Richmond and Zetland Harriers' Under-15 Girls team had enough energy to out-run the opposition at Whitby on Sunday 11 in the fourth NYSD X-C League fixture and, having won all four fixtures to date, lead their group with a maximum 32 points.

The Senior Ladies are also leading with 51 points from 60 while the Senior Men are 5th with 38 points, but two firsts and a fifth, three team placings from seven age-group races, leave the Club with a lot of work to regain the Aggregate Trophy.

Whitby is a wonderful town to visit but it is a long way for a lot of Clubs in the NYSD, especially on a cold and threatening Sunday, mid-January. Numbers were down in across the board and in the opening race for Under-13 Boys there were only two Harriers in the 13 finishers. Douglas Roberts was a clear winner, his third success since missing the opening race, and Rory Wadsworth was seventh but the Club was one short for a team score and has not got into the team results after four fixtures. The Under-13 Girls are in a similar situation with Rosie Adams, sixth on the day and fourth in the individual listings, the only Harrier to make the start-line, and Chris Andrade was 9th on the day and is tenth in the individual listings for Under-15 Boys. There were five Harriers toe the line in the Under-15 Girls race (more than the three previous races combined) and, even without Jessie Roberts - their inspirational team leader, injured in the Yorkshires at Guiseley the previous weekend - they produced the goods! Nestle Rowntree had a runaway winner in Charlotte Maxted and two more in the top ten but hadn't a fourth runner. The Harriers had Jo Adams and Scarlett Gray finish fourth and sixth, they lost a brave Sophie Broadway who dropped-out suffering with a cold but had Katie Roberts 12th and Jessica Gray 16th, enough to total 38 points and win by one point. The smallest field of the day saw just four runners in the Under-17 Boys race, with no Harriers. Last weekend, the Ladies team finished just outside the medals in the Yorkshires but they are currently leading the NYSD X-C League with a great mix of runners, Under-17s, Seniors and Veterans all playing their parts: Louise Jackson was first Harrier across the line in 4th place; Fiona Hughes continued her superb run with 9th place; Joanna Gray chose an ideal time to make her X-C debut, finishing 19th overall (and 4th LVO35); Sarah Gregory rounded-out the scoring four in 24th place; Leah Jackson and Georgina Zissler were 8th and 9th Under 17 Girls, finishing in 27th and 30th places respectively.

The Senior Men's team also got a boost from two key athletes who had competed in the Yorkshire's, sufficient to propel them into second team place on the day, Ken Harker and Scott Wardman finishing third and sixth with Jon Orange splitting them in fourth and first MV40. Behind them, Brian McNabb had his best finish to date, 31st overall and 8th MV40, ahead of Edd Richards in 36th place and Paul Roberts 39th. Taff Rogers was the B team king-of-the-day in 54th place, one place ahead of Mike Brooks and three in front of Shane Gray - who made it a day to remember with all four of the family finishing! Jim Robinson was just outside the first half in 68th place, Paul Zissler was 86th and Colin Sewell missed adding to his MV50 cumulative score by two places, finishing 96th out of 133 finishers.

Further north, Grete Buck opted to continue her London Marathon training by competing in the Morpeth to Newcastle Road Race. This is now a half marathon early in the year rather than the 14.1 miles contested on New Year's Day due to the cost of staging the race but is equally popular. Grete says "the wind was bit strong, it knocked the breath out of me a couple of times but otherwise the weather was OK...I was doing great until about nine miles, definitely on course for about two hours and possibly under, when I had a foot problem and ended-up limping home...I've never experienced this before; I think it was probably a combination of new shoes and socks too thick because first my feet began to burn and then they felt as if they were being crushed - pure pain it was! so my finishing time was 2:12, not so good...I don't usually make excuses but this was definitely nasty and I'm going to think about what I do for the Brass Monkey - thinner socks or old shoes?"

This weekend's fixtures include the Northern X-C Championships at Sherdley Park, St Helens on Saturday (Harriers are reminded that coach leaves Richmond at 7 am prompt) and the Brass Monkey Half Marathon at York on Sunday.

* www.rzh.org.uk