The glorious sunshine over North Devon ensured a good turnout from Honiton Running Club on Sunday at the Bideford Half Marathon.

The glorious sunshine over North Devon ensured a good turnout from Honiton Running Club on Sunday at the Bideford Half Marathon.This is an increasingly popular event, possibly because of the flat final seven miles along a disused railway track. Appropriately the organisers had coined the phrase "a swift half" for this run.However, after passing the first mile marker all runners realised the first loop after the start was adding about 0.3 miles to the overall distance. Hence all times below refer to a distance of about 13.4 miles and about two minutes more in time than the half marathon for the faster Honiton runners.Eighteen runners from Honiton started with Paul Davey leading the Honiton field home in 1.29.21. Fran Bond also had a good run preparing for her London Marathon debut in 1.33.14. Steve Davey 1.33.34, Guy Paddon 1.35.43, Gary Enticott 1.38.02, Bruce Strawbridge 1.38.37, Judy Davey 1.39.18, Roger Saunders 1:40:48, Richard Harris 1.41.20. John Burgess continued his good form finishing in 1.44.44. Claire Pomeroy at 1.49.25 was hoping for a qualification time for the New York Marathon and Jennie Sleeman 1.51.40, was close to last year's time, despite the extra distance. Simon Hall 1.55.19 , Nikki Campbell 1.55.00, Anne Ephraums 2.10.49, Vanessa Glyn Jones 2.15.05, Tracey Strawbridge 2.21.39 and Mickie Dicks 2.22.27 also finished.Axe Valley RunnersThe Moore clan was in action again on Sunday at Combe St Nicholas. Harry won the over 70 title in the 10K and also won a memento for being the oldest runner. Tiffany was the 2nd under 15 in the shorter 2 K event. Honiton RC's James Denne made a mockery of one of the hardest local 10K courses, making it look almost flat by winning in 35:50. Luke Reed was very pleased to be the first AVR home, 8th overall in 39:10. Next was Chris Keefe in 41:57; Chris ran the first 5K six seconds faster than his 5k PB! Dave Braunton seems to have the running bug back again and turned out to complete the course in 62 minutes. Mollie Hansford was the victor in Monday evening's junior handicap, she was followed by Layla Felgate and Alex Hunt. It was a family affair next as James Sibley was 4th and Beth Sibley 5th. Well done to Gill Day for winning the senior handicap in 37:33. She was followed by her chum Celeste Ingarfield, 41:10. 3rd was Emma Kiernan, 23:03; 4th Jonathan Day, 22:03 and 5th Susie Pitt, 32:08. Layla Felgate (below), one of the AVR Juniors, has been chosen to run for Devon in the Inter-Counties Cross Country Championships in Nottingham this Saturday. She is thrilled to have been chosen for the the Under 13 Girls Squad and to be wearing the Devon vest - good luck Layla!