A dream start to the cross-country campaign for Dacorum & Tring

Club members from U11s up to Veteran runners contributed to the chart-topping scores, with the senior ladies’ team finishing first overall in Division Two while the senior men were second.

Among the junior teams, the U13 boys finished a brilliant first, the U13 and U15 girls were third and the U17 men were second.

The top result came from U13 boy Kristian Imroth, who finished first in his race, followed by Adam Jolly in fourth, Nico Dowsett in ninth, James Glyn in 12th, Freddie Truman-Williams in 13th and Elliot Kitchener in 19th.

For the U13 girls, Maddie Perry finished fifth, followed by Indira Patel in 12th, Jess Hoar in 21st and Star Phillips in 24th.

Izzie Amos and Grace Birdseye crossed the line in 10th and 14th place for the U15 girls, while Calypso Phillips was fourth U17 lady across the line, and Rhys Rowlands and Matthew Renphrey were third and eighth in the U17 men’s race.

In the U11 boys’ race, Jamie Bailey was fifth overall out of some 80 boys, while Dominic Burger and Thomas Ashton were 38th and 39th.

The senior ladies’ team had no competition in the overall score, finishing top in Division Two and ninth overall in the combined first and second division ranking.

The team was led home by Sam Fawcett in seveth spot, Catherine Davies in eighth, Becky Fawcett in 10th and Elizabeth Roberts in 12th, with Wendy Pearson, Louisa Hopper, Jessica Tanner, Helen Reardon and Anya Higgins completing the strong finish.

Jack Parslow, meanwhile, came second overall to give maximum points to the senior men’s team.

He was followed by Jamie Marlow, who had his strongest-ever cross country finish, in 14th spot, with Duncan Hamilton next over the line in 35th position.

The top three men were ably backed up by Steve Russell (41st), Russell Morris (44th), Chris Kitchener (47th), Richard Slack (51st) and John Hopper (55th), followed by Andy Trevillion, Matt Hallissey, Michael Lamb, Rob Salt, Paul Glyn, Martin Kerr, John Cooper, Dave Stears, John Slack, Malcolm Sargeant and Jason Hawkridge.

Many of the cross country runners also laced up their shoes for races the following day, with three of them even posting new PBs.

Sam and Becky Fawcett recorded new personal bests in the Herts 10k in Harpenden, with Sam finishing as 14th lady overall in a time of 43:49, while her twin sister Becky was 20th lady in 44:20.

Samantha Sullivan was only five seconds off her PB in finishing 33rd in a time of 46:56, while both Claire Copperwhite and Samantha Hawkridge collected new PBs in 54:06 and 57:54 respectively.

In the men’s race, Russell Morris finished in a speedy 43:06 while Jason Hawkridge ran 52:55 – with both men having run the cross country race the day before.

Helen Reardon, meanwhile, achieved a superb new PB of 1:59:00 in the Oxford Half Marathon.

Closer to home, Steve Shaw, Duncan Hamilton and Michael Lamb completed the Ridgeway Run, with Steve in the top 50 and fourth V50 overall.