SLEET greeted competitors in the Northern Cross-Country Championships at Witton Park in Blackburn on Saturday.

Top team performance was in the under-13s, where Keighley & Craven boys were second and their girls fifth.

Eve Jones of Skyrac won the girls' race in 13min 30sec, with Wharfedale's Alice Jones in seventh and Bingley's Ruby Firth 20th. Eve Crossley, in 33rd, was Keighley & Craven's first counter.

Harvey Lewis (19th) pipped Rhys Watmough, with Louis Hudson (31st) and Arthur Peel (55th), placing Keighley between Eden Runners and Chesterfield on the podium.

Bingley were 18th, with Alex Flaherty the 24th-best performer. Skyrac's Joe Sherman finished seventh in 12min 53sec, less than a minute behind age-group winner Tommy Dawson (Leeds City).

A total of 719 men and 358 women ran the senior races, with 1,066 competing across the four junior age-groups.

Bingley's ladies finished 12th and best West Yorkshire team thanks to Jo Buckley (32nd, 34min 45sec), Shona Stone (103rd), Lesley Watson (119th) and Becky Weight (87th).

Individually, Claire Duck of Leeds City was victorious in 30min 21sec, 100 yards ahead of Sarah Tunstall (Kendal) and Rosie Smith (Durham City).

The men's team trophy was won by Salford Harriers, from Leeds City, Hallamshire, Sale and Morpeth, with Valley Striders (22nd) the next West Yorkshire club.

Sale's Charlie Hulson won by eight seconds in 43min 16sec from Peter Huck (Barrow). Ninth-placed Steve Bayton (Hallamshire) beat Carl Smith (Leeds City, tenth) and Ilkley Harriers' Tom Adams (14th) for best Yorkshireman.

Former Spenborough junior Joshua Woodcock-Smith was 21st, immediately behind clubmate Alan Buckley. Pudsey & Bramley's Matt Lockyer finished 37th, with Ted Mason (89th) first from Wharfedale Harriers.

In the under-20 girls, Zara Knappy (eighth) and, in the under-17s, triathlon prospect Jimmy Lund, 18th, both did Keighley & Craven proud.

Jemima Elgood (11th) and Sarah Pickering (27th) helped Ilkley to sixth team in the under-17 girls.

Keighley & Craven's boys were an excellent fourth in the under-15s, with Tom Barrett (sixth), Joe Hudson (11th), Sam Jackson (77th) and Charlie Spencer (95th) scoring.

Bethan Morley (Ilkley) placed sixth in the under-15 girls, with Skyrac's Elizabeth Stewart 27th of the 168 runners.