Get Set for Stur’s annual Half Marathon and 5K

This year’s Sturminster Newton Half Marathon –organised by the Dorset Doddlers – takes place on Sunday 6th August. The race starts at 10.30am in Station Road, just outside the Railway Gardens, and the route goes out through Manston, Margaret Marsh, Stour Row and Todber, returning back via Moorside and Hinton to finish on the High School playing field. The lead runners are expected to finish at around 11.40am.

The 5K option

If distance running is not your thing, there is also a multi-terrain 5K, which starts just after the half marathon. You will line up on the same start line before making your way along Sturminster’s roads, tracks and footpaths towards Hinton St Mary. After a lap around Hinton, the route will head back through the beautiful avenue of trees before crossing the finish line at the High School. Race Admin will be stationed at the High School. You can enter online in advance for the Half Marathon, and all 5K entries will be taken on the day at Race HQ. All finishers will receive a race memento and a delicious Honeybun Cake! There will also be refreshments and children’s races on the School playing field. Come along and run, or get out and support the runners along the routes. If you live on the route and it is a hot day feel free to come out with your hosepipe and cool them down!

• For more information on both races and the whole event, please visit sturhalf.co.uk or call race director Christine on 01258 472010.

Okeford Benefice welcomes its new priest

A new priest-in-charge, the Rev Andrew Gubbins, has been installed to serve the Okeford Benefice in the Blackmore Vale – comprising Child Okeford with Manston, Shillingstone, Okeford Fitzpaine and Hammoon. Parishioners have waited nearly two years since the departure of the Rev Lydia Cook.

The Rev Gubbins is married to the Rev Mary Gubbins, the new vicar of Sturminster Newton. The licensing of the Okeford Benefice’s new part-time minister by the Bishop of Sherborne, the Rt Rev Karen Gorham, and installation by Sherborne Archdeacon the Ven Penny Sayer, took place at a special service with a packed congregation in Holy Rood Church, Shillingstone, on Thursday 29 June. Andrew will be close to some of his childhood haunts of the 1970s, when he visited relatives near Shaftesbury and in Winterborne Zelston. Andrew worked in Yorkshire as a civil servant dealing with benefits and employment issues. He says:

‘I am shaped by my parents who, with personal steps of faith, local action and global vision, have never rested on their laurels.’