Mulvee proves far too hot to handle as temperatures soar at the Arden 9

A 10.30am start meant temperatures were already into the 20s when athletes toed the line and there was very little shade to be found on the rural course which took in Hampton-in-Arden and surrounding villages.

Dave Mulvee of Leamington C&AC was a convincing winner of the race, finishing in 47:52, more than two minutes clear of runner-up Oliver Paulin (Coventry Godiva Harriers).

Fellow C&AC runner Paul Andrew was fourth in 50:35, with Simeon Howson (52:39) sixth, Vassilis Andreoulakis (55:40) 19th and Greg West 25th and first under-20 in 57:39.

Brian Miller was the leading MV55 in 59:29.

For Kenilworth Runners, Andy Siggers was seventh in 53:38, followed by Stuart Hopkins (9th in 54:09), Ben Taylor (11th in 54:15) and Steve Marr (14th in 54:36).

Paul Edwards (55:32) led Spa Striders’ men home, followed by Ste Taylor (56:19), Chris McKeown (56:58) and Adam Notley (58:00).

Kenilworth Runners’ Sarah Rose bloomed in the heat, finishing first lady in 58:20.

Laura Pettifer was fourth lady and first LV35 in 61:30 and this pair along with Louise Andrews (65:20) were the ladies’ team winners.

Spa Striders’ Mel Venables (61:21) was third lady, with Jenny Jeeves (Leamington C&AC) fifth in 64:59 and first FV45.

A busy week in the Warwickshire Road Race League had seen the Sphinx 5 take place at the Memorial Park in Coventry four days earlier.

The first lap of the five-mile race saw a close battle between Coventry Godiva’s Alistair Smith and C&AC’s Mulvee before a shoe problem caused Mulvee to retire from the race.

His withdrawal left second place open to clubmate Paul Andrew who finished in 26:55, 48 seconds behind Smith.

Simeon Howson (28:35), Greg West (28;47) and Vassilis Andreoulakis (29:34) completed the C&AC team which took first place overall.

Kev Hope was the first of 62 Kenilworth Runners to finish, clocking 28:36 for sixth (1st MV35).

Stanley Doxey was next home in 13th position in 28:52 followed by Ben Taylor (14th in 28:54).

Paul Edwards (29:41) was again the first Strider home, closely followed by Adam Notley (29:42), Ste Taylor (29:59), Chris McKeown (30:37) and Pete Soley (30:57), with Dan Stannard (32:01) completing the scoring team.

Striders’ Mel Venables was fourth lady in 32:33, just ahead of Kenilworth Runners’ Laura Pettifer (5th lady in 32:42).

Jenny Jeeves was first lady home for Leamington in 34:17.

The evening event is also popular with athletes of the future thanks to a fun run put on before the main race.

Billy Doxey of Kenilworth Runners and Alex Adams of Stratford were battling it out for first place before another shoe disaster meant Adams had to run with an untied shoelace for the second lap. Doxey won in a time of 9:34 with Adams second in 9:46.

Leamington’s James Gould was sixth in 10:59.

Leamington C&AC’s Susie Tawney maintained her dominance of the East Midlands Grand Prix at Harborough.

Tawney completed the five-mile course in 34:57 to rack up her fourth MV55 victory from four races.

Clubmate Alex Montgomery came home in 38:11.

Spa Striders’ Dave Lindsay and Dawn Clark clocked 35:16 and 37:47, respectively.

In off-road racing, Charlotte Everard was first lady at the Inov-8 Maverick trail race in the Cotswolds, finishing the tough course around Sudeley Castle in 2:09:38.

Clubmate Rich Sykes finished in 2:21:32.

Striders’ Bethan Gwynn (1:54:08) was third lady at the Hampshire Hoppit Trail Half Marathon, while Lucy Tugwell completed the Arrow Valley 12k multi-terrain race in 60:58.

Chris Jones clocked 2:46:47 for the Wales trail half-marathon.