THE third Saturday of every month sees the running of Tavistock Athletic Club's Tavistock race- a 5km run for everyone.

This starts on the athletic track, loops round the College and the Meadows, before finishing back on the track. The latest running, on December 21, was a suitably Christmassy affair, with many of the runners and marshals choosing to dress up in the festive spirit.

This made it a particularly popular race, with 116 runners finishing - an eclectic mix of seasoned athletes, through to fun runners and recent Couch to 5k graduates looking to benchmark their fitness and pace before the holiday excesses move such things to the back of the mind.

At the front of the pack, individual performances were very strong, with the first 25 runners all finishing in under 20 mins.

It was also an opportunity for three runners from Tavistock Cricket Club (pictured) to take on a specific challenge to raise money for their planned new cricket nets.

Ben Neale, also a TAC runner, led from the outset and won wearing his cricket flannels in a time of 15:52 - an amazing achievement - whilst two of his cricketer colleagues, Marc Lewis and Jack Smyley, also donning pads, gloves and helmets and carried their cricket bats whilst running the course.

The New Year will see increased activity for the competitive TAC runners as the regular races start to pop up on the calendar, and training starts for the spring marathon events. In addition, the latest Couch to 5k programme kicked off on Saturday, January 4 with those already registered choosing a particularly beneficial New Year's resolution.