Ermysted’s sparkled in the sunshine on the Lakeland Fells above Kendal in the sixth English Schools Championships.

They won the year 7 team title, their year 8-9s were runners up and the year 10-11s were third.

To crown their day James Lund took individual silver in the year 8-9 race.

This was Ermysted’s third race in five days and the year 7s couldn’t have done much better.

After winning a fast flat relay at Manchester on Saturday they showed their versatility by doing the same up a big steep fell.

They set off at a fair lick across a flat field, up and over a small rise and into a field. Here they met the hill and suddenly everyone knew the difference between a fell race and other cross-country races. Even the leaders were brought to little more than walking pace as they strained manfully to get to the top. Individual glory was out of reach but with three inside the first 15 the team prize still looked on.

Will Thompson pushed hard from the top and got into eighth place, Joel Phillip also made the top ten with Jack Whitaker 11th.

A great team score of just 29 points meant they were national champions.

The others runners in the team also ran well, with Jonny Thompson 23rd, Jonny Gill 33rd and Adam Barker 52nd all finishing well.

Ermysted’s had high hopes in the year 8-9 race having taken team silver last year.

Lund set off well and was fourth going up the hill. Charlie Lowry was 11th while the rest were a little back and outside the top 20.

Lund was first back in view after cresting the hill and was only just behind the leader.

Lowry was finding it tough but was still about 14th with a clutch of runners in his sights.

Lund couldn’t close the gap on the descent but Lowry got 11th place. Harry Schofield was the final counter in 22nd place. Alfie Spain 23rd, Tom Barrett, Sam Jackson and Ben Jackson were in close pursuit. There was a little gap to Will Nelson and Sam Thom. The team score of 35 points was six behind the winners.

The Y10/11 race was to see twins Luke and Matt Thompson do their first-ever fell race.

The hill proved a tough test and Robert Thompson was their top finisher in 18th.

Luke was 21st and Matt completed the team in 35th for a total of 74 points to earn the bronze medal.

The rest of the lads were not far behind as Ben Archer 40th, Ben Speak 45th, Max Nicoll 46th, George Maloney 48th and Eddie Muirhead 51st all worked hard.

The seniors were running all the way to the top of Benson’s Knott, a full 4.5 miles with 322 metres of climb. Tom Fryars led the Ermysted’s team up the first hill, but Adam Sayedi soon pulled alongside. They ran together most of the way uphill but Sayedi pulled clear on the final climb as he finished eighth.

Fryars came 24th, three years after his last race for school, and Harry Whyte was 30th as the team took a surprise silver medal.