A depleted Tavistock Athletic Club team travelled to Bovey Tracey for the fifth fixture in the Westward League cross country races on Sunday.

The races were held in the picturesque National Trust property, Parke Estate. The course includes a mixture of mud, steep uphill and downhills through wooded sections and a large area of rough ground and more mud.

In the first of the races, the under 11s development race, the three Tavistock athletes ran consistently hard. Dan Luckham led the trio home in sixth place, followed by Joe Dix in eighth and James Lamb 10th.

The next race was the combined U17 ladies' and men's race combined with the senior and veteran ladies over a 5k course. U17s Tavistock runner Will Dax led from gun to tape and destroyed the field. Following on from a successful run for Devon schools on Saturday, Will said he felt comfortable despite the toughness of the course.

Next home was Tess Masselink in an excellent 11th place. Henry Ware was not far behind in 14th.

Olympic silver medallist, Heather Fell, made a welcome return to the club from her travels and finished in 22nd – her first cross country race in a long time!

Next home was Charlie Shipton celebrating his 16th birthday in 43rd place, just five places in front of Lisa Mabey in 48th. Tracy Ann Cole was next home in 53rd, just ahead of the U17 year-old, Jenny Sabine, in 64th. Club stalwart Kate Rogers finished in 84th and bringing the Tavistock runners home was the evergreen, in form, Ann Woodhouse in 106th.

The men's race was over a 9,300m course —three laps of gruelling hills and woodland tracks. It was not to be a great day for the Tavistock team.

Sam Lane De Courtin was first runner home. Not only did Sam suffer a shoe malfunction, he was exhausted after finishing eighth while running for Cornwall schools on Saturday. Nonetheless Sam finished in 31st after a sprint finish with Richard Drage in 32nd. Martin Exley-Deane was in 40th place. Richard Best had another solid run finishing 70th ahead of the remaining Tavistock team – Dave Harris 82nd, Pete Bazeley 94th, Bob Chapman 101st, Jason Shipton 108th and Dave Whitworth 124th.