In previous years, individuals had competed but the club had never been able to field enough runners for a team.

Six ladies and six men ran, needing four to count for the ladies and six for the men.

In cold, damp, misty conditions,k the ladies were first off over a course of approximately 8k, just under five miles over three laps of the park, two short and a long lap.

This real cross-country course was over hills with names such as the ‘saucer’ and the ‘teaspoon’, proved a tough challenge for the runners.

In a field of internationals and experienced club runners, the first Harriers lady home was Sharon Mellors in 112th place. Following her was Gemma Redfern, Sarah Holme, Maddy Salter and Amy Robinson who all joined the club from spring onwards throughout last year.

The club’s final finisher was the ever-reliable Rose Sensecall who could have been well pleased with her race.

The men’s race was over a distance of 12k approximately just over seven miles with two short laps and two long laps.

The field of 600 runners saw Belper’s first four runners, Mark Riches, Phil Conroy, Rob Norman and Andy Rose finish within 35 places of each other, with the two remaining runners Malcolm Weir and Simon Hackett a bit further down the field.

Many of the smaller clubs did not field full teams but the stronger clubs were out in force.

The Belper men finished 46th out of 49 teams while the ladies finished 20th out of 22 full teams.

It was a commendable effort by the runners, many of whom were new to this type of course and this level of competition.

County cross-country championship

The re-arranged Derbyshire County cross-country championships took place last Saturday at Markeaton Park.

After the postponement of three weeks due to snow and ice, the event took place on a sunny frosty morning.

The original event would have been a joint competition with Nottinghamshire but they held their own individual races the previous weekend. This lead to numbers being considerably down but there were still nine runners in from the club. Once again the ladies went off first over a much easier 8k course than the Northern event. Steph Ilsley ran a fine race to finish 8th while Gemma Redfern ran strongly to finish 10th.

Steph now has the opportunity to represent the county in the Inter Counties Championship at Birmingham in March.

The men’s race followed over 10k and it was Dale Annable, finishing a creditable 16th, who led the Belper men home.

Phil Conroy and Andy Rose were once again just a minute apart while Steve Meath had a good run, followed by Malcolm Weir, Simon Hackett and Len Foulk.

Two tough cross-countries in two weeks for some of these runners now see them with two weeks rest before the last two Booth decorators league races and the national cross-country championships in Leeds at the end of February.