FARNHAM Runners retained seventh place overall after the final event of the Southern Cross-Country League, hosted by Haslemere Border AC

Challenging ascents cannot be avoided in the steep terrain of the Devil’s Punchbowl and Hindhead Common. The route had dried out after a dry week, but the temperature felt like minus six before brilliant sunshine warmed things up.

The start was over rough stones, more difficult when runners are close-packed and cannot see far ahead. The long ascents were also tough and many competitors were not ashamed to walk up some of the steeper sections.

Farnham Runners started the day seventh out of the 24 clubs, down on recent years, including 2016-17 when they finished joint third. On the day, the men came seventh and the ladies eighth, giving an overall tally of eighth and giving the club a final seventh position.

Matthew Morgan headed the Farnham men with 38th place. Men’s cross-country captain Matt Dellar was hard on his heels in 41st, with ultra-runner Stuart Haig coming 45th. The ever-improving Harvey Wickham took 50th and Colin Addison completed the scoring in 64th. Tim Cummins was 66th.

For the ladies, Eloise Stradling was a key player as usual in 22nd. Emma Russ made the race part of her marathon training and finished 27th.

Lindsay Bamford and Linda Tyler confounded expectations with excellent placings of 33rd and 39th, with Bamford just edging the scoring spot. The day before, they had run in the gruelling National Cross Country Championships.

Not too far back were Jane Georghiou in 50th and Tara Hunt in 60th.

Other placings: men – Haywood Drake 105, Chris Cramp 106, Damian Probett 129, Geoff Brown 133, Craig Tate-Grimes 156; ladies – Clair Bailey 83, Kay Copeland 84, Jackie Wilkinson 121, Susan MacKenzie 127.

Four intrepid ladies flew the flag for Farnham Runners at the National Championships held at the iconic, though extremely muddy and hilly, venue of Parliament Hill in London. The Farnham ladies finished a creditable 72nd out of 112 teams in their 8km race.

Charlotte Hanson headed the quartet with a fine 38mins 28secs for 421st out of 1,113 finishers. Kayleigh Copeland was just half a minute behind in 39-58 (461st), with Lindsay Bamford recording 42-38 (642nd) and Linda Tyler 45-12 (784th).

Sean Smith became the first – as far as is known – Farnham Runners member to race at an indoor track. His 2mins 37.82secs for 800 metres and 5mins 18.43secs for 1,500 are therefore club ‘records’. He was third M50 in the 800 and second in the 1,500 in these Southern Counties Veterans Athletics Club races at the Lee Valley Stadium and hopes to better these times at the forthcoming British Masters Indoor Championship.

On the same day, Sarah Hill finished second lady and first F40 in the Brighton Half Marathon in the excellent time of 1hr 19mins 47secs.