SEVENTY eight runners turned out beside the River Wye for the 5.5-mile Blaze the Biblins Trail Race organised by MonRoss Trailblazers on Sunday,

Chepstow Harriers’ Tim Batchelor led the way home in 36:50 followed by Tim Elvidge in 37:59 and Nick Gibbons in 38:43.

Fastest woman was Georgie Dobbs of Chepstow Harriers in ninth overall in 43:17, closely followed in 12th by Spirit of Monmouth’s Katie Adams in 44:35 and Newent Runners’ Cathy Elvidge in 17th in 46:55.

Spirit’s Nick Sloper also completed the race in 34th in 53:46, alongside fellow club members Jeremy Creasey in 39th in 55:33 and Cathy Fletcher in 59th in 63:24.

Chepstow Harriers took both men’s and women’s team titles.

A day earlier, Spirit secured a good Gwent League X-Country result at Pembrey, the men's team finishing second out of 13 teams in Division Four, scoring 923 points.

In a men’s race of nearly 400 runners, Tom Chinnick was 130th in 37.33, Ben Saunders 159th in 38.19, James Robinson 211th in 40.16, Kirk Hill 239th in 41.39, Matthew Visser 268th in 43.17, Brian Evans 334th in 46.39 and Michael Visser 348th in 48.38.

Some 300 competed in the women's race, where the Spirit team of Vicky Roberts (42nd in 31.25), Renske Bouwens (101st in 34.41) and Fay Visser (275th in 48.10) finished ninth in Division Two with 473 points.

Vicky achieved a course personal best by one minute.

At Monmouth’s Chippenham Playing Fields parkrun on Saturday, Spirit’s Carol Oswell recorded 23:20 and Robert Nelson finished in 23:36.

Other club finishers included Elizabeth Hattam (28:04), Rachel Waters (28:05), Linda Lloyd (30:42), Alison McMenemy (33:33) and Stephen McMenemy (33:35).

Further afield, Martin Blakebrough recorded 22:21 at Leybourne Lakes, while Nick Sloper completed the Chippenham parkrun in 24:00.