Ermysted’s Grammar School had another fantastic day last Sunday at the English Schools’ Fell Running Championships at Sedbergh School.

The Skipton school have done well on the national stage at cross-country and last year at these championships. However, it still brought joy to them to win both the Year Eight and Nine and senior team titles, while Billy Pinder repeated his feat of last year to become champion in the next age group up, also breaking the course record. For good measure, Alex Sinclair picked up the bronze medal and the new Year Sevens were second in their age group in what was only their second outing for the school.

Robert Thompson led the way for them in seventh, Max Nichol (13th) and Robbie Britland (14th) completing the tally for 34 points. Isaac Culshaw was 23rd.

Phil Done followed up his bronze in the Fell Running Championship with an 11th-place finish for the depleted Year Eight and Nine team.

Max Hamer was 15th and Joe Stapleton 25th, both of them carrying injuries, but their 51-point total proved sufficient to win, and the trio are all eligible next year too.

Non-scorers were Marcus Swift (48th), Laurance Wildman (59th), Louis Schilders (62nd) and Robert Golson (70th).

The Year Ten and 11 team were very short-handed, with only three runners. Their race was 3½ miles with 1,300 feet of climb. Sam Westcott was 30th, Jack Beetham 34th and Stephen Bell 48th, but their 112 points was only good enough for seventh place.

The seniors rounded the day off in style with new school cross-country captain Pinder repeating his feats of last year in winning in a course record.

Almost as gratifying was Alex Sinclair’s bronze, and the final scorer, Will Marshall, is another Year 12. He just made the top ten.

Their team score of 14 stormed the competition, which was even more satisfying having finished runners-up on the national stage three times before (Year Eight and Ten at cross-country and Year 11 at these championships last year.) Their dominance was exemplified by Ermysted’s’ next three finishers. Robbie Swift was 12th, Will Crisp 14th and Joel Wood 15th. If Ermysted’s could have put a B team in, they would have come second overall!

For good measure, they also had Andrew Cairns (25th), captain Ed Newbould (28th) and John Golson (40th).

This was an immense team performance in an age group where it is traditionally difficult to get teams out.

TV highlights of the championships are on BBC Newsround tomorrow (6.30pm) and also on Saturday morning (7.25am).

Pinder runs on the same fells this weekend, representing England in the Home Internationals.