A magnificent turnout at Halstead was rewarded with first place for both the men’s and women’s squads.

 A very strong men’s team produced a stunning 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 to gain a clear victory. Paul Molyneux won by a street ahead of back on form Tristan Windley and the battling Malcolm Muir in third. Roy Scott proved he can run on the flat as well as the fells in fifth spot with the resurgent Paul Dobson in sixth. Even with this tremendous start we still needed 8 runners to score for the team and James Smith (11^th) and Lee Martin (18^th) produced the goods again. Mark Edwards who was told before the race that he would be lucky to make the scoring team did just that in an excellent 23^rd place.

 All the scorers in 23 but great runs from Steve Moore, Stuart Raven, Paul Jeggo, Rob Mills and Mark Waine who all finished ahead of Colchester’s last scorer made for an emphatic win.

 To win in the 53-12 League the combined positional points of men and women are vital. However good the men’s team were on the day it still needed the ladies to come through to claim victory. And come through they did. Missing several of the normal scoring team Jenny Chewter, Lucy Neal, Sally Brown and Lynn Tanner came out on top in a close ladies event. Jenny (5^th) and Lucy (8^th) were ably backed up by Sally, who enjoyed the more straightforward course, and Lynn who just goes from strength to strength (she won bronze in the Southern vets V55 the previous day). Sarah Hammond beat Bentley’s final counter to prove that it is not just the scorers who count.

 Great team spirit was again shown throughout with excellent cakes from Sarah and Nicole and the Bridges family taking discs and supporting.. Those that stayed for the results were rewarded with further cakes from Halstead.