This year's National Cross Country was held in the picturesque setting of Bolesworth Castle not far South of Chester. Conditions leading up to the event had been dry and on the day the weather was chilly with a light wind. The course was quite thick grass that was flattened out by the races but meant there were no muddy sections. Although there were no steep hills the course had several long shallow up and down hills especially a long up hill finish into the wind.

In last year's U13 boys race Adrian White finished 138th, since then he enjoyed a successful summer finishing 3rd in the English Fell Champs and has continued his improvement this winter winning the Manchester league, the Greater Manchester Champs and finishing 2nd in the Northern XC. With a downhill start the National race was fast from the gun. Thomas Thake from Hallamshire Harriers has been the standout athlete of his age for the last few years finishing second last year in the National a year young and he wasted no time in breaking away to establish a lead. Chasing him was Noah Homer from Wreake & Soar Valley who was 4th last year, again a year young and recently ran 15.23 for a 5km road race. Behind these two there was a group of 5 forming with Adrian working hard to get on the back of this lead group. Coming into the long 800m uphill homestraight Adrian moved into 3rd place. He kept the pace high all the way to the line with several from the pack taking turns trying to catch him, but Adrian crossed the line in 3rd place, 7 seconds clear of the pack fighting for 4th place. Second Trafford runner was Ben Gardner in 51st place; again a top quality run from Ben only 30 second off the top 10. With Joe Thomas (225th), Thomas Aron (245th) and Joe Cowles (265th) the team finished 17th and 5th Northern team.

In the U15 boys race, unlike the U13 boys race, there was a big group of 10-12 runners for over half of the 4.25km race. Local runners Jack Marwood (Warrington) and Evan Grime (Salford) were in the thick of this battle finishing 5th and 6th respectively. Trafford's man for the big race in the last few years has been Pio Aron, he was 11th in last year's U13 boys race, and after a fast start it was Pio in the second group who was leading the Trafford boys. Last year Pio, Fin Dobson Emmas and Tim Ye along with Ben Keeley won the U13 boys National title and early on Fin and Tim were close to the top 50. Jay Hutchinson had got caught out with the fast start and narrow course but he chased through from 80th early on. With 3 of the team in the first year of this age group the target was to try and get top 3 teams but with Pio finishing 20th, Jay 30th, Finn 47th and Tim 59th the team won the title by 34 points from Keithly & Craven, reversing the team result from the Northern. Again showing how things can change from year to year, in the same race last year Jay Hutchinson was 246th. With youngsters Evan Lewis (97th), Archie Greenwood (139th) and Benji Cavanagh (210th) the team will be aiming for a 3rd win in a row next year.

In the girls U15 race there was another big field and a big turnout of Trafford runners. Continuing her good form it was Elizabeth Sinclair who led the team finishing in 85th. Isobel Thomas (120th), Rachel Bowden (154th) and Sophie Bowman (227th) completed the team finishing 17th overall and 6th Northern team. This is a young team and 3 more Trafford youngsters, Ursula Bailey (235th), Samrawit Tekle (265th) and Sadie McCormack 270th) were close behind.

In the U17 age group Trafford's successful day continued. In last years U15 boys National XC Freddie Meredith had a great run to finish 12th, this year he was one of the youngest runners in the field but rising to the occasion Freddie was running well holding on to 20th place early on. Freddie then just kept picking athletes off and with a sprint finish he went one better than last year to finish 11th overall and equal his training partner James Knockton 11th place from last year. Backing up Freddie was Trafford's biggest squad of the day with a further 12 Trafford runners finishing. Another athlete showing a big improvement from last year even though they have moved up an age group was James Walton finishing 72nd. With Jack Haworth 99th and Josh Watson 125th the team were 8th overall and 2nd Northern team. With most of the team first year U17's it bodes well for future success with Sonny Wilson (126th), Luke Carrington (155th), Matt Gardner (185th), Joe Daly (196th), Toby Robinson (201st), Jamie Deighton (232nd), Ed Robinson (238th), Zack Watson (241st) and Jamie Anderton (246th).

In the U17 Women's race Trafford had a smaller squad than in the mens race but not lacking quality. After a fast start Trafford's trio of Sara Clough, Ava Clough and Freya Griffiths were closely grouped in the top 30. The three athletes have been swapping places all season and it was Freya who was the strongest today pushing through to finish 23rd with Sara 27th and Ava 30th. With 4 to count for the Team Cleo Bentall who has been hampered by a knee injury all season pulled out another good run to finish 150th. That was good enough for 4th team overall and Trafford just pipped Salford to claim the trophy for 1st Northern team. Special mention to Fay Lewis in 199th who has been ever present all season backing up the winning team.

Trafford's U20 team was a depleted squad but Matt Bawtree (122nd) and Ned Silvey (145th) had good runs on a long tough course.

Over the full 12km 2 lap course the senior men's team was led by Simon O'Meara in 308th out of 1,472 finishers. He was backed up by good runs from Stephen Lunn (342nd), Naeem Stevens (407th) and Jacob Fletcher (812th). It was good to see one of Trafford's life members Dick Byers, who has been competing for Trafford for nearly 40 years, making a great comeback in 809th place. Trafford did complete a mens team with Jeff Prest finishing around 560th, but he forgot to wear his chip and therefore didn't register across the line. 

Trafford's women's team manager and Life member Sue Exon has been competing in The National since the early 1980's and was looking strong finishing in 705th out of the 773 finishers, making it 37 finishes in The National in a row. Once again leading the Trafford team was Zoe Storr in 236th, with good packing behind Zoe the team of Amy Cauley (253rd), Sophie Ralston (262nd) and Mel Monks (306th) were 33rd Team overall and 12th Northern team. Backing the team up were Kate Meeson (315th) and Ruth Beresford (533rd).

Provisional results can be found here...

https://results.sporthive.com/events/7034530289041792256