Forty members of Stevenage and North Herts AC travelled to Watford for the first race of the new cross-country season. It was their first competition in the First Division of the Chiltern Cross-Country League, following last season s promotion. Also, for

Forty members of Stevenage and North Herts AC travelled to Watford for the first race of the new cross-country season.

It was their first competition in the First Division of the Chiltern Cross-Country League, following last season's promotion.

Also, for the first time, they managed to score in each of the eight age groups, and finished the day in overall 11th place of the 14 teams.

On a beautiful sunny day, but a bit hot for cross-country, both the under-13 girls and the under-15 girls' teams were seventh.

Georgia Hazell led the younger group in 11th place, Danielle Murphy was 17th, Sophie Keeble 44th, and Hannah Stout 55th.

In the under-15 girls' event, Hannah Dewhurst was 14th, Claire Ward 19th, Lucy Crocker 46th, Sarah Pike 53rd, Temi Fajobi 56th and Charlotte Baird 62nd.

The combined under-20/under-17 women's team were eighth with Julia White finishing 26th, Tilly Scheuber 30th, Jess Barber 33rd, Louise O'Connell 35th and Gemma Badrick 38th.

Also in eighth place were the under-15 boys made up of Matthew Leach in 11th place, Paul Spicer 43rd, Peter De'Ath 49th and Liam Vooght 66th.

Lewis Keeble led the under-17 men to their ninth place, finishing 31st, followed by David O'Connell in 34th place, Warren Herridge 39th, Luke Langley 42nd, Greg Evans 43rd, and David Pickett 48th.

Alex Hepburn was the only under-11 boy running, finishing in a splendid 12th place in a race of 60 boys. Nikki Andrews in 58th place (of 74) was the only senior woman. The under-13 boys were 10th with Liam Sheppard 41st, Matthew Mardle 49th, and David Spicer 65th.

The largest group of club runners was in the combined senior, under-20 and veteran men's race. The team finished 11th, which was a great result as they had a small team compared with the might of clubs such as Bedford and County AC, and Windsor, Slough, Eton and Hounslow AC.

There were 213 men who finished in this race. Dan Poulton was 29th, Adam Searle 50th, Sam Poulton (under-20) 79th, Josh Moss (under-20) 104th, Callum McKechnie (under-20) 107th, Aaron Reynolds (under-20) 126th, Marcus McKechnie 137th, Steve Pike (vet) 196th and Paul Keeeble (vet), who missed the start of the race, placed 202nd. The under-20 men combined to come fifth in their category.