Several younger athletes have been in competition for their schools in recent weeks - some in the North Yorkshire Schools X-C Area Trials at The Allertonshire School Tuesday 4th and then for The Allertonshire School in the Regional Final of the English Schools X-C Cup at Bydales School, Marske on Saturday 8th.

The Area Trials are a first big step for many athletes; they are used to select teams to represent North Yorkshire Schools and selection means they earn their County colours. The County X-C Championships are at Scarborough in January and are followed by the Schools Inter-County fixture against Humberside; success then means the English Schools X-C Championships, which are at Maidstone, Kent in March.

There were eight races divided by gender and age group; year 7 - Minors, years 8 and 9 - Juniors, years 10 and 11 - Inters and years 12 and 13 (sixth form for those who remember shillings) - Seniors. Tom Osborne won the Minor Boys and competes in the Counties but will have to wait another year for major competition, as there aren't races for Minors at the English Schools Championships. Niall Scott will also compete as a guest despite falling mid-race while well positioned. Shane Darby and Doug Roberts are selected for the Junior Boys team; Shane was second in the race but Doug was unwell and didn't run but was also put-through as a guest. There was success for four Harriers in the Junior Girls race with Rosie Adams finishing 1st, Scarlett Gray 4th, Sophie Broadway 5th and Katie Roberts 8th, all of whom will travel to Scarborough. There was more success in the Inter Girls race with Jessie Roberts and Leah Jackson finishing 1st and 2nd respectively. Chris Andrade and Sam Stanislaus both ran in the Inter Boys race but didn't qualify.

The Allertonshire School had teams compete in all four races at the Regional Final of the English Schools X-C Cup, up and down the sand dunes, on a very windy day at Marske-by-the-Sea.

The first three teams in each race qualify for the Final at Acklam Grange School, Middlesbrough on Saturday, December 6 and three teams are through. The Junior Boys were the unlucky ones, finishing 5th team despite Doug Roberts 2nd place on the day. The Junior Girls team was 3rd with Rosie Adams winning the race, followed by Becky Sadler; the Inter Girls were 2nd with Jo Adams (showing her bottle, running despite suffering the tail-end of an infection) finishing 12th and Katie Roberts 17th and Inter Boys team also 2nd with ex-Harrier Andy Lagan best man in 3rd place.

The Reebok Challenge Series continues on Saturday with race 4, including the Trials for the European X-C Championships at Sefton Park, Liverpool and on Sunday, Billingham Marsh House Harriers have their 5th Annual Yorkshire Dragoon 7.7 mile Road Race, starting from the Yorkshire Dragoon Pub, Maltby at 10.30 am.

The Harriers AGM & Presentation Evening is also this Sunday at Richmond Cricket Club with the AGM starting at 7pm - Tickets are £ 3.00 and include a buffet supper and first ticket in the raffle with a top prize from Bedale Sports, along with many more!