There was a good turnout at the Running Club Time Trial last week with 21 taking part in the longer 3.8 mile one and another six on the 2.1 mile route, writes John Perratt.

The handicaps usually take a bit of time to settle down, but for the first one of the year they worked quite well with most of the field finishing pretty well together.

The dark horse of the day was Ben West, who, unbeknown to the rest of us, had run the London marathon only a few days earlier.

There was though still plenty left in his legs and he romped home in a comfortable first place.

Next in was Jason Drew, not only being the fastest man of the day but also becoming the new course record holder.

His time of 20.20 beat the previous record set two years ago by Matthew Szala by four seconds - and he is still only 16 years old!

Two newcomers doing it for the first time, Tom Lovatt and Gareth Edwards, both ran well and will be rewarded by a harsher handicap next time just so that they do not get too carried away with their success.

Tim Mitchell also showed that he is in form at the moment with the second quickest time of the day.

Not downcast by the loss of his Time Trial record, Matthew Szala took part in the Bampton to Tiverton Road race on Easter Monday and ran one of the best races of his road racing career with a fine second place over the undulating 7-mile course.

The two leading runners in fact finishing well ahead of the rest of the strong field.

Nicole Madeley also made a welcome return to the racing scene on Good Friday at the tough Kilmington Kanter multi terrain race where she finished in a creditable 47th place with a time of almost exactly one hour.