In an effort to encourage club members to take part in events other than our own club nights we are now identifying one race a month for us to turn out all together, writes John Perratt.

The first of these was the Beer Blazer last Sunday which provided a tough 10k on the toughest part of the Grizzly route, an easier 5k and finally a 1k run for the youngsters.

The plan succeeded to the extent that we had a dozen or so runners racing over the weekend with 10 of them at Beer on a very windy morning as we gathered at Pecorama and set off into that wind above Beer Head. There were rumours of side bets taking place amongst some of us and even talk of sabotage by curry in an effort to be the first club member home. All to no avail however as this honour went to Ian Walker who remained aloof from any skulduggery. He finished in 25th place and with a time of 56.26 was the only one of us to get under the hour. We were also pleased to see his very young daughter, Imogen, burn up the 1km course with a huge smile whilst leaving her mother trailing some distance behind.

Colin Flood, forsaking his boat because of Force 7 winds, romped around with ease followed at two-minute intervals by Brian Gosling and Don Cawthera. Brian’s turn of speed was surprising and could well affect his handicap at this week’s Time Trial. Then came the girls, with Helen Palmer leading the way and Debbie Marriot, Cathy Keast and Monica Read in consecutive positions but very close together. Terry Bewes completed the line up whilst John Perratt was our first and also last representative in the 5k jaunt around the Coastguard cottage and back.

Next month’s targeted race is the Umborne Ugh on the evening of Saturday, June 7, but back to last weekend there were two extraordinary runs over the 10k distance. Matthew Szala has lost a few club records to young Jason Drew this year but Matthew is not one to take matters lying down so he set off on Sunday for Bideford, came fifth in the10k race in a stunning time of 34.30 and surely must have felt well pleased with that result. Unbeknown to us though, Jason had entered the Bristol 10k alongside about 11,000 other runners. There were some very quick runners and Jason responded well to the pace and shocked everyone with a time of 34.20. That is the new club record and our only regret is that Matthew and Jason were not in the same race. That would have been worth watching!