Alex McLoughlin, Max Bowskill and James Knapp were the first three home in the November Junior AVR handicap, but although all three broke their PBs, they have not done enough handicap races to qualify.

That means the Junior winner for November is Matthew Morbey taking 12:55. Mollie Hansford was second, 14:19; Jessie Davies third, 17:46; Ed Polley fourth, 17:47 and Mia Campbell fifth, 21:52.

The top three in the Senior handicap, Alison Bowskill, Ellis Bee and Beth Sibley also had not done enough qualifying runs, so congratulations to Alison Gould on winning the handicap in 31:14, her first win for five years.

Diane Newton was second, 36:43, Tim Sibley third, 25:45; Graham Vere fourth, 26:03 and Jane Bennett fifth, 35:50.

With one race to go in the series, Chris Irving remains top of the seniors with 125 points, then it’s all change with Alison Gould leaping up to second with 112 points and Clare Hansford third with 108.

Look out for Graham Vere who still has one race to count and has 98 points. Mollie Hansford is heading the juniors with 135 points, followed by James Sibley 128 and Matthew Morbey 120.

?Last Saturday's Yarcombe Yomp was, once again, a great success with perfect running conditions for both off-road races. Alex Todd hadn't intended to run, but changed his mind at the last minute, leapt out of bed and duly won the 10 miler in a new course record of 1:07:43, beating his coach Garry Perratt into second place (first M40) in 1:09:18.

Graham Newton was 17th overall and first M60 in 1:23:16, Nathan Berry 20th 1:24:29, Eleanor Wood 22nd and first F50 1:25:38, Richard Dodge 28th 1:34:08, Geoff Woodward 32nd 1:36:05, Steve Reynolds 34th 1:37:05 and Andy Sayers 36th 1:38:28. Joel Drapper was third overall and first junior in the 5-mile race in 41:48, Rick Wood 4th 52:52, Diane Newton 11th 1:06:05. Chris Irving, Paul Tolchard and John & Amy Greenhalgh back-marked and cleared the course.

Many thanks must go to Robin Carter, James Jackson, all the marshals and other helpers and particularly to local landowner David Meyrick and the tenant farmers for granting access to all the private land.

The race was the final round of the East Devon Community Race Series comprising various races largely organised by local organisations other than running clubs. Runners’ scores are graded according to their age and gender so that all performances can be directly compared. Garry’s run on Saturday secured him victory for the first time in the series with 557 points, Maiden Newton Runners’ Martin Lascelles was 2nd with 552, Alex Todd third 539, Eleanor Wood 4th 514 and John Burgess of Honiton RC 5th 513. (But Garry thinks he only won because Evergreen Phil Bayliss hasn’t raced much this year - he scored 592 in last year’s series.) In the team competition, Honiton RC won with 151 points, AVR 2nd 156 (lower is better for teams) and Sidmouth RC 3rd 206.

There were 275 finisher in the Ilminster Lions charity 10K and Luke Reed was right up amongst the leaders finishing 4th in a superb 38:03. Joyce Rendell also ran well to be 124th in 49:26. Husband and wife Mike and Sue Venn had a real humdinger of a battle. Mike pulled away on the uphill at the start, only to be caught and overtaken by a determined Sue at the 8K point. She pulled away, but then there was more uphill and she could hear the pitter patter of Mike’s feet approaching. She girded her loins and held on to beat Mike by 1 second and 1 place finishing 252nd in 1:3:00. Apparently Mike is still just about talking to her!