This two-day event, formerly known as the Caddihoe Chase, is an annual competition that SWOA clubs take in turn to organise. This year it was in the hands of Devon OC who opted to site the event on Braunton Burrows, a complex set of sand dunes not far from Barnstaple. Braunton Burrows is a bit like Marmite in that you either love it or hate it: personally, I prefer Marmite. These days there is no longer a chasing start on Day 2, where start times reflect the time differences achieved on Day1 which resulted in exciting races, especially between runners who had close times on Day 1, I think Covid finally put paid to that format.
With bad weather forecast it was a brave contingent of 10 Sarum members who took on the challenge of the dreaded dunes. As it turned out, the weather on Day 1, Long Distance courses, was excellent, becoming sunnier and hotter throughout the event. There were some good Sarum results with Charlotte Thornton (W75) taking 2nd place, Joan Hambleton (W80) 3rd, Des Dickinson (M40) 3rd, Barnes Dickinson (M12) 2nd and Rhodes Dickinson (M14) 3rd.
Day 2, gave way to more or less continuous rain, though this did ease off later. Charlotte again produced the best Sarum result with 3rd place in W75; Denise Mullins was in 4th place in W70. Lizzie Balston (W16) was running blue courses for the first time and took fine 5th places on both Days 1 & 2, impressive results.
Well done to everyone who travelled to Devon to represent Sarum and many thanks to Devon for hosting a challenging weekend of complex navigation.
Many thanks to Devon OC for all their hard work in putting on these events and especially to Event Co-ordinator Phil Beale, Organiser Karen Blake, Planners Ben Chesters (day 1) and Phil Headford (day 2) and Controllers Richard Sarsbury QO (day 1) and Jeff Parker QO (day 2) without whom none of this would have happened.
Full results can be found here.
