Thornbury Running Club’s membership has undergone a significant boost in recent years, and one of the contributing factors has been a regular beginners class led by Kevin Wood.

This nine-week programme aims to take a group of novice runners and develop their stamina and confidence, with the end-goal of the course being a 5k parkrun. Saturday’s Thornbury parkrun was the setting for the six runners who graduated from the course, and they were vociferously cheered on by their new club mates who came out to support a fantastic effort.

At the top of the field, Nick Williams led by example and was the first to finish in a rapid 17:38 mins, followed by Dylan Roberts in a new personal best of 18:27 mins in second place. Adam Frontczak was the next Thornbury finisher in a new pb of 20:41 mins, followed by Kevin Arnold in a new PB of 22:25 mins, Angela Bushell 25:37 mins and Peter Blenkiron 26:34 mins. It was a good day for the Pritchards, both Christopher and Emma ran best times of 27:00 and 27:46 mins, respectively. Val Knight ran a PB of 28:11 mins, followed by Josie Cole 28:15 mins, Richard Illingworth 31:19 mins, Kathy Willott 32:55 mins, Rachel Hixson 35:07 mins, Pamela MacLeod 35:46 mins, Mike Bennewitz 36:16 mins, Carol Mosses 39:51 mins and Hugh McPherson 44:38 mins.

Meanwhile, there were two Thornbury runners at the Dursley Peaks Race on a drizzly and windy evening.

Just over 10k long and with over 300m of vertical ascent, this off-road race includes some of the highest peaks in quick succession. Brendan Griffiths finished inside the top 10 in 9th place in 53:52 mins, followed by Nick Langridge in 23rd place and first in the V65 age category in 59:36 mins, which was his fastest time in 4 attempts on this challenging course.

On an undulating course, Andrew Darton was 15th in the 10k Wells Fun Run in a time of 38:50 mins. Jon Welsh was in Dartmoor for the Burrator 10k, a flat course which takes the runners on a loop of the local reservoir with impressive tors in the distance. On a wet day, Jon took his time to enjoy the scenery and finished in 214th place in 55:50 mins.

Elsewhere, Garry Slater ran Wotton parkrun in 20:28 mins and Henry Orna finished Severn Bridge parkrun in 19:15 mins.