisher by almost a minute at Thornbury parkrun in a time of 19:16 mins. The next TRC runners were Moray Sloan 23:18 mins, Louise Warren 27:49 mins, Josie Cole 29:19 mins, John Watt 30:53 mins, Rachel Murphy 31:10 mins, Ian Shepherd 40:20 mins and Lynne Turner 41:22 mins.