THE annual Welsh Castles Relay once again provided its share of fun, headaches and good racing at the weekend.

But despite the usual good spirit and enjoyment there was a degree of disappointment for those members of Prestatyn Running Club who turned out because two late withdrawals meant that the squad was incomplete.

To reduce the penalty club chairman Arwel Jones actually ran two stages on one day, including one mountain stage, covering a total of 23 miles.

The two-day relay from Caernarfon to Cardiff is a superb, unique event involving 59 teams and covering 20 stages. The full results were not available at the time of going to Press and although Prestatyn’s overall placing may be disappointing there were some excellent individual performances.

Mike Lindsay, on his debut in the competition, got the squad off to a very solid start and he was followed by Andrew Jones who, at 15th, was the club’s highest-placed runner of the weekend.

The other representatives were, in order of running, John Hughes-Roberts, Katie Brandrick, Eleri Goddard, Gareth Bailey, Gareth Brandrick, Neil Owen, Helen Baxandall, Des Davies, Arwel Jones, Gareth Hughes, Paul Brandrick, George Nicholls, Steve Hatfield, Glenda Davies, Phil Jones and Brenda Tiedtke.

Further details will be published next week.

The previous weekend three members represented the club in the Capenhurst 10k. George Nicholls finished 13th overall in 40.45, Des Davies 17th in 41.38 and new recruit Darrell Gavin was pleased to break the 50-minute barrier on his regains his fitness. He was 40th overall in 49.33.

Only two members travelled to Oswestry for the Park Hall 5k, Arwel Jones clocking 20.21 and Roger Harrison-Jones, who won the M70 class, 25.05.

Tonight ((Wed, 16th)) the club will be holding a social run through Garth Woods, Ffynnongroew, but will meet as usual at Saints at 6.30pm before driving there.

On Sunday ((20th)) the club stages the annual Eddie Faure Memorial Riverbank 10k in Rhuddlan, using the usual route along the Cob to Kinmel Bay, around Marine Lake and back again the same way. The starts at 11am at the Clwyd View Caravan Park in Marsh Road.