ON a gloriously sunny and warm February day, 29 members of Farnham Runners ventured to the final event of this season’s Southern Cross-Country League series.

For the fourth year Haslemere Border Athletics Club were hosts, setting up the race headquarters at The Royal School in Hindhead.

After a spell of relatively dry weather which made the route more straightforward, some chose to wear road shoes rather than the usual trail shoes. Challenging stony descents with some exposed tree roots made full appreciation of the scenic views over the Devil’s Punchbowl tricky.

The second half of the five-mile course included some lung-bustingly steep ascents and there were very few flat sections in which to settle into a good running tempo. And the fine weather tempted a good field onto the course, and most of the 24 clubs were well represented.

Farnham Runners gained an excellent third place for the men, seventh for the women, and joint fourth overall on the day. In the final series table, they were joint fourth on points with two other clubs but after a countback system was used they finished fifth. Basingstoke and Midhurst AC were top and Haslemere Border and Farnham Triathlon club joint second with Fleet and Crookham AC third.

Two relative newcomers to the club headed the Farnham Runners contingent – Andy McCall continued his current good form for a fine 20th place and David Roy, after an epic personal challenge the previous weekend, wasn’t far back in 26th.

On the Saturday, he ran almost 30 miles on a local route of his own and on the Sunday he ran the Long Distance Walkers Association’s Punchbowl Ultra-Marathon of 30 miles and came ninth in a time of five hours 40 minutes.

Matt Dellar took advantage of his good local knowledge for a valuable 33rd place, followed by Harvey Wickham in 38th and Stuart Haig in 41st. Neil Ambrose led a strong back-up group in 46th, with Mark Maxwell 55th, Colin Addison 56th and Phil Barker 72nd.

Also in the top 100 were Steve Bailey (87th) and Tim Cummins (89th).

Equalling her fine performance in the last round, Louise Granell finished seventh lady, with Linda Tyler 33rd after a 13-mile training run the previous day. The final scorer was the reliable Lindsay Bamford in 39th.

Not far back, Jane Georghiou, who carried on after taking a tumble, was 41st, just getting the better of Sue Taylor in 44th. Kay Copeland ran well for 55th while Jane Probett crept into the top 100 in 99th.

Other placings:

Men: Justin Clarke 106th, Damian Probett 120th, Geoff Brown 138th, Craig Tate-Grimes – who along with Helen Bracey had run ten mostly uphill miles to get to the start – 167th, Keith Toms 170th, and Mike Dunkley 183rd.

Ladies: Helen Bracey 118th, Clair Bailey 119th, Kathy Brown 123rd, Jacquie Browne 128th, and Jackie Wilkinson 131st.

* At the race, Stuart Haig was presented with the club’s Paul Charlton Memorial Trophy for the best men’s marathon time for 2018 for his 2.56.11 at Abingdon, Oxfordshire.

* The previous weekend, three Farnham Runners chose the Bramley 20 as part of their marathon preparations. Keith Marshall was delighted to be third and close to second in the M60 category with a time of 2.30.43, while Linda Tyler gained a new personal best time of 2.55.48. Lindsay Bamford clocked 3.00.06 and Bob Brimicombe came tenth M50 with 1.09.05 in the Bramley ten-miler.

* Long-term member Bruce Peto has been flying the flag for Farnham Runners and Great Britain in two parkruns in New Zealand. He now holds the M75 age category record (by eight minutes) at Wanaka parkrun, and lies fifth M75 at the Whangarei parkrun.