The 2012 Olympics haven't even started yet but a Combermere Abbey team has already won gold. Incredible but true. Last week the Whitchurch Whippets running club organised a six mile race at Dearnford Lake, which is just south of Whitchurch - which is itself a pleasant, sleep market town just a short hop, skip and jump from the Abbey.

Three of the Combermere gardeners, Ben, Damian and Peter decided to enter, calling themselves The Slaughtered Monks of Combermere Abbey; an imaginative, historic but undeniably gruesome name.

The race had three legs (the competitors, in contrast, had the more standard two apiece)  and was held over a rough six mile course on a relay basis - so that each of the hearty gardeners had two miles to run (that wimp Usain Bolt only ever manages 100 metres).

It was a tough challenge because the guys were up against formidable competition; several large local companies had fielded teams, including the huge storage and distribution company Grocontinental, and Tescos - the huge ... well, supermarket. And the mighty Slaughtered Monks of Combermere Abbey came first, slaughtering the opposition. They were competing as amateurs, of course, but can a professional athletics career be far away? And if so, who's going to dead-head the roses?