Sidmouth were the hosts for the first of this year’s Woodland Relays, which sees teams from Honiton, Axe Valley, the Met Office and Sidmouth competing on woodland courses over four legs, writes John Perratt.

It has often been difficult for the club to get their best teams together on a Monday evening, but, this time, the top men did the club proud, recording a first win in the event.

Justin Ashby set off on the first leg on the scenic 2.3 mile course and the team were in second place at the end of his leg. Ben Chesters and Jon Hanson, the next two runners, held that position.

It was left to Graham Hill to tear up the course and bring them home in the top spot out of 23 teams.

The girls also performed well but a nasty fall for Lucy Owen dropped Sidmouth down the field a few places. That was a pity because she is running well at the moment and the week before had set a new course record for the Muttersmoor Time Trial.

? Sidmouth also featured in the BUPA London 10k on Sunday, run on part of the course to be used for the Olympic Marathon next year.

The Ladies’ Race was won by Jo Pavey from Feniton, beating Paula Radcliffe in her first come back race but, perhaps more importantly, Sidmouth’s own Laurence Bolam knocked a few seconds off his club record time, and set a new target for everyone else of 34.51 minutes,