Evenwood RR: At the Great North Winter runs in Newcastle Nathan Nicholson finished a fabulous eighth in 5.32 with Helen Pounder 7.00 for 56th.

Times were tight for all as D Douthwaite and Alice May Johnston both dashed at the line in 7.56 and 7.58, 108th.

Emma Louise Gibson finished in 8.40, 141st and William Coatsworth 8.49, 151st. Another sprint saw Emily Coatsworth pop Lucy Ann Gibson both had good times for 166trh 8.17, and 167th 9.20. from a total of 224 runners.

Taking the honours in the Senior four mile race was Ron Pounder O40 in an excellent 29.59 for 204th. Darren Million was 31.23 268th, Donna Douthwaite 32.22, 315th. Fourteen-year-old Zoe Bailey 22.23 379th and 12-year-old Sarah Douthwaite 35.18 491st, Alan Thompson M65 had a fine run for 41.04 741st. Rebecca Marie Johnston and father John Johnston shared 43.19 for 809th and 810th. As did Amy Coatsworth and her father Steven both crossing the line on 45.23 in 858th and 859 from 936 entrants.

Sarah Douthwaite, Zoe Bailey and Nathan Nicholson will be taking part in the County Schools Trials at Bishop Auckland at the weekend. Good luck to all three.

Thirsk and Sowerby Harriers

The NYSD Cross Country League got underway again after the Christmas break with the first fixture of the year at Whitby. It was a cold, windy day but conditions underfoot were quite good. Rob Cole of Mandale won the men's event in 30.41 minutes and Richard Hall was the first Thirsk and Sowerby runner to finish in 33.31. Merv Burn came 26th in 34.05, Gary Dunn 29th in 34.22, Walter Busuttil, getting back into running form again after a long lay-off, 42nd in 35.03, Oliver Harrison 56th in 35.57, David Granger 67th in 36.46, Cameron Choules 74th in 37.09, Alasdair Thorpe 90th in 39.25, Ernie Huck 99th in 40.44, Alan Wikeley 106th in 42.00, Steve Harrison 115th in 43.00, Tom Thompson 124th in 44.51, Graham Banks 127th in 45.53 and Ian Codling 130th in 49.07. The men's team finished in 7th place.

The Senior women's race was won by Catherine Hare of Loftus in 18.13 minutes, Angela Hall came in 11th in 20.25, Pat Kirby 31st in 23.22, Nicola Thorpe 32nd in 23.55, Fiona Wilson 35th in 24.18, Kaye Mechie 39th in 25.06, Maureen Gibbs 40th in 25.29, Sarah Somers 41st in 25.38, Karen Hudson 46th in 26.58 and Marian Codling 48th in 29.52. The team finished in 6th place.

All the above runners collected points in what was the first event of the 2004 Club Championship.

William Hayward was once again the sole representative in the junior races, and finished in 14th place in the U15 boys' event in a time of 13.39.

Newton Aycliffe

At the Durham County Schools cross-country championships held at King James School on Saturday last year's intermediate county cross-country champion Lewis Moses stepped up an age group to the senior boys and raced to a tremendous win to take his third county title and book his place in the Durham team for the English schools championships at Maidstone in March.

Also, in the junior boys race over four miles Adam Gibson and Adam Harker finished 11th and 13th respectively to earn themselves county vests for the inter-counties event at Middlesbrough on February 7 where the rest of the team will be picked to compete at Maidstone.

In the inter boys event newcomer Philip Moore produced an excellent run to finish 25th, a big improvement considering he was only 16th in the Bishop Schools area championships.

In the minor boys Chris Gaffney showed what talent he has by finishing ninth in a closely contested race.

In the inter girls race Claire Moses produced a solid performance to finish 32nd.

In the junior girls race two of Aycliffe Harriers' promising track athletes, Amy Fleming and Amy Gaffney finished 46th and 50th respectively.

Crook & District

The club had a good entry for the popular Durham Cathedral Relays where relay teams of three with each contesting the 3000 mts. lap. In the senior mens race John Nunn had a cracking first leg timed at 9min 20 secs handing over to Kevin Allen 10.38 and Dennis Brown 11.12.

The veterans team performed particularly well with the O-45 team finishing 7th overall; Mike Mallen ran 10.19, Keith Langridge 10.35 and Malcolm Ingram 10.33 . The O-50 team consisted of Ken Norman 11.11, John Dennis 10.45 and Ian Bainbridge 12.01. The C team was Graham Bradshaw 11.10, Gerry Hehir 12.07 and Martin Harbisher 11.54.

* Budding runners should note that the club meets every Tuesday at Peases West Sports Ground, Crook, 6pm. Ring Dennis Brown on (01388) 664145 for further details.

Quakers RC

Eleven Quakers competed in the Old Monks six event in Hartlepool recently which also is a club championship event. Keith Richardson was first home for the club to finish in a time of 46:00.

He was followed by John Edmondson 46:01, Jes Smith 46:51, Danny Gordon 48:28, Dave Mason 49:36, Terry Deary 52:59, Rupert Booth 56:35, Mike Horan 57:21, Brendan Boyle 1:01:48, Ross Chisholm 1:02:16 and Sue Boyle 1:03:09.

Alasdair Tatham had yet another fantastic run at the Morpeth to Newcastle Half Marathon. He finished 13th out of 1020 runners in a time of 1:14:27, followed by Ian Scott who was 40th and once again took the first over 50 prize finishing in a time of 1:19:48 and John Tully, 894th, 2:05:08.

On January 11, the Quakers travelled to a blustery Whitby to compete in X-Country. Seraphine Kelvey-Brown led the Under Girls round their 2.4K course to finish 24th out of 35 runners in a time of 12:50, followed by Leanne Ranby, 26th, 13:00 and Jessica Durham, 29th, 13:22.

In the Ladies 4.8K race, Dawn Richardson led the ladies contingent home to finish 5th out of 48 in a time of 19:17, followed by Caroline Davies, 13th, 20:45, Katherine James, 18th, 21:38, Sarah James, 20th, 21:48, Denise Kelvey-Brown, 26th, 22:16, Julie Giblin, 37th, 24:47, Bev Snook, 43rd, 26:02 and Diane Wright, 47th, 27:59. The Quaker ladies finished in 2nd place.

In the Mens 8.9K race Wayne Bramley led the way home to finish 59th out of 133, in a time of 36:15, followed by Steve Snook, 66th, 36:34 and Dave Giblin, 39:42.