It was Ladies day at Hainault Forest.

The second fixture of the Essex Cross Country season brought about a mixed bag of results for Chelmsford for a number of those gaining success in the first meeting did not face the starter this time round. Team wise pride of place goes to our senior women who repeated their position at the top of the points result with Havering closely behind them. Our squad saw Hannah Bolton coming up with her best placing of 4th with Rachel Broome closely behind in 7th. With Sophia McCall 17th and veteran Wendy King 19th our scorers were home although Emma Cox 20th, Emily Cooke 22nd and Laura Durn 23rd were also in close contact whilst Anna Nuttall 34th and Samantha Kelly 63rd were well inside the top half of the field of 152 finishers. What a contrast to our other female age groups. In the under 17`s we saw a good run by Katie Cox to finish second but there was no further support.  To the under 15`s and here Francesca Phillips and Orla Martin 6th placed 6th and 7th with Vivien Prelevic 22nd in support. At under 13 level just two members turned out Leila Robinson highly placed in 6th with Scarlett Metcalfe 15th whilst the under 11`s saw Olivier Bilby 4th and Coco Phillips 12th.

On the male side top of the role of honours goes to Samuel Miller of the Chelmsford Endurance team, second in the first meeting to Southend`s Oscar Perreton the positions were reversed. Again, a very close call - a prelude to future battles! Endurance team also had Lewis Boarer 10th, Ben Padfield 10th and Thomas Arnold 13th with Jacob Smithyes 5th, Toby Hatt 8th and Arthur Moreiro 14th. The under 13`s also brought another good run by Dylan Law as he took second spot and his support came from James Pollard 11th and Noah Hammond 15th. At under 15`s and still an incomplete team as Jake Boarer placed 10th with Edward Delaney 24th and Kyaya Fakazi 27th. The under 17`s only calls for teams of three but here we put out four with Joseph Delaney 3rd, Daniel Pollard 4th, Ben Smith 11th and Luke Webb 13th. With 18 points we were to place second to Havering`s 17. Final race of the day and the senior men were well represented and were to place fourth in team and individual with Lewis Harknett leading us home with Tom Rehal 17th, Ethan Reilly 26th, Zach Bridgeland 33rd and veterans Mark Sanford 77th, Peter Waite 88th completing the scorers. Others completing the race Lee Martin 98th, Bobby Priest 120th, Sam Eida 152nd, Peter Tullett 160th, Dave Phillips 161st and Mike Bridgeland 186th from the field of 250

Report written by Roy Meadoecroft.

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