ROUND five of the six race Brooks Westward League Cross Country series saw leaders Tavistock Athletic Club take another step towards the team title for only the second time in their history.
The race, at Parke Estate, Bovey Tracey, on Sunday, took place in muddy, chilly conditions in the shadow of snow covered southern Dartmoor. The title race is coming down to a straight fight between Tavistock and Cornwall AC. With the first five runners home counting for the team result, both clubs fielded strong squads, giving some exciting racing over the three lap course.
At the end of the first lap, there was a clear gap as round four victor, Tavistock's Pete Freedman and Cornwall's Ollie Shilston, pulled away from the 2008 champion, Kevin Toher of Newquay and this year's series leader, Tom Merson of South West Road Runners with Tavistock's Jim Cole in fifth.
In turn, this group led veteran GB runner Dave Buzza of Cornwall AC and the third Tavistock representative, Harry Wiltshire.
By the start of the final lap, Cole had moved up to third along with Toher, having gained slightly on the leaders, with Merson left behind in fifth. While it looked like a straight race between the two leaders, Cole and Toher had clearly not read the script.
As the four leaders hit the final turn together, with a soggy flat 200 metres followed by the final 100m uphill, Jim Cole burst to the fore and accelerated away from Shilston with Freedman and Toher on their heels. Unfortunately for Cole, he timed his attack seconds too early and as he slowed within sight of the finish line, Shilston found his last reserves to take a pulsating race by a stride. In a similar finish for third, Toher managed to outpace Freedman for third place.
With Merson fifth and Buzza sixth, Harry Wiltshire was able to keep seventh place, ahead of the third and fourth Cornwall finishers. The fourth Tavistock finisher was recent Southern Masters champion Richard Drage in 14th. With the final Cornwall runner in 16th, hard working Martin Exley rounded off the Tavistock count in 22nd place.
An overall team victory for Cornwall by a narrow nine points means that Devon champions Tavistock will take a 14 point lead into the final race of the season in March — on Cornwall AC's home patch at Redruth in what promises to be a nail-biting finish to the season.
With Chris Champion in 24th place and Chris Eastaugh in 30th, the Tavistock Veterans' team look certain to retain the veteran team title which they have kept since its inception four years ago. These two spanned senior man Neil Barkell in 28th, who has improved remarkably over the season from his top 50 finish in round one. Eastaugh was involved in a race-long battle with colleague Rupert Warren who finished 30th.
The final Tavistock finisher, but by no means least, was Robin Musgrave in 59th, picking up further points in his quest for an over-50 individual medal.