‘What a terrific course’ was the unanimous view of the seven Sidmouth runners who went to Newton Abbot on Sunday for the Templer Ten, writes Colin Flood.

The name comes from the Templer family who built a canal and tramway from Haytor to Teignmouth for the export of granite at the end of the eighteenth century. A flat race, then, of just under 10 miles, includes some of the old tramway and taking in road, track, field, wood, river and canal; a real multi-terrain course for the 250 starters.

John Podmore turned up in road shoes, but fortunately brought a brand new pair of off-roaders with him, and, on learning about the course, smartly changed footwear in less time than a Jensen Button pit-stop. Sadly for him, performance-wise, any further comparison with F1 ended right there.

Graham Hill(6th) led the Sidmouth runners home after only securing a place from a cancellation 10 minutes before the start. When Graham is around, it’s usually a case of who is going to come second, and this time it was Aaron Smith (75th). Aaron’s first allegiance is to football, so not for the first time, he raced less than 24 hours after a gruelling 90 minutes on the pitch playing for Sidbury United.

Colin Flood (98th) was three minutes behind, with Paul Bowler (116th) three minutes later. It was good to see him back competing after a car accident and a lay-off of several years, welcome back Paul. Sarah Brown (168th) should be happy with her performance, and Terry Bewes (169th) and John Podmore (170th) followed her in. Terry has come to running later than most, but he’s making up for it now.

It was a great effort by everyone, on a stunning day around a wonderful course.

Sidmouth times: Graham Hill 58.22; Aaron Smith 1.13.32; Colin Flood 1.16.34; Paul Bowler 1.19.27; Sarah Brown 1.26.41; Terry Bewes 1.26.42; John Podmore 1.26.42.

On Saturday the village of Yarcombe played host to a 5 and 10 mile jaunt across the countryside backed up by plenty of eats for the runners as they finished. New member, Nic Smith from Branscombe, was up with the leaders all the way on the longer course and finished up in 1.16.35 for a well deserved second place. Ruth and John Chesters took a break from Orienteering with Ruth opting for the shorter race along with John Doherty. The nature of the course meant that times were slow for the relative distances but there were no complaints as the fine weather ideally complemented the magnificent views on the way.

A little further down A303 Milan Goc ran in the Ilminster 10k, a race which he won last year. A time of 37 minutes on this occasion is good for a very hilly course but although marginally slower than his previous effort was good enough for 6th Place.