ERMYSTED’S won the Trefoil Trophy for the first time in 12 years when they competed in the biggest event of their cross country season, the North of England Championships at Manchester’s Longford Park, on Saturday.

It is awarded to the team with the lowest aggregate points in the three youngest age groups, under-12, 13 and 14.

The Skipton School also finished second in the overall team competition with 167 points which represented a great effort.

There were also some fine individual performances. Harvey Lewis came a close second in the Year 7 race.

The talented Ermysted’s team had six of their eight runners challenging at the halfway stage at the sharp end of the race.

Lewis was leading the way in a group of four but allowed a ten-yard gap to appear as they entered the final run in.

Lewis has a good sprint finish and although he left it late he did manage to catch the group over the closing strides and came out a close runner-up as just two seconds separated the top four.

Good packing saw Tom Horsley come in seventh, Charlie Wood tenth and Louis Hudson 12th for a great low score of 31 for the first fur home.

That clinched the Year 7 Northern Schools’ title. The non-scorers were Sebastian Seggar-Staveley 15th, Arthur Peel 16th, Charles Booth 31st and Matthew Speak 51st.

Matthew Kenneth has been a fantastic addition to Ermysted’s talented Year 8 team. He ran well for third place and was followed home by Will and Jonny Thompson who were fifth and sixth respectively.

With Laurie Petrucci battling home in 18th place, Ermysted’s held off Calday and St Ambrose for the team honours. The non-scorers were Will Taylor 32nd and Joel Phillip 42nd of the 81 entrants.

Ben Jackson led the way with sixth place for the Year 9 team. Tom Barrett made the top 10, Sam Jackson was 13th and Patric Valentine 15th as the team came runners up.

The non scorers were Niall Ratcliffe 27th and Max Carling 29th.

The Year 10/11 team were the only ones to miss out on badges as they finished outside the top three.

However their fifth place was still a creditable performance. Jimmy Lund, who in spite of being a year younger than most of his opponents, was fourth. Luke Thompson was next in 12th, with Matthew Jackson 28th and Patrick Ralphson, completing the team in 45th place.

Ermysted’s had four seniors making their final appearance for school, including the two cross-country captains Sam Laycock and Chris Kemp along with Oscar Clements and Tom Fryars.

They were led home by Rob Thompson who came through the field well to claim fifth place. It was then Laycock in 14th, Clements 20th and Kemp 21st for a team total of 60. Fryars was 23rd.

Skipton Girls High School and although they didn’t repeat their victory of last year but still had some good individual performances as Lizzie Joynson came third in the seniors just ahead of Hannah Thom who was fifth, whilst in the Year 7 and 8 race, Ruby Firth was fourth and Emily Jones eighth.