For the first time in many years, thanks to the organisational skills and persistence of Martin Peace, we had junior teams competing in this prestigious event, and, on a day when hurricane Brian threatened to blow our tent away, our six teams performed admirably, making the trip to Graves Park, Sheffield, a very enjoyable one.
Our U17s began proceedings and really set the tone for the rest of the afternoon with our girls (Emily Field, Eliza Findlay and Katie Smith) finishing a splendid 9th, and our boys (Reuben Mantle, James Askew, and Josh Spencer) finishing 17th in a high-class field.
In the U11s we were unable to put out a girls team, but our boys produced the performance of the day, to finish in a superb 5th place, out of 31 teams. Making his debut for the Club, Jake Monks had an astonishing run to come home first on the opening leg and achieving the equal fastest time of the day in his age-group. He was ably supported by Matthew Peace and William Askew who both showed real determination to capitalise on an excellent start.
An excellent start was also provided by Rebecca Flaherty in the U13 Girls race. Setting off sensibly, she moved through to a splendid 3rd place and 6th overall in her first year in the age-group. Eleanor Dawson produced her best run for the Club, and Holly Walters battled away to finish in 23rd place out of 40 teams.
Samuel Mantle set off very quickly in the U13 Boys and held on to finish well up the field, a position which Oliver Peace improved on with an aggressive run, leaving Callum Watson, on his very welcome return to cross country, to bring the team home in a pleasing 14th position.
Our U15 Boys team was led off by Ben Rees who, though not feeling at his best, kept us well in touch, which meant that first Joseph Carnelley, and then Alex Flaherty, were able to make up a good number of positions, finishing 18th out of 38 teams.
All in all a splendid overall team performance: well done to everyone!
Tony Kingham