Richmond had seven runners at the sell-out Leeds Abbey Dash on Sunday, November 30 and 24 in the NYSD X-C fixture at Thirsk, including two men who competed in both.

This was not unique as runners from Darlington, Loftus, Quakers and New Marske Harriers did likewise but Jon Orange, RZH road-runner-of-the-year, was the pick of the bunch - finishing 29th and 2nd M40 to John Convery of Bingley at Leeds and then 4th & 1st M40 at Thirsk.

The Abbey Dash 10K has a reputation for fast times and, despite there only being three teams in the Inter-Area match, this year's race was no exception as the first seven runners (all Brits, no Kenyans!) all dipped below the 30 minute mark. The weather was a great help as it was cold but not frosty and the light westerly breeze was on the runner's backs as they raced back from Kirkstall Abbey. Steve Hepples of Loftus again turned the newspaper reports upside-down, this time by not running when on the Northern Teamsheet - he had put in an intensive training session (5 X 1 mile at 4:30 pace!) on the Thursday previous and not surprisingly, his hamstrings felt a little tight. The Northern team coped well in his absence with Jason Ward, Leeds-born but running for Hallamshire, first across the line in 29:24 and four counters in seven to take the match trophy. There was also a winner from Leeds in the Ladies race as Tracy Morris, running for Valley Striders and Wales finished in 40th place overall in a PB 33:23, with another two Ladies also inside the 34 minute mark to place the race amongst the contenders for top 10K in the country.

RZH results: 29th (& 2nd M40) Jon Orange 32:18; 63rd Ken Harker 34:39, 110th Brian McNabb 36:46, 134th (& 1st M55) Mike Brooks 37:32, 344th Colin Sewell 41:18, 855th Ian Hepworth 46:49, 1017th Neil Piper 48:36 & 1769th Grete Buck 56:08 from 2475 finishers; Club team (3 to score) 9th with 202 points, behind Loftus 7th with 183, Darlington 8th with 201 and ahead of Quakers 10th with 208; Veteran team 2nd to Holmfirth by just 1 point.

The third NYSD X-C fixture at Thirsk was again well-attended with 326 runners finishing in the 7 races. The Club had just one individual winner, Douglas Roberts in the under 13 boys race, one winning team in the under 15 girls race and one category winner with Jon Orange 1st M40 in the Men's race. But there were several great races and many great performances just behind: Jessie Roberts was 2nd to perennial rival Emma Macallister-Hall of Nestle Rowntrees in the under 15 girls race but lead the team to 1st place, pipping the York girl's team on countback, both scoring 30 points but RZH having the best-placed 4th counter; Nick Zissler was 2nd to Lewis Moses of Newton Aycliffe in the under 17 boys race and Louise Jackson was 3rd Senior Lady in the combined U17/U20/Senior/Veteran Ladies race.

RZH results: under 13 boys - 1st Douglas Roberts & 5th Tom Osborn; under 13 girls - 4th Rosie Adams & 15th Francesca Fowden; under 15 boys - 10th Chris Andrade; under 15 girls - 2nd Jessie Roberts, 5th Jo Adams, 11th Sophie Broadway & 12th Katie Roberts, team 1st; under 17 boys - 2nd Nick Zissler & 7th Philip Fitzpatrick; Ladies - 5th (& 3rd Senior) Louise Jackson, 12th Fiona Hughes, 29th Sarah Gregory & 46th Sadie Potter, team 4th; Men - 4th (& 1st M40) Jon Orange, 39th Edd Richards, 45th "Taff" Rogers, 47th Paul Roberts, 52nd Shane Gray, 57th Mike Shaw, 68th Jim Robinson, 71st Mike Brooks & 94th Paul Zissler, Club team (6 to score) 6th.

On the same weekend, Andrea Woodvine, RZH athlete-of-the-year and X-C Captain of Nottingham University competed for her University in the Midland and Northern Universities X-C Championships at Wollaton Park, Nottingham. Over a 5K course, she finished 2nd in a time of 16:50 and lead the University team to 1st place.

* www.rzh.org.uk