Sometimes events turn out to be not quite what was expected and the Forde Abbey Cross Country 10K was just that (see Honiton report above).

AVR’s Liam Roberts, led all the way but was demoted to second place as some Crewkerne runners accidently took a short cut. Liam almost went wrong, but Bridport runner Joe Allen called him back to the correct route. Alex Todd was the second AVR finisher, then Chris Keeffe, Jon Day in 43:17. Eleanor Wood finished ahead of Ian Clements, then followed Dave Thomas in 47:57, Robin Britton and Richard Hale in 57:00. Gill Day and Janet Woodward supported each other all the way around as did Diane and Graham Newton. Sue Venn was very pleased with her 69 minutes as, despite the conditions, she was quicker than last year.

?Graham Newton travelled to Woolacombe to run the North Devon marathon, a tough coastal route with breathtaking scenery. Despite yet again taking a wrong turn and running 2 or 3 miles in the wrong direction Graham still managed to finish in 4.15hrs to win the male over-60s title. Patrick Devine-Wright fared a lot better, running superbly to finish fourth overall.

?Matt Morbey, Gavin Warren, Sam Tooze, Claire Moles and Gill Day ran the Torbay half marathon. The rain held off and running conditions became perfect. The race is a traffic free two lap route which starts on Paignton seafront, heads towards Torquay taking in the coastal views of Torbay and finishes back at Paignton seafront. It was a fast flat course and all five got PBs. Matt was first home 351st, 1:45:44, Gavin 591st, 1:55:21; Sam 841st, 2:05:08, Claire 872nd, 2:06:26 and finally Gill 1027th in 2:16:15.

There was a good turnout for AVR’s AGM held at Beer Club last week. It was over almost as quickly as chairman Garry can run a couple of miles. It was a very positive affair, with the main changes for the coming year being Sue Willer has stepped down from the secretary’s position with Bridget Keefe taking over and Sue Tubbs has resigned as treasurer with Dave and Liz Thomas now in position. Many thanks to both Sues for their excellent work over the past years. Other highlights were Bernard Fry being made an honorary member and no music will be allowed on the handicap runs in future.