A lovely September morning attracted a good turnout to the picturesque lanes around Oxborough for the Wissey Half-Marathon. With county championship prizes on offer, the competition amongst the fastest runners was particularly fierce.

A lovely September morning attracted a good turnout to the picturesque lanes around Oxborough for the Wissey Half-Marathon.

With county championship prizes on offer, the competition amongst the fastest runners was particularly fierce.

Phil Quantrill was the fastest North Norfolk Beach Runner on the day, covering the breezy course in an impressive 1-27:12 for 19th place, but it was the veteran Richard Blake who once again took home the major silverware.

Dipping just under the 90-minute mark, Blake continued his fine season by taking a county gold in the 60 plus age group, with club chairman, Jim Hayes, putting in a steady run for the silver medal in the same category.

Returning from injury, Chris Parker may feel that he will run faster half-marathons than his 1-43:01 time at Wissey, but Christine Thorne was on fine form as she clocked 1-49:12 to be first in the Women's V55 category, taking the county gold in the process.

Not far behind, Christine's training partner, Brenda Kinch, finished 118th to win the silver medal in the V55 age group, and the two ladies combined with Christina Walker to take the silver medal in the women's team competition.

Other Beach Runners enjoying a good run round the south-west Norfolk lanes were Andi Osborne, Alec Fraser and Mike Marshall.

Elsewhere, the Beach Runners' marathon specialists, Vinnie Purdy and Colin Stark entered the Pathfinder marathon run on trails near Conington in Cambridgeshire and crossed the line together in just a second under 4hrs 3mins.

The Cromer club's most prolific road racer, Ian Jarvis, decided to spurn the longer distances and entered the Framlingham 10k - a race that irritatingly takes in the same hill three times.

Nevertheless, Ian managed a highly respectable time of 49:44 for 121st place in a field of 270.