ERMYSTED’S junior boys produced a rousing performance to finish fourth in the English Schools Cross Country Championships at Newquay.

Matthew Kenneth, who had won the North East of England race, was soon mixing it at the front with Harvey Lewis and Louis Hudson not far behind.

Will Thompson, Jonny Thompson and Tom Horsley were around the middle of the 140-strong field in the two-lap race.

During the second lap the field spread out but Kenneth ran on strongly for a top ten finish in a national final. Lewis is only in year 7 and has another year at this age group so his 14th place was another superb effort.

Ermysted’s needed strong finishes from their next two runners if they were to achieve a good team position.

Will Thompson made up a number of positions with a storming finish which lifted him to 43rd place, while Louis Hudson was two places further back.

Their team score of 112 points was a tremendous effort and gave them fourth place in an event where the winning team’s score was 88 points.

The two non-scoring runners were Jonny Thompson and Tom Horsley who were 72nd and 107th respectively.

Results: 10 Matthew Kenneth, 14 Harvey Lewis, 43 Will Thompson, 45 Louis Hudson. Non scorers: 72 Jonny Thompson, 107 Tom Horsley.

Team 112 points

Ermysted’s Inters had also qualified in second place in their North East Regional round but with a higher score than the juniors.

Realistically a place in the middle of the final teams would be a tremendous achievement but Jimmy Lund was hoping for a high individual finish in his last outing on the national stage.

Lund set off strongly but it was clear early on that his hopes for top ten finish were slim. He battled hard and ran on for 22nd place.

Ermysted’s year nine runners, Sam Jackson, Ben Jackson, Tom Barrett, Patric Valentine and year 10 Alfie Spain have been really close to each other in races this year so it was hard to predict in what order they would arrive at the finish in.

It was Ben and Sam Jackson who showed early on but Spain, Barrett and Valentine were never far adrift. They were in the main bunch of the runners on the first two laps.

Their internal battle kept them honest and gradually they moved into the top half. Spain had fallen off the pace and came exactly 100th, while the year nines were bunched together.

It was Valentine who had the strongest finish as he came 64th, Sam Jackson was 66th and Barrett was the team’s last scorer in 68th.

Ben Jackson came home 78th and Alfie Spain 100th as the team came 13th out of 24, another good effort to complete a great day for the Skipton teams.

Results: 22 Jimmy Lund, 64 Patric Valentine, 66 Sam Jackson, 68 Tom Barrett. Non scorers: 78 Ben Jackson, 100 Alfie Spain. Team 220pts