Ermysted’s juniors to bid for national schools cross country crown (From Craven Herald)

Ermysted’s juniors to bid for national schools cross country crown

11:21am Thursday 17th November 2011 in Athletics

Ermysted’s junior team gained a uperb victory in the North East of England regional schools cross country championships.

It means the Skipton school will now compete in the national final at Rugby on December 3.

Unfortunately they will not be joined there by their intermediates who finished fifth despite Tom Blanchard winning the individual race.

The championships involved 12 teams of six who qualified from last month’s county rounds.

Ermysted’s junior team went into the event full of confidence after being crowned North Yorkshire champions at Giggleswick in Oct- ober.

They were among the favourites for honours and Jimmy Lund was tipped for individual success.

But Lund returned from the half-term holidays on crutches after breaking a toe.

It meant that he went into the race short of practice in what was his first run for three weeks.

Although he couldn’t keep his impressive run of victories going, he did manage to battle his way into sixth place.

His team-mates at this age group are superb and fellow Year 7 Charlie Lowrie ran tirelessly for a fantastic fourth place. He was followed home by the team’s four Year 8 runners.

Luke Thompson finished fifth, with George Maloney completing the scoring team in eighth.

Alistair Harvey was just a few seconds back in 14th place while Matthew Thompson succumbed to a chest infection and dropped out with about half a mile to go.

That was irrelevant in the grand scheme as Ermysted’s total for their four scoring athletes was just 23 points and gave them an emphatic victory.

Ermysted’s previous best performance at this stage was six years ago when Billy Pinder’s team carded 25 points and went on to lose in the national final by a solitary point. The final is only three weeks away in and this team have a realistic chance of going one better provided they can keep clear of illness and injury.

The intermediates also had high hopes of making the final after they were runners-up at Giggleswick.

Their challenge was built around Blanchard who has excelled in recent years and was runner-up at this stage last year. Blanchard did not disappoint and ran away from the field for a convincing victory. However, for him to compete at Rugby he needed his team to gain a top-three place.

Newcomer James Bruce had given up playing rugby to run and kept Ermysted’s on track with a creditable 14th place so it was then left to our three Year 9s. Robert Thompson was next in 26th place but unfortunately neither Eddie Muirhead nor Jack Paul could gain the places on the last lap to get a low enough score. They did finish 40th and 41st but their team score of 81 points only gave them fifth place, which means that Blanchard misses out.