Big field for Tadley road race

2:33pm Sunday 13th July 2008

TADLEY Runners' 10k road race attracted a near-record 279 entrants - despite the drizzle.

The first runner home was Dan McCarthy, of Aldershot, Farnham and District AC, in 32min 30sec.

Not surprisingly, his time was down on the 32:22 set by Steve Rees-Jones (Basingstoke and Mid-Hants) in winning last year.

The second senior man on Sun-day was Keiran O'Doherty (Reading Roadrunners) in 34:22, with clubmate Chris Payne third in (34:30).

The first over-40 vet was Thomas Munt (Reading AC) in 34:33 and the over-50 and over-60 prizes went to Tim Hughes (White Horse Harriers) in 34:31 and Allan Mathews (Oxford City) in 40:44 respectively.

Karen Rushton (Southampton RC) was the first woman home in 38:22, with Rachel Elkins (Serpentine Joggers) second in 41:59 and Vanessa Jane Doig (unattached) third in 43:41.

The over-35 prize went to Cheryl Foot (unattached) in 43:28, while Welsh international Cath Wheeler( Overton Harriers) was the over-45 winner in 39:52.

Lynda Wheeler (New Forest Runners) collected the over-55 prize with her time of 51:53.

Reading Roadrunners were the team winners with their line-up of O'Doherty, Payne and Rosemary Jones.

David Meacock clocked 36:33 to lead home an entry of 19 runners from Basingstoke and Mid-Hants AC.

Other Basingstoke times were John Bigg 38:52, Matthew Hallin 40:5, Peter Grigoleit 40:15, David Sheard 45:5, Ray Garland 45:9, David Cornes 45:26, Graham Cooper 45:36, Colin Henderson 46:20, Richard Baldwin 47:44, Kevin Thorpe 48:23, Angela Wragg 48:38, Susan Blackley 50:43, Marie Appleton 50:57, John Moule 51:48, Judith Cooper 51:48, Clifford Cheesman 51:54, Mick O'Neill 52:51 and Carol Wadeson 53:4.

Overton Harriers had two other runners, Piers Puntan clocking 40:30 and Neil Martin 41:43.

Cyd Hill (42:4) and Paul Stewart (40:51) represented Tadley Post Office, while Derek Andrews (AWE Aldermaston) clocked 59:58.

Last season's first-team captain Tom Bailey led in an entry of 12 runners from Tadley rugby club.

He clocked exactly 40 minutes and other times were: Bill Copland 44:32, Toby Smith 46:9, Darren Staley 46:18, Spencer Jerome 47:12, Peter Woods 47:20, Robert Murray 48:12, Andrew Roberts 49:45, Duncan Harris 50:18, Mike Keeley 53:22 and Colin Summers 53:30.

The first boy in the 3k fun run was Max Costley (Team Southampton) in 11:48, while Lucy Long (unattached) was the first girl in 14:21.

Tadley Runners' next big event is the third running of the 10-mile road race on October 19.