THE popular Fairford 10k and 3k races, held on Sunday, June 1, enticed a multitude of members from Bourton Road Runners with 22 of their number competing in the main race.

A difficult course was made even harder by the hot weather, and also provided tough competition with some fast times being clocked.

As usual, Dennis Walmsley lead the Bourton team home for second place overall in a time of 34 minutes and 29 seconds.

However, Dennis was chased all the round by the club's promising 17-year-old Tom Newbould, who did extremely well in his first event at this distance.

He ran hard and held on to fourth position at the 7k-mark, but, unfortunately, the effort got the better of him.

Despite feeling a little unwell, Tom kept going to finish in a very good tenth place in an impressive time of 36.15.

With too many runners to mention independently, the club showed its strength in depth with all 22 completing the course.

Trevor McGill and Tony Spedding broke the 40-minute barrier with John Raper missing it by one second.

Neil Teague, competing in his first race since his injury that forced his withdrawal from London, was doubtless relieved to have finished unscathed in 43.25.

The Bourton ladies certainly showed they remain a serious threat to other competing teams.

For with all three scoring runners finishing within one minute of each other, Briony Lloyd, Alison Lane and Sarah Clemo were delighted to collect the ladies' team prize.

Especially impressive was Sarah's run in her debut 10k.

The competition continued down the field with this race making up the club's six-from-ten series the club placings.

With important points at stake, there was much to compete for.

An especially close battle ensued for points in the men's section with Ed Rozier, Rob Humphries and Brian Hulcup racing right to the end and finishing within 40 seconds of each other.

Ed, though, won that particular battle! However, it meant that all runners worked hard and all but one of the club members broke the one-hour barrier.

Junior club members were also busy performing well in the fun run, with the club doing well to take three of the four prizes on offer.

Stephanie Lane was first overall girl in this 3k race with Brittany Teague winning first U11 girl and Josh Newbould taking first U11 boy.