THE Worstead Festival's traditional curtain-raiser, the Worstead Five Mile Race was blessed with a perfect summer's evening for the field of 350 runners and their supporters.

THE Worstead Festival's traditional curtain-raiser, the Worstead Five Mile Race was blessed with a perfect summer's evening for the field of 350 runners and their supporters.

With conditions perhaps a little too warm for record times, Wayne Utting of the Norwich Road Runners was a relatively comfortable winner in a highly commendable time of 27:07.

But only 10 seconds behind was North Norfolk Beach Runners' new star, Steve Jones, a welcome recruit for the popular Cromer club after leaving the City of Norwich AC.

His distinctive loose-limbed, looping stride thrilled the large crowds as he comfortably outpaced Lowestoft's Carl Prewer in a sprint for the line to take a brilliant second place in just his third outing in the club vest.

Also finishing strongly was the Beach Runners' hugely-talented veteran John Christopher who finished 23rd in an excellent time of 31:33 but later admitted that he had struggled in the unusually humid conditions.

West Runton's Sally Middleton was the third member of the home club to cross the line with an excellent 114th place clocking 37:46.

Once again the event was superbly marshalled by around 50 members of the North Norfolk Beach Runners and brilliantly organised, seemingly with great ease, by race director Terry Quigley.