It was a battle between Headington Roadrunners and Oxford City for the men's titles at the Oxfordshire Road Relay Championships at Hook Norton.

Headington stamped their dominance on the senior ranks with James Bowler, Gary Harris, Paul Northrop and Matt Barnes recording the four fastest times of the day, beating Oxford City by three and a half minutes and slicing almost five minutes off the previous event record.

Hook Norton and Banbury came in third and fourth.

In the veterans' event, Oxford City proved winners by more than six minutes, with Headington only pipping Oxford City's B team to second place as a result of a fine performance by England international orienteer Neville Baker on the sixth and final leg. Witney were fourth. Times for the event on a very windy day at the exposed and undulating five kilometre course confirmed the current improvement in Oxfordshire road running.

Not only did Headington smash the event record for the senior men, the Oxford City senior team also beat the previous record, and the Oxford City vets team beat the previous records in both the men's and the women's events.

OXFORDSHIRE CLUBS ROAD

RELAY CHAMPIONSHIPS

Men: 1 J Bowler (Head A) 16.19, 2 G Harris (Head A) 16.33, 3 P Northrop (Head A) 16.54, 4 M Barnes (Head A) 17.07, 5 S Pritchard (Banbury A) 17.07, 6 N Baimbridge (Hook Norton A) 17.26, 7 N Russell (Ox City A) 17.30, 8 J Chapple (Ox City A) 17.30, 9 P George (Banbury A) 17.33, 10 R Treadwell (Ox City A) 17.41, 11 B Green (Ox City Vets A) 17.42, 12 P Gray (Ox City A) 17.42, 13 S Johnson (Ox City A) 17.45, 14 S Cherel (Head A) 17.48, 15 R Holley (Hook Norton A) 17.53, 16 R Thetford (Head A) 17.53, 17 J Exley (Ox City A) 17.58, 18 D Wheeler (Ox City Vets A) 18.01, 19 S Hall (Witney A) 18.01, 20 A Tilsley (Hook Norton A) 18.04, 21 M Baillie (Witney A) 18.04, 22 D Hartwell (Ox City Vets A) 18.05, 23 J Griffiths (Head Vets A) 18.10, 24 R Grant (Ox City Vets A) 18.11, 25 Melvyn Kilcoyne (Ox City Vets A) 18.11. Team results men: 1 Headington A 1.42.34, 2 Oxford City A 1.46.06, 3 Hook Norton A 1.48.39, 4 Banbury A 1.50.56, 5 Witney A 1.54.14, 6 Abingdon A 2.11.01. Vet men: 1 Oxford City A 1.48.30, 2 Headington A 1.54.43, 3 Oxford City B 1.56.44, 4 Witney B 2.05.07, 5 Abingdon A 2.05.23, 6 Headington B 2.13.26.

Women: 1 S Walters (Ox City Vets A) 19.51, 2 S Pitts (Witney A) 20.10, 3 S Ogilvie (Ox City Vets A) 20.31, 4 P Mason (Witney A) 20.31, 5 M Mik (Head A) 20.59, 6 C Peterson (Hook Norton Vets A) 21.01, 7 G Hueter (Ox City A) 21.06, 8 C Hewitt (Ox City A) 21.40, 9 S Wolanski (Ox City Vets A) 21.44, 10 M Barnes (Head A) 21.47, 11 J Ashton (Witney A) 21.59, 12 M Buzzard (Banbury A) 22.31, 13 W Wilson (Abingdon Vets A) 22.47, 14 S Pointer (Oxford City A) 22.56, 15 J Campbell (Head A) 23.09, 16 S Davies (Ox City B) 23.29, 17 K Presich (Banbury A) 24.14, 18 D Holley (Hook Norton Vets A) 24.43, 19 E Hussey (Radley Ladies Vets A) 24.46, 20 D Kukainis (Banbury A) 24.58, 21 C Cleghorn (Radley Ladies Vets A) 25.01, 22 S Chow-Dunn (Hook Norton Vets A) 25.42, 23 Brenda Brown (Radley Ladies Vets A) 27.10, 24 N Blatchford (Abingdon Vets A) 27.15, 25 A Wright (Abingdon Vets A) 28.11. Team results women: 1 Witney A 1.02.40, 2 Oxford City A 1.05.42, 3 Headington A 1.05.55, 4 Banbury A 1.11.43. Vet women: 1 Ox City A 1.02.06, 2 Hook Norton A 1.11.26, 3 Radley Ladies A 1.16.57, 4 Abingdon A 1.18.13.