Former Surrey 1500m champion Gareth Price warmed up for his marathon debut in Berlin on Sunday by leading Herne Hill home in the lead at the end of the opening stage of the Surrey senior men's road relay championship in bright sunshine at Wimbledon Park last Saturday.

Price, 29, will be hoping not to repeat his error in going slightly off course when he competes in the German capital.

About half-way round the three mile lap, and already well clear of the chasing teams, he carried straight on instead of taking a left turn as indicated by the marker board at the junction of Arthur Road and Home Park Road.

He quickly realised his error and got back on course without losing too much ground.

Price, who is aiming to clock inside two hours 25 minutes in Berlin and has been covering 80 miles a week in training in his build-up for the event, was chased home by Dorking's Nick Hodges as he crossed the line in 14:58 with Hodges just one second down.

Veteran Keith Newton (15:12) was some way behind bringing the Herne Hill B team in third ahead of Toby Pearson (15:21) first leg runner for the Thames Hare and Hounds B team, Alex Robinson (15:23) of Hercules Wimbledon and Dave Symons (15:24) running the opening leg for the Thames Hare & Hounds A team.

Next over the line were Ben Osborn (15:29) of Stragglers, James Harvey (15:46) of Walton and Mark Humphrey (15:48) running for last year's winners, Belgrave Harriers.

In a curious turn of events, Jeff Cunningham (14:57), running the second fastest leg of the day, took the Herne Hill B team to the front on the second leg, handing over 26 seconds ahead of Hercules Wimbledon's Andrew Penney (15:12) with Rob Karn (15:49) bringing the Herne Hill A team in third 52 seconds behind its B team.

Down the field, Matthew Donnery (15:11) posted the second best time on his stage and the equal eighth fastest on the day in bringing Epsom & Ewell through from 22nd to 12th place Chris Daniels (15:52) lifted Thames into fourth spot with Ben Hurley (15:31) taking Belgrave up to fifth with Graham Brook (15:55) improving one place for Stragglers.

Hercules Wimbledon's Adam Przedrzymirski (15:11), clocking the fastest time of his team, went to the front on the next leg with Iain Lockett (15:01) getting Herne Hill's A team top within two seconds of the leaders and overtaking his B team runner Chris Peach (15:56) who handed over in third place.

Stuart Major (15:00), running the fastest time on his leg, kept Thames Hare & Hounds in fourth place but closed the gap on the leaders to just half-a-minute.

Kevin Gadd (15:34 and Paul Graham (16:21) kept Belgrave and Stragglers in fifth and sixth places ahead of South London Harriers and Epsom & Ewell.

Herne Hill regained the lead at the second half of the event with Jonathan Steed (15:27) taking them clear with Neil Chisholm (15:34) lifting Thames Hare and Hounds up to second place, 35 seconds behind the leaders.

Sam Knight (15:50) brought Herne Hill B in third ahead of Hercules Wimbledon's Chris Coles (16:22) and Belgrave's Dave Mason (16:40).

Veteran Andy Weir (15:12) closed down Herne Hill's lead to 25 secodns on the fifth leg on which Liam Yates (15:22) kept Herne Hill ahead.

Justin Kelly (15:50) lifted Hercules Wimbledon into third spot ahead of Andrew Aitken (16:16) running for the Herne Hill B team and Andy Tindall (15:19) who brought South London Harriers up to fifth and Belgrave's Paul Chapman (17:01).

Running a superb anchor leg, James McMullan swept Thames Hare and Hounds into the lead with the fastest individual time of the day of 14:14 to cross the finishing line 20 seconds clear of Herne Hill''s Alan Barnes (14:59) with Simon Coombes (15:32) bringing the Herne Hill B team in third and teenager Geordie Logan (16:19), the youngest member of the Hercules Wimbledon squad fourth.

Veteran Jason Simpson (15:21) brought South London Harriers in fifth with Will Clark (15:20) bringing Epsom & Ewell through from eighth to sixth.

Team result: 1 Thames Hare & Hounds 1:31:16; 2 Herne Hill 1:31:36; 3 Herne Hill B 1:33:43; 4 Hercules Wimbledon 1:34:17; 5 South London Harriers 1:34:28; 6 Epsom & Ewell 1:37:16; 7 Belgrave (holders) 1:37:33.

Fastest laps:1 McMullan 14:14; 2 Cunningham 14:57; 3 Price 14:58; 4= Barnes & Hodges 14:59; 6 Major 15:00; 7 Lockett 15:01; 8= Przedrzymirski & M Downery (Epsom & Ewell) 15:11.