Top of the Bill

Rosie Wych also becomes South West middle distance champion, at W60 level. After narrowly beating Dale Paget of Wessex OC, Andy was M50 middle champion - but only overnight. Clive Hallett's appeal against a mispunch was accepted the next day.

Jim Mallinson was 3rd on Sunday and Steve Robertson oversaw a successful weekend as the course controller.

By winning on both days, Bill headed the tournament's M80 class and became both the South West Middle and Long distance champion. The middle distance event was on the Saturday afternoon, the long distance event followed the next day with an urban event on a college campus in between. A training event at Holywell Bay near Newquay formed the prelude to the weekend on Friday evening.

Middle, Mexico Towans

The action was fast and furious action on a nice sunny day. Bill enjoyed a three minute winning margin in the M80 category over Thames Valley OC's John Thompson. Rosie Wych, pictured further below on the steep uphill finish, was 6th out of 24 on W60. Richard Sansbury took an early lead on M45 but had to settle for 6th out of 20, two minutes ahead of Brian Fletcher in 7th and four ahead of Jeff Pakes in 11th.

Results, Routegadget

Long, Upton & Gwithian Towans

Surprises were always around the corner, be they in the form of an old mine working, a navigational error or a wedding...?! (See picture)

The old mine workings within these beautiful dunes and warrens made this an area of fascinating contrasts and provided some wonderful places to put controls.

Though languishing second bottom a third of the way round his M80 course, Bill Vigar had surged to the top with another third gone and although he briefly lost his lead, he finished two minutes clear to win.

Jim Mallinson was rewarded with third place after taking it steady all the way round his M65 course. Jim didn't even finish third or higher on any of his legs but neither did he make any real mistakes. Concentrate, keep in contact with the map and don't rush...surely the "take home" training tip of the weekend and an example to many of us who had erratic runs!

Which unfortunately brings me to Andy Rimes and Brian Pearson. Andy got off to a blistering start on his M50 course, leaving in his wake Clive Hallett of Bristol OK. Up until recently, Clive had been the dominant force in the South West for decades. Andy was a full six minutes ahead of Clive by the ninth control and held his lead till the 11th, nearly halfway round the course. At this point, a series of niggling errors blighted Andy's run- but many who ran on this tricky terrain will be able to relate to this...

In an uncannily similar situation, Brian was also leading by a clear margin his M55 race a third of the way through. He was two minutes ahead of the eventual winner Roger Thetford of Thames Valley OC when some mistakes started creeping in. But Brian was able to stop the rot, recovering to finish only a quarter of an hour behind Roger.

Results, Routegadget

Urban, Cornwall College, Camborne

Richard Sansbury competed in the men's open category and was only seven minutes behind the clear winner, UK no.4 Ben Mitchell. Richard beat some higher ranked runners in the process. Brian Pearson was a similar margin behind the winner on his Super Vets course.

Results, Routegadget

Overall positions

Looking beyond Bill, Jim Mallinson also showed he knows how to deal with dunes and took some notable scalps over the two days. Richard gets a special mention for endurance, camping overnight in stormy weather but still taking part in three contests within 24 hours.

The following all ran the long course for their age class on both days and hence obtained a final position for the Caddihoe:

Sue Gard, Julia Robertson and Matthew Knipe also ran on both days.

Tony Hext M65 and Brian Fletcher M45 ran on the Saturday only.

Julia was proudly sporting her JK 1997 sweatshirt, for it was 20 years ago when the JK visited this area of Cornwall. And of course, it will be there in 2021 too. Until then...

- Jeff Pakes