The Haselbury Trail Race (originally the Haselbury Plucknett 10 kilometre race) is on the first Wednesday in August and starts at 7:15 in the evening. This event was first staged in 1989 when the Haselbury Plucknett Village Hall Committee was offered a very nice solid silver trophy to use for a fund raising event.
This trophy dated back to the early 1900’s and was from the Crewkerne and District Rifle Shooting club, it had last been awarded in 1908 when a team from Haselbury were the winners. Crewkerne Running Club was approached with a view to organising a race around this trophy and the Haselbury 10K was born, the first race taking place in August 1989. The 10K refers to the 10 kilometre distance which is about 6.2 miles, a popular distance among runners. The trophy has been recently valued and the value is such that it is no longer given out! The winners name is engraved on the base every year and the winner also has a trophy to keep along with 13 other categories.
The very first race was a disaster, a marker was missed which resulted in runners being disbursed over a wide area of south Somerset, some even ended up on the railway line heading for Waterloo! It was a nightmare situation for the organisers but eventually all (most of?) the runners were found and offered a refund of their entry fee or another go at the race a week later. No refunds were claimed and a week later the race actually had more contestants than before. That first race certainly made sure that no one forgot the Haselbury 10K and the race has been well supported every year since.
The event has evolved with the passing years, the increase in traffic and the overstretched resources of the local police, has resulted in the run becoming the Haselbury Trail off road race. We have to thank North Perrott Fruit Farm and Perrott Hill School for allowing the race to pass through their property, this results in a very scenic route with a variety of running surfaces, all of which are relatively easy going and little risk from traffic.
For many years the Haselbury Trail has benefited by being part of the Somerset Race Series, a programme of races throughout the year where competitors can score points with a view of being the overall winner at the end of the season.
With much help from Crewkerne Running Club both in manpower and materials we raised over £1500 for the village hall, a village hall, which, sadly, after much vandalism and a number of arson attacks, has now been demolished.
With the demise of the hall the race nearly died also and the last race from the hall was in 2002. So many people approached us about it that we found a new home for the event at very short notice at Misterton village hall. We were very pleased to have the use of the hall but there were a number of areas which made it less than totally suitable. The single shower was not popular and the shortage of parking caused some problems.
Fortunately, for many years now since 2004 we have been able to use North Perrott cricket club with its field and superb pavilion for our race headquarters. The position of the Cricket Club enables us to use a very varied and scenic off-road course which is mainly on public footpaths and tracks. We are looking forward to an enjoyable event where the bar will be open and in use for the presentations and, weather permitting, there will be a BBQ on the field or indoors if the weather is bad so come along with the family and make an evening of it.