Harriers hosted the North-Eastern AA cross country championships at Branksome School on Saturday. With some of the region's top athletes taking part there was some excellent racing and close finishers.

The senior women's team of Susie Rutherford, Bernadette Taylor and Alison Raw took pride of place by putting in an outstanding performance to take the women's title with 16 points from a strong Chester-le-Street.

Harriers' results

Senior men: first home for the club was Martin Grainger 25th in 44.44, who retains the Richardson Trophy. Nigel Orr 33rd 4544, Simon Rutherford 49th 46.55, Ron Read 70th 48.49, Jack Mason 89th 50.20, Ben Wilson 108th 52.32, Paul Smith 111th 52.46, Steve Hutchinson 125th 54.35, Brian Hannah 136th 55.47, John Brant 173rfd 62.30, with six to count the seniors finished ninth team with 371 points.

U15 boys: Jamie Rutherford 38th in 16.41, Gareth Simpson 51st 17.52.

Senior women: Susie Rutherford 3rd 31.14, Bernardette Taylor 4th 31.45, Alison Raw 9th 32.54 and finishing as North-East champion.

U13 girls: Rebecca Noble finished 11th in 14.03 and Verity Pratt 28th 15.14. The next big even for the Harriers is the Northern championships at St Helens on January 24.

This event could not have taken place without the help of the army of volunteers, course marshals who stood out in the freezing conditions for hours and all those who did an excellent job with the catering and cleaning up afterwards. The organisers gave the vote of thanks to Darlington in doing a commendable job. A big thanks to all.

Jack Mason ran the Cayton Christmas Cracker 10km race at Scarborough on December 14 finished 21st in 36.52.

* The Harriers train at Eastbourne sports complex on Tuesday and Thursday from 6.15pm and cater for all age groups. To find out more information ring John Brant on (01325) 257672 or visit the website www.darlingtonharriers.co.uk.

Quakers RC

OSunday, December 7, the junior section travelled to Jarrow to compete in their Indoor Grand Prix. Rosie Clark ran in the under-11 Girls 60 metre race finishing third in a time of 9.7 seconds. She then competed in the 600 metres to finish fourth in her heat and sixth overall in a time of 2:27:24. Josh Giblin competed in his first ever race to finish second under-nine Boy in the 60 metres in 10.82 seconds. He then continued to race in the 300m and finished a fantastic second in his heat and ninth overall in a time of 1:10:53.

Three Quakers took part in last weekends North East Cross Country Championships. Julia Orr had an excellent race to take the Under-17 Women's title.

Julia had a clear lead to finish 1st out of 20 runners in a time of 19:32. Alasdair Tatham led the Quakers home to finish 17th out of 104 competitors in the Mens race in a time of 43:25, followed by Steve Jones, 104th, 52:20.

* The club trains on Tuesdays and Thursdays evenings, 6.30pm from Hummersknott School, Darlington. All abilities and ages welcome. For further details see www.quakersrunningclub.co.uk.