The latest Gorleston parkrun was special for several reasons.

It was the 450th race of the successful weekly series while two of the regular volunteers achieved milestone status.

Sarah Withington reached 200 runs and Karen Gedge made it to 250. Two more runners got to 50, Emma Ferriera and Ian McIntosh. Well done to them.

Of much greater importance was the presentation, after the run, at JayJay’s Café, of an automatic external defibrillator. The gift was in memory of Joseph George Andrew Formosa, who passed away in June this year.

Donations from family and friends made it possible to fund two AEDs, a portable version for parkrun and a fixed unit situated within the Café.

Julia Formosa, Joseph’s mother, presented the back-pack style unit to Chris Harbord of parkrun organisers. Family members, friends and parkrun volunteers and runners attended.

The unit will be entrusted to cycling AED marshals so that when needed, it can be allocated with maximum efficiency.

These two new units are a valuable addition to the local community.

On a colder day, runner numbers were down (225) and many local entrants improved their positions. The First three men were Marc Evans, William Simm, Darren Barnes while the first three women were, Louise Bernasconi, May Wong and Ella Wakely. Midfielder was Rod Cooper.

Star personal bests were recorded by Mark Collins (125th run), John Hopwood (93rd run) and Claire Williams (73rd run).

Full results are on the parkrun Gorleston Cliffs pages and a set of pictures taken by Richard Knibb are on the Gorleston Cliffs parkrun Facebook page.

Rugby Union: The annual Country Folk v Townies match at Great Yarmouth-Broadland rugby club is being staged as usual on Boxing Day.

It is open to all club playing members and former club players who are back in Great Yarmouth for Christmas (meet 11am, kick-off 11.30am, no match fees).

The match, which sees players living in the town take on players living in surrounding villages, will be 30 minutes each way.

After a weekend off Great Yarmouth-Broadland return to Eastern Counties One North action tomorrow with a home match against North Walsham Raiders.