HOLMFIRTH and Longwood Harriers co-hosted the third race in the West Yorkshire Cross Country League series at Fartown High School.
Hopes were high for a strong local turn-out to build on the achievements of the first race of the series at Wetherby.
However, with five key athletes missing, it turned out to be an uphill struggle for the local teams on a course which was waterlogged.
Leeds City proved to be the form team, with the eventual winner, Alan Buckley, and the next five counters in the top 10 to take first place.
The first Holmfirth Harrier to finish was Alistair Langron in 25th in 34 minutes 12 seconds – a massive improvement of 43 places from the last race.
Alistair Rees had another solid run to come home in 41st (35.17), new talent Peter Brookes was next to finish in 49th (35.53) and he was closely followed by the triathlete Craig Boggon in 54th (36.08).
The final two counters for the team, sealing seventh position, were David Williams in 91st (38.21) and Darren Hanson in 92nd (38.22).
Other Holmfirth times were: Geoff Hall 96th (38.35), Wayne Byram 100th (38.46), Jonny Sykes 104th (39.13), Chris Beadle 117th (40.21), Phil Hobbs 120th (40.40), Maz Khoueiry 131st (41.47), Kev Yewlett 136th (42.46), Andrew Kerry 138th (43.08), John Field 154th (46.05), Simon Edwards 160th (49.24), Tim Cock 163rd (50.27) and Steve White 169th (53.29).
There were thanks from all the athletes to the fantastic team of helpers from Holmfirth and Longwood Harriers who toiled in the mud, setting up and taking down the course, and the league reaches a climax on Sunday, December 9 at Thornes Park in Wakefield.
