THE Narth Run was forced to drop the word 'Great' from its title after receiving a letter saying they'd been infringing a trademark.

Steven Coppell, organiser of the Narth Run formerly known as the Great Narth Run, received a letter from solicitors representing the Great Run company telling the small village organisation not to use the word 'great' as it had been trademarked for the Great North Run.

The Great North Run is a half marathon that takes place in Newcastle.

Organisers of the Narth Run had to write a letter stating they would not use the word again.

The letter certainly didn't dampen the spirit of the Narth Run which took place last Saturday (21st June). Returning for its third year, the race saw runners of all different ages and abilities travelling through Maryland Woods and Trellech Common.

Racers could opt for a 2.5k fun run, a two lap 5k race or a four lap 10k race.

The event has been set up to raise funds for the Narth Village Hall.

Mr Coppell said: "We did much better than previous years, with 88 runners in total, about 60 per cent more than last year. So we have made a small profit this time for the village hall.

"Everyone seemed to enjoy the event, with runners and spectators alike praising our efforts. Once again folk from the village did a brilliant job staging this event and we can't thank them enough.

"Thanks are due to both Spirit of Monmouth and Chepstow Harriers for their support, and we now look forward to next year's run when we also have an offer from the Great North Run to work with us to do something together for a bit of fun, and to get us a few more runners.

This year's winners were Lois Wright, the fastest female runner in the fun run, with Henry Evans the fastest male. In the 5k local runner Mary Pardington was again the fastest female, with Peter Hutton the fastest male.

Emily Pardington was the fastest female (and fastest female villager) in the 10K for the third year running. Huw Evans, who won the 10k in the first year, returned to again win by some margin. The fastest male villager in the 10K was Shane Godfrey.

The male team race was won by 'Team Generations' with 'Eat, Sleep, Run...Repeat" the winning female team.