THE 30th Weston Christmas Cracker took place on Sunday in howling wind and rain and almost 2000 runners set off from under the famous pier, many decked out in Christmas fancy dress.

This 10k race attracts a hardcore following amongst Thornbury RC and Andrew Darton has been one of the regulars over the years.

Andrew was the first finisher for the club in a very respectable 20th place overall in 40:03 mins.

Colette Jackson had the stand out performance of the Thornbury runners on the day, she ran 47:05 mins and was 2nd in the VF40 age category.

Paul Thomas was next in 48:25 mins 153rd, Jo Williams 48:53 mins and 4th in the VF40 age category and Hugh McPherson’s time of 49:58 mins (230th) was a welcome return to form.

Other results in Weston included Mike Bennewitz 52:02 mins 332nd, Angela Bushell 52:33 mins 346th, Anne Palmer one hour 8:38 mins 1258th, Arthur Renshaw one hour 8:38 mins 1259th and Sylvia Fox one hour 14:57 mins 1658th.

In Weston-super-Mare again, John Grimsey ran at the five-mile ‘Weston Prom Run’ on Thursday. John finished in 278th position in a time of 53:47 mins.

For the second week in a row, Nick Williams was the first finisher at Thornbury parkrun on Saturday morning.

Nick is a keen trail runner, so the undulating course is made to measure for him and he sped around in 19:02 mins.

Andrew Darton warmed up for the Weston Cracker with a brisk 20:34 mins in fourth place.

Martin Coyle was next in 23:17 mins, followed by Jonathan Greenwood 24:09 mins, Chris Dawes 24:33 mins, Hannah Kinloch-Haken 24:38 mins, Peter Blenkiron 33:33 mins and Anne Palmer 40:22 mins.

Experienced parkrunner, Kevin Arnold, was taking part in the Eastville event for the first time and ran 23:14 mins.