North Herts Road Runners kicked off their winter season in fine style by winning the opening fixture of the 12-team Three Counties Cross-Country League. And they did so at the home of last year s champions, Wootton, in Northampton. An excellent 46 Squirre

North Herts Road Runners kicked off their winter season in fine style by winning the opening fixture of the 12-team Three Counties Cross-Country League.

And they did so at the home of last year's champions, Wootton, in Northampton.

An excellent 46 Squirrels made the journey up the M1 to tackle a two-lap, five-mile course through woods and fields.

They came home with both male and female individual winners in addition to winning the team event in a race that had more than 300 runners.

Debutant Neil Miller won the men's race and he was backed up strongly by Steve McKeown (sixth), Nick Beresford (seventh), Pete Northover (11th), Pete Sibbett (16th), Gary Cook (18th) and Peter Kelland (24th).

Astrid McKeown was first lady home followed by Melissa Winters (fourth) and Paula Adams (sixth).

Six members of the club took part in the monthly 5k at London's Hyde Park on Friday.

Steve McKeown led the team home with a new personal best time of 16:50 to finish seventh out of a quality field.

Martyn Annetts (19:04), Duncan Hooker (19:22) and Dave Ross (22:22) also ran in ideal conditions, while Jo Summers (21:33) was second female Vet 40 and Karen Dodsworth (22:50) likewise in the female Vet 45 category.

Despite being plagued by injury since she ran at the London Marathon in April, Lisa Nash was thrilled to complete 26 miles at the Dublin Marathon in 3-57.

P It was a glorious day in Snowdonia and almost too hot for running a hilly marathon for five Fairlands Valley Spartans.

First was Gerry McCabe, 393rd out of the 1,044 finishers, in 4-01:03.

Mike Newbitt completed the tough race in 4-20:13 (617th) with Sharon Crowley in 4-24:49 (656th); Paul Holgate in 4-54:14 (866th) and Dave Paul in 4-59:22 (894th).

Nicholas Crowley won the associated two-mile race for under-16s with a time of 14:23.

Jeanette Collins ran the British Heart Foundation 10k held in Hatfield House grounds on Sunday.

It was a pleasant run with two circuits round the park and through the woods. She finished in 53 minutes.

It was mild, dry and bright with a light breeze for the Serpentine Last Friday of the Month 5k race in Hyde Park, London.

Jim Brown took advantage of the good conditions to run a new season's best of 19:51. He was 62nd out of the 186 runners.

Roger Biggs and Robert Hardy tackled the Beachy Head Marathon on Saturday.

The tough course started from Eastbourne, went along the paths and trails of the South Downs Way, and featured 1,200m of climb.

Their times were Biggs 5-11:47 and Hardy 5-21:48.

P FVS TRI's Rob Wilson used his ironman training to good effect to finish 112th from 600 finishers in the Beachy Head Marathon.

Hoping to break four hours for the challenging off road course, he finally recorded 4-04 after spraining an ankle just two miles from the finish having climbed over 1200m on a course which took in the notorious Seven Sisters.