Best cyclocross bike under £1000 and other CX chat

Anyone got tips for setting up canti brakes properly? I lowered the yoke which seemed to help but they're still pretty shocking... Have burned through the blocks in only a couple of weeks so I'll be getting new ones soon - worth splashing out?

And you can pretty much make a new setup after each race or hard training session - half a pad of wornage is to be expected.