A STORMING anchor-leg run by Great Britain international Ian Hudspith saved the day for defending champions Morpeth Harriers in the 21st Durham Cathedral Relays.

Morpeth, who dominated the senior men's event by finishing first and second 12 months earlier, were made to battle all the way by Elswick Harriers and Sunderland.

Morpeth, fourth on the opening leg, were hoisted into second place in the team-of-three relay by Tom Ranger and 33-year-old Hudspith, recently recovered from flu, found himself trailing the Sunderland leader by eight seconds.

But the Tyneside teacher was soon into his stride, overtaking 21-year-old Malcolm Hassan on the first of the two 1500 metre riverside circuits to win by a comfortable 26 seconds.

Hudspith clocked the third fastest time for the 3,000m leg of 8 mins 28 secs, with Ranger in pole position, five seconds quicker.

Sunderland also slipped to second place in the veterans' relay after second leg runner Tom Doughty, a recent over-40 bronze-medallist in the World Triathlon Championships in New Zealand, gave them a nine seconds advantage over defending champions Durham City.

But the host club's top runner, former British Veterans' 10K road race and cross country champion Rob Hand, quickly made up the deficit, overtaking Rob Rush to win by 22 seconds.

Chester-le-Street, despite being without all the big guns who won last year's English national cross country title, scored a fine double by winning the senior women's and veterans' relays. Alison Dixon had to produce the fastest run of the senior event to deny long-time leaders Durham University, winning by 18 seconds, while Caroline Bowman was quickest of the over-35s on the anchor leg to push Tynedale into second place.

* Darlington Schools athletes completed a notable double in the Durham Cross Country Championships at Bishop Auckland when Lewis Moses and Julie Orr won the senior events.