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Chiltern Harriers had great success at Saturday's Bucks Cross Country Championships at Hughenden Park, High Wycombe.
On a fine weather day with quite good underfoot conditions, the athletes tackled a series of tough hilly courses on the slopes of the Hughenden valley which made for a true cross country test of stamina.
The Senior men had a strong team out and, for the third time in four years, took the team title. On a tough 13K route including six steep climbs, Tom Beedell (2nd) and Matt Bennett (3rd) made the podium and were backed up by good runs from Eddie O'Gorman (6th), James Repper (11th), Justin Fowler (16th) and Kingsley Nanton(18th) to complete the winning six.
In the vets race Kingsley (5th), Andrew Redington (12th), Mark Tudor (14th), and Steve Perkin (16th) were third. The vet 60 race, over 4K, had Trevor Brawn (4th) and Martyn Cartwright (6th).
The Senior women were third with Cath Holloway (10th), Judith Orr (11th) and Sarah Caulfield (18th) being third, but the same threesome winning the vets race. Individually Cath Holloway was second vet 35, Sarah Caulfield third vet 35, Judith Orr second vet 45, Barbara Ralph second vet 55 and Brenda King first vet 65.
The young athletes also had a very good day, the highlights being individual wins in the Under 15 age group for Michael Goddard and Connie Lewis, against very strong opposition.
Michael led home the winning Under 15 boys team with Andrew Stenning (5th), Joe Aherne (8th) and Sam Butcher (12th) completing the team. Connie was followed by Rosalind Firth (6th) and Amy Harris (12th) to finish as third team.
The Under 13 girls were also team winners with Katie Bench (3rd), Georgie Bingham (4th) and Hannah Thear (7th) taking the honours. Also having a great run was Year 6 girl Mimi Houlihan-Burne who finished 8th.
The Under 13 boys, all first years, did very well to be second to a strong Milton Keynes team. Will Perkin was 5th, Robert Hall 6th, Fred Sanders 7th, and Sam Henning 9th.
In the Under 17s, the foursome of George Gillingwater (10th), Ben Hall (11th), Jack Walker (12th) and Liam McDonald (14th) were second and Phoebe Cutter was the lone U17 woman in 9th.
Meanwhile on Sunday in St Albans the Herts County Championshortip saw Hannah Morton second in the U13 girls race with Sophie Chesterman 20th.
Sophie Morton was sixth in the U11 race and Hannah Wardley 19th in the U15s.