Ful-On Tri won the mob match against Thames Turbo held at the 5k Richmond Park Time Trial on Saturday by 1,380 to 2,086, a margin of 706 points. Ninety-six runners fought off illness, shopping and Christmas parties to make the 9am start in Richmond Park, with Ful-On Tri massing 52 starters against Thames Turbo’s 44.

Ful-On Tri dominated the top end of the mob match with 10 finishers in the first 15. Andrew McFarlane of Ful-on Tri broke the course record by six seconds, winning in 16:34. Thames Turbo’s Esther Evans, world age-group duathlon champion, smashed the women’s course record by two and a half minutes, winning in 18:17. Esther also set a new all-comers age-graded performance record for the RPTT of 81.31%.

Tristan Shipsides of Ful-On Tri took second in the men’s mob match in 16:54, followed by Turbo Roger Barr in 17:11. In the women’s, Ellen Pooley took second in 19:21, just ahead of Turbo Lucy Bowen in 19:22. Three Thames Turbo under 14s ran well: John Birchall, Alex Rowe, and Peter Frame.

Other course records set today included: Ellen Pooley (FOT) W25-29 19:21, Esther Evans (TT) W30-34 18:17, Helen Smith (TT) W35-39 20:20, Andrew McFarlane (Serp/FOT) M25-29 16:34, and Roger Barr (TT) M30-34 17:11.

Thames Turbo claimed the unofficial prize for first dog and most joggers, although they did manage to win eight age-groups to Ful-On Tri's six. Ful-On Tri kindly offered a mince pie to all runners before many headed off on their Saturday bike ride. A band of Turbos headed off to run a lap of the park, while those that had already done enough training for the week enjoyed a coffee and bun in Pembroke Lodge.

Mob match results, and RPTT results are available here and photos are available here. A very big thank you to the RPTT organisers, especially event director Karen Broadbent and her crew of marshals for making us so welcome at this great free event. Today’s list of RPTT helpers included Angela Wolff, Cecilia Hedberg, Chris Read, Guy Young, Heather Martingell, Juliette Chan, Lorna Smith, Marc Snaith, Nick Wright, Sharon Rowe, UKTT director Chris Wright, and UKTT founder Paul Sinton-Hewitt, with photographs by Nigel Rothwell and David Rowe. Thank you to Euan Lees and Nigel Clemens for arranging the match.