HOLMFIRTH Harriers covered themselves in glory in the final fixture of the West Yorkshire Cross Country league to clinch the title at Thornes Park in Wakefield.

Holmfirth’s medal haul included team gold medals in five of the 10 races, individual gold medals in four and podium places and top 10 finishers in many others, making this Holmfirth’s most successful league campaign in years.

The Under 11 boys, always the first race of the programme, has been a highlight this season.

With league leader Callum Durrans unable to run, Freddie Wilkinson led the usual charge of amber vests and remained in the lead until the final corner, where he just lost out in a sprint for the line.

Wilkinson’s performance clinched a bronze medal for the league overall, with Durrans taking gold (three out of four races counting towards the league).

Arron Smith was next for Holmfirth in eighth, followed by Ned Johnson ninth and Sam Bedingfield 10th – he also picked up a medal for finishing sixth overall.

The boys won the league title with ease having finished first in each of the four races.

The Under 15 girls scooped a league double with both team and individual gold winner Olivia Sykes.

Although she just missed out on a clean sweep of wins, finishing second to Ella Eadon of York, her league title was never in doubt and the girls won the team race with ease – Lucy Byram powering through the field in fifth and Erica Byram in eighth, while Daisy Smith had her usual consistent run to finish in 22nd.

Both Byram girls managed to get in the medals along with champion Sykes, Lucy finishing fifth and Erica sixth.

The Under 11 girls just missed out on league medals as they tied for third place and missed out on countback, but with most of the team having another year in this age group, the result looks good for the future.

The girls were led home by Francis Keddie in 10th, Emily Travis 13th, Millie Yates 23rd, Alice Shelbourne 25th, Sophie Kettlewell 28th, Lizzy Burdon 33rd and Ella McFarlane, rounding off the Holmfirth contingent in 36th.

The Under 13 girls knew they had to run well if they were going to win the league, and they did so with a gold medal-winning performance with Libby Shepherd and Genevieve Durrans finishing sixth and seventh, while Sophie Allan fought off the effects of a bad cold to finish just behind in 11th.

This was good enough for second on the day, but more crucially edged the Skyrac team into second overall as Holmfirth took gold on countback.

Also running well on Sunday was Lia Carter in 23rd and Amy Kettlewell 26th, while Shepherd and Durrans also achieved top-10 in the league overall.

The Under 13 boys are another young team with great potential as they took home bronze medals, just missing out on Silver on countback.

Jimmy Burke led the boys back in eighth place with Nicky Farquhar hot on his heels in 11th and Ollie Rees consistent as ever in 21st, with Harry Shelbourne in 23rd and William Johnson 26th.

Lewis Byram concluded his league campaign with a win over local rival Emile Cairess of Bingley. The two were neck-and-neck until the finishing straight where Lewis kicked for home, winning with a four-second margin.

This was Lewis’s third win of the season and, unbelievably, his fourth league title in four consecutive years having won as an Under 13 twice and last year in the Under 15s.

Aaron Kettlewell and Seth Waterman continued their good run of form, pushing each other to the line to finish in 10th and 11th, while Isaac Shepherd had another good run finishing 16th, George Green 18th, Lavell Pierre 19th, Alex Robinson 23rd and Andrew Farquhar 24th.

The boys finished second on the day but a fantastic first overall – the third double gold of the event.

Ruby Sykes enjoyed the muddy conditions once again with a strong run in the Under 17 women’s race to finish 11th, Sophie Spencer with a strong finish in 15th, Lucy Farquhar 16th and Sophie Williams 22nd as the team finished third on the day, which was good enough for the girls to pick up bronze medals for the league overall.

In the Under 17 men’s race Eddie Hinchcliffe was first back in 15th place, Jonty Winn 22nd and Robert Hinchcliffe 26th, finishing fifth overall.

All the Senior Ladies had to do to take gold was to finish a complete team, and with 10 amber vests turning out this was never in doubt as they won the event in fine style, giving them an overall score of three wins and one third place in the league overall.

The host club (Wakefield) turned out their international athletes to give Holmfirth’s Katie Walshaw some tough competition.

Charlene Thomas, the GB 1500m runner, took the lead with Walshaw hot on her heels for the first lap, but soon dropping off the pace to battle it out with the other Wakefield athlete, Julie Briscoe.

Walshaw eventually finished in a very respectable third place (21-04) and still a huge 46 seconds ahead of the fourth placed runner, which along with her two previous wins sealed the League title.

Both the Holmfirth Helens (Fines and Berry) were among the chasing group, with Fines having a great run in sixth (21-59) and Berry disappointed with eighth place (22-14) to finish third and second respectively in the V35 series category.

Claire Leaver had her best run of the series with a strong show throughout to finish the fourth and final team counter in 12th place (22-54), and fourth overall in the Open Women’s League, just one place ahead of Kath Farquhar (22-55).

Margaret Sykes topped off a successful series in 19th (23-25) to take the V40 third prize, with Farquhar second in the same category. Lucy Needham has run consistently throughout the series, with a fine 26th place (24-03) and seventh in the overall Open Women’s League, as has Helen Pettit (56th in 26-05) which helped earn her the league V45 third prize.

Lucy Verrill has improved since the first race and ran well to finish 60th (26-40), backed up by Jo Bailey –Taylor in 80th (28-41) and Emma Serjeant 90th (29-37).

Varying results over the first three races in the series meant that both individual and team prizes were up for grabs in the Senior men’s section.

Due to injury, Holmfirth were unable to compete with the likes of Leeds City who, once again, dominated the event with international James Walsh taking first place in 32-35.

Richard Anderson, who goes from strength to strength, produced Holmfirth’s best run with fourth place (second Senior man, 33-46).

Triathlete Craig Boggon and Fell specialist Alistair Rees had a battle for the next place with Boggon just edging it in 39th (37-23) and Rees in 40th (37-25).

David Williams was 98th (40-22) followed by Jonny Sykes in 104th (40-37). The final counter for the team was Wayne Byram in 117th (41-35).

This result put Holmfirth Harriers in ninth place on the day and sixth team overall.

Series prizes went to Richard Anderson (3rd Senior Man), Kevin Yewlett (2nd M60) and Tim Cock (1st M70).

Holmfirth’s cross country teams will next be action in the Yorkshire Cross Country Championships at Lightwater Valley near Ripon on January 5.