Banbury Harriers Athletic Club

                                                                    CROSS COUNTRY

Sullivan Smith returned to Banbury for a visit and helped Banbury Harriers consolidate their top place in division three of the county cross country league on Sunday. The fixture held at Culham again attracted increased fields in all races.

Smith showed he can mix it with the best when giving Woodstock’s Steve Naylor the closest race this winter. The second place gained by Smith along with Tim Wright in 12^th place and Tom Offord 21^st set the platform for Banbury Harriers to increase their lead in the division. In between the Harriers second and third finishers came Hook Norton Harrier Tom Bradford in 16^th place. Dave Tame provided Hook Norton second place finisher in 35^th place. Three other local runners finished in the top one hundred of over three hundred starters. They were Simon Pritchard in 60^th, Cherwell’s first man home Ian Thomas in 78^th place and Peter George in 97^th place.

In the senior ladies race in a field of 150 starters, Michelle Bartlett finished 9^th and her Banbury Harrier team colleague Rebecca Biegal 32^nd. Gabby Howett of Hook Norton just edged out Cherwell’s Kim Shaw. The former finishing 55^th, one place and one second in front of Shaw.

In the two Under15/Under17 races Tom Biegal finished 6^th in the boys race for Banbury Harriers and Michelle Tunstall of Cherwell 19^th in the girls race.

Two Banbury Harriers were the pick of the under thirteen age group, Sophia Daenen 14^th in the girls and Toby Smith 16^th in the boys.

The under eleven races attracted fifty plus in both races. In the girls the Banbury Harrier duo of Tia Williams and Anaghard Wynne finished 5^th and 6^th. In the boys race Cherwell’s Ben Morgan finished 13^th.

On Saturday a small Banbury Harrier team travelled to St Albans for the third fixture in the Chiltern League. In the ladies race Michelle Bartlett finished in 4^th place and in the men’s race Tim Wright was 13^th.