YORK Knavesmire Harriers made a strong start to the West Yorkshire Cross Country Race series, where the club’s women finished fifth out of 12 at Nunroyd Park, in Leeds.

Returning to solid form Caroline Warrington took a strong 13th place, with Andrea Lancaster 26th, Katie Godfrey 37th and final counter, Aislinn Austin, 47th.

Backing up the team were Sarah Douglas, in 58th, and Louise Mckenzie, in 73rd.

In the men’s under-17 race, the ever-improving Nick Langhan put in a sound performance to finish sixth.

The men’s ten kilometre race saw Darren Hendley lead home the Mire contingent in 45th place, with veteran Barry Atkinson 49th, Jonathan Kendal 50th, Kevin Langhan 78th, Stefan Durkin 117th and Rory Henderson in 121st.

Other Mire counters were Steve Green in 134th, Andrew Martin in 153rd and Ian Bithell in 157th.

In the veterans’ series, Knavesmire put a good performance at Skipton.

Pete Welsh clocked 36 minutes 12 seconds, Duncan Chambers 38-37, Ian Bithell 40-18, Dave Scoreby 43-15, Dave Hutchinson 44-28, Carol Diggle 48-16, Viv Fraser 53-58, Irene Welbourne 56-07, Jane Hartas 57-33 and Jean Wright 59-18.

Richard Lowson took an excellent third place in the Richmond 10k, clocking 35 minutes, with Simon Dixon taking one hour.

In the Boroughbridge off-road ten-mile race, John Oliver was first veteran home and fifth overall in one hour six minutes.