Eighteen Farnham Runners made the journey to the annual Gosport half-marathon, expertly organised by Gosport Road Runners.

Sportingly, to provide sufficient marshals and helpers, no members of the Gosport club take part in the race.

The route is renowned for being flat and a possible personal-best course but this year there was a strong wind from the west which hampered plans for a fast pace, otherwise the weather was good, about ten degrees and sunny.

Despite the wind, Matt Saker powered round for a new personal best of 1:20.05 to take the second M50 slot out of 131 finishers in this competitive group and to beat his previous club record by two minutes.

Next was Chris Matthews in a fine 1:25.37, 116th of 1,229 finishers.

Chris Raby was fifth M60 in an increasingly-competitive group in 1:33.32, while Neil Ambrose was final A-team scorer in 1:34.21. This team placed ninth out of ten in the top flight but they lie eighth on aggregate.

For the B team came Tony Jones in 1:35.39, Ivan Chunnett in 1:39.33, Paul Keogh in 1:41.20 and Joseph Lee who settled for 1:48.10 this time.

In an incomplete C team were Stephen Collings (2:05.34) and Craig Tate-Grimes (2:05.49).

First back for the ladies was second F60 Linda Tyler in an excellent 1:43.28. Bella Weetch, in her first race for a while, took the second A-team spot in 1:48.11.

First F70 was Jane Georghiou in 1:55.03 to go ninth in the Run Britain age group half-marathon ranking for 2022.

Lindsay Bamford went round steadily for 1:59.06 and was tenth F55. The team placed eighth in Division One but lie seventh after four of the 12 races in the series.

Leading the B team, Colette Grist clocked a new PB of 2:02.04. Vicky Goodluck (2:03.39), Jane Barry (2:03.35) and Laura Quinn (2:03.43) helped this team to a useful fifth place in B Division One and they lie eighth out of the 16 clubs.

Just one week later it was Farnham Runners’ turn to host a race, the second round of the Southern Cross-Country League.

The club welcomed more than 450 runners to the popular race in the Bourne Woods, a few more than the previous record in 2018.

It was organised by Farnham Runners’ race director Craig Tate-Grimes who planned the whole thing, with help from a large number of club members on the day.

Rain the day and night before gave muddy conditions for much of the way and it was hardly ever flat, a real cross-country course.

It now starts from near the Rural Life Centre and Farnham Runners would like to express their thanks to RSPB and the Rural Life Centre with help putting on this event.

Craig is able to hire a field for parking from Pierrepont Farm. Nigel Marchant from Hart Road Runners was present as the England Athletics official and Neil Ambrose calculated the team results.

Club secretary Julia Tagg organised the refreshments provided afterwards with ten members supplying trays of sandwiches while many others made or bought cakes.

Craig had set up a marquee and Julia Tagg and Linda Tyler organised the serving of the food and drinks on the day. Almost 270 stayed to enjoy the lunch.

Despite the large number of marshals and other helpers from Farnham Runners, ten per cent (46) of the runners were from the club and they were rewarded with third place on the day out of the 23 clubs in the league. The men came eighth and the ladies third.

The first four men and the first four ladies count for each team with the scores combined for the overall result. Farnham Runners lie fourth after two of the six events.

First back for the club was Joe Collins in an excellent fifth place. Also in the team were Charlie Hill-Venning in a fine 35th, followed by Chris Matthews (54th) and Neil Ambrose (69th).

Also in the top 100 were Colin Addison in 78th, with Chris Raby (101) and Sam Angell (104) just outside it.

Jane Georghiou