RICHARD Drage made history for Tavistock Athletic Club by being the first club member to run for England.

The British and Irish Masters' Cross Country International took place in Birmingham, with men's and ladies teams from England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland competing in the usual five year age groups.

Richard was selected for the six strong M50 England team, as a result of winning the M50 South of England Masters' Cross Country Championships and then winning the bronze medal in his age group in the British Masters' Cross Country Championships earlier this year. 

The weather was truly awful with high winds and driving rain. However, the 8k course suited Richard being relatively flat and surprisingly firm under foot. The race was won impressively by England's Mike Hagar.

Richard said: 'I had a good run, settling in and then working my way through the field. I finished seventh overall and third English runner which helped the England M50 team to win gold. The Republic of Ireland took silver with Wales taking the bronze. England also won the overall match by winning the most age group races.

It was a brilliant experience and a great honour to wear my first England vest!'

This was a really great effort. Richard says that he would particularly like to thank all the members of Tavistock Athletic club for their support.

The Drogo 10 was a challenging 10 mile race that starts at Castle Drogo and descends to the bottom of the gorge three times with the inevitable climbs out. Entirely off-road, it was a wet, muddy and slippery run for the two TAC runners that took part, though the sun shone on the day lighting up the autumn colours in this beautiful setting.

Peter Bazely completed the run in 1hr 27min (19th out of 52 in age group) and Andy Houghton in 1h 33mins (fifth out of 19 in age group).

The route for Templer 10, set through fields, over stiles and on paths and roads around Stover Park, near Newton Abbot in South Devon, was also very wet underfoot. TAC's Nicole Heryet and Hazel Walker took part, and both had great runs. Nicole was first F35 in a time of 1.17.36, with Hazel coming second in the same age category in 1.25.01.