Siggers and Harrison impress at Rugby 10

In pleasant, cool conditions, Kenilworth Runners’ Andrew Siggers ran a fine race to finish second, 40 seconds behind Coventry Godiva’s Alistair Smith in 56:43.

Spa Striders’ Rich Merrell was 13th in 62:44, with Chris Hitchman the first Leamington C&AC man home in 63:10 for 14th.

Striders’ Trevor Wilkinson was 17th in 63:24, with Kenilworth Runners’ Liam Chapple a place further back in 63:59.

C&AC’s Steve Hundal was using the race as his last hard session before tackling the Frankfurt Marathon on October 28 and was very happy with 23rd spot in 65:23 after taking the last four miles at a steady pace

He was followed home in 24th place by team-mate Brian Miller (65:40).

Roger Homes (26th in 65:57) and Stephen Page (27th in 66:24) completed the Kenilworth men’s team which took second position behind Knowle AC. Leamington C&AC were third.

The ladies’ race quickly developed into a head to head between Nuneaton’s Eleanor Fowler, who had already won three county championships in 2012 including the Kenilworth Half Marathon, and Leamington C&AC’s Sue Harrison who was returning to road racing after an enforced three-month injury lay-off.

At the four-mile point, Harrison edged in front of Fowler and steadily opened up a gap which by the finish had grown to just over a minute-and-a-half. Harrison finished in eighth place overall in 60.26 to claim the Warwickshire gold medal and the trophy she last won in 2009.

Leamington C&AC team-mate Zara Blower finished an excellent fifth in the ladies’ race and 34th overall in 68.50 to secure third in the Warwickshire Road Race League.

Carol Blower completed Leamington’s ladies’ team in 94th place in 88.19.

In the team race, Spa Striders took the prize with 30 points courtesy of fine runs from Jo Kirby (69:06, PB), Dawn Clark (74:25) and Caroline Whitehouse (77:34), with Leamington four points behind in second.

Selected others (Kenilworth Runners unless stated): 30, Mick Williams (67:31, 1st V55); 38, Steve Webb (Leamington C&AC, 69.53); 39, David Pettifer (70:02, best age-graded result); 41, Hartwig Busch (Spa Striders, 71:05); 45, George Loveday (Leamington C&AC, 72.41); 47, Adrian Mawby (Leamington C&AC, 78.19); 59, Nick Adams (Spa Striders, 74:30); 60, Mike Ellis (Spa Striders, 74:34); 74, Jude Baum (Spa Striders, 81:22); 79, Richard Bicknell (Spa Striders, 83:28); 83, Roz Cox (Spa Striders, 85:30); 84, Barbara Gunter (Spa Striders, 85:35); 86, Fiona Ferguson (Spa Striders, 86:24); 89, Sandra Stokes (Spa Striders, 86:45); 97, Harki Kalsi (Spa Striders, 89:20); 98, Caroline Ditum (Spa Striders, 89:53). 100, Pauline Dable (1:33:02); 104, Nicky Atherton (1:43:06); 105, Mike Shally (1:43:06).

Glorious crisp autumnal sunshine gently warmed the 1,350 finishers of the Decathlon Coventry Half Marathon.

The course is a challenging, surprisingly scenic route, which heads uphill for much of the first half of the race from its start point at Millenium Place towards Radford and Keresley, coming home through Allesley - including a stiff climb through Allesley Hall Park - and finishing outside the Transport Museum.

Jon Mettyear was the first of the Kenilworth Runners home in 45th position with a season’s best of 1:28:30.

He was followed by club-mate Chris Maher (1:34:23) and Spa Striders’ Justin Mallard (1:35:43).

Kenilworth Runners’ Gary Dilnot continued his fine run of recent form with a new PB of 1:43:55.

Selected others (Kenilworth Runners unless stated): 180, Gary Morgan (1:38:19); 326, Gary Dilnot (1:43:55); 352, Andrew Preshous (1:45:45); 446, Stephen Payne (1:48:59, PB); 515, Ruth Tennant (Spa Striders, 1:51:44); 856, Helen Marsay (2:04:27); 973, Richard Brookes (Spa Striders, 2:09:14).

Kenilworth Runners’ Rich Simkiss was the winner of the Welcombe Wobbler 10k at Welcombe Hills Country Park.

In glorious autumnal sunshine, Simkiss treated the off-road race as a training run and ran just hard enough to ensure victory, coming home in 37:09, eight seconds clear of Dan Salcedo.

Laura Gould took part in the 5k Trembler and ran well to finish tenth overall and third lady in 28:37.

Kenilworth Runners’ Connor Carson made good use of his work placement in Melbourne, Australia, by taking part in the Melbourne Marathon.

The marathon is the largest in Australia with more than 6,200 finishers and Carson ran a superb race to finish 40th in a personal best of 2:41:07.

Two Spa Striders completed the Leicester Marathon, with Pete Schofield coming home in 3:55:07 and Ian Shreeve in 4:06:04.

Kenilworth Runners’ Sean Mitchell finished 79th in the Munich Half Marathon in 1:27:51.