The field got under way in pouring rain, and racing along the Hutt Road the leaders soon sorted themselves out. Mike Browne, together with the Scottish man set a cracking pace and the pair opened up a gap that was steadily increased until the Petone change-over. Browne hung on tenaciously and was headed at the end if the lap by only a few seconds. John Ryan, a first-year runner, hotly pursued the leader to Talta, and at the end of the second lap only a small margin separated the two teams. Ryan's run in the light of his relative inexperience in such a race was highly creditable. Mike Truebridge did not perform quite as well as expected and at Upper Hutt Varsity had dropped back to third place behind Scottish and Masterton.

Rod Crange running the Te Mania lap made up considerable ground on Masterton but at the change-over Scottish had obtained a handy lead of three minutes. Ian Sussex entrusted with the testing Mangaroa lap, scuttled over the foothill in brilliant fashion, with the result that at Kaitoke the Scottish lead had dwindled to about one minute with Masterton just holding on to second place.

Running up the Rimutakas Tim Beaglehole swept past Masterton and despite a gallant chase behind the Scottish man the latter had two minutes in hand at the summit. Dick Gilberd running the gruelling downhill lap in record-breaking style reduced this deficit considerably and at the Featherston change-over Varsity was trailing Scottish by Just over a minute. Tony Gow inflicted with the exasperating monotony of the long straights to Greytown was set a difficult task to catch the leader and despite a near record run was not able to bridge the gap.

The crisis had been reached and Clem Hawke in his lap to Clareville rose to the occasion magnificently. Running with great determination he all but pegged the leader back and the honour of putting us into the lead was loft with Graeme Stevens.

Stevens ran past the Scottish man very early in his lap and with a bewildering pace dashed into Masterton a clear winner by over five minutes, amid great excitement.

The winning time was 5 hours 44 minutes and several other teams finished Inside 6 hours, the first time that more than two teams have done so.

Dorne Cup

The five-mile [unclear: Dorne] Cup run at [unclear: Silverstream], provided a thrilling tussle between Olympic, Varsity, Masterton and Scottish. The course is a real cross-country test, and includes running through muddy patches, streams and along a cobble-stone road and in the course of two laps about 30 fences have to be negotiated. The first ten men home for any club constitutes that club's team and the Importance of team work is clearly obvious.

This year's race was run under very cold conditions and resulted in Varsity being narrowly defeated by Olympic with Masterton third and Scottish fourth. As the race progressed the Varsity team resolved itself into two separate bunches, Gow, Hawke and Gilberd being near to the leaders throughout and a second bunch some way back. At the finish Tony Gow was in 10th place, followed by Clem Hawke in 11th and Dick Gilberd in 13th place. Mike Brown (23rd) finished just ahead of Tim Beaglehole, John Holden. Ian Sussex, Rod Orange and John Ryan. John Riseborough our tenth man finished in about 40th position.

In the final analysis Varsity was headed by Olympic by 6 points. Graeme Stevens or Mike Truebridge would have tipped the scales in our favour if they had been available but on the day Olympic fully justified their win and we congratulate them on their long awaited success. This was the first win in the Dorne Cup in 27 years.