Exmouth Harriers fielded two teams at the Parrett Trail Relay, a well-established six stage trail relay run on permissive and public rights of way from the mouth of the River Parrett on the North Somerset coast. It crosses Somerset to finish just over the border in Dorset close to the source of the river at Winyards Gap. The Winyards Gap Inn is the Official finish area, and the pub is open during the afternoon and evening for meals, snacks and much-needed sustenance. The route is approximately 53 miles long and is broken down into 6 stages.
The Exmouth Ladies team produced a magnificent performance to win their category, their total time of 7:39:46 beating second placed Yeovil Town Ladies ‘A’ by just 32 seconds! Although this was a brilliant team performance, special mention must go to two of its members. Jenny Timms, who not only ran two stages, but won her second stage by nearly 5 minutes. And the awesome Camilla Mathison, who started the anchor stage with a huge 19-minute deficit but came storming through to claim first place for Exmouth. The fact that the runners start each stage together at the same predetermined time, the winners being the team with the lowest total time, means that there is no runner in front to be overhauled and each runner is just competing against the clock. This makes Camilla’s performance all the more remarkable!
The victorious Exmouth Ladies team comprised Jenny Timms (stage 1 – 10.5 miles and stage 4 – 8.6 miles), Sue Wilkin (stage 2 – 7.9 miles), Lorraine Croome (stage 3 – 8.1 miles), Dawn Teed (stage 5 – 8.6 miles) and Camilla Mathison (stage 6 – 8.6 miles). Well done, the Ladies team!!
The men’s relay was won by Yeovil Town ‘A’ in 6:00:44 and the Exmouth team were 4th in 6:36:20. A superb first stage of 1:08:41 by Hugh Marsden gave Exmouth a flying start and a lead of 4 minutes. But although the whole team ran well, the opposition was too strong and the lead could not be maintained. The other Exmouth runners were Paul Champion (stage 2), John Croome (stage 3), Jim Pyne (stage 4), Dave Stone (stage 5) and Joe Pascoe (stage 6).
Honiton 12k
Two Exmouth Harriers competed in the Honiton 12K Race. Adrian Kearns produced an excellent performance to come 12th in 47:51 out of the 160 finishers. Julie Gellender was also outstanding and was 3rd lady and 38th overall in 52:16. The winner was Ian Stoneman of South West Road Runners in 43:21.
With all the other events going on at the weekend, there were only two Exmouth Harriers, both V60’s, in Redruth at the first of the new season’s six Brooks Westward League Cross Country races. Ray Elston maintained his current good form with another solid performance, coming 3rd V60 and 88th overall. Les Turner did not finish.
(LT)
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