On a snowy, boggy but at least sunlit Nunroyd Park, over 500 athletes, from juniors to internationals such as Ian Holmes (Bingley), gathered at the Yeadon venue on Saturday for the Nike Yorkshire Cross-Country Championships.

Nunroyd Park, the home of Skyrac AC who hosted the event, is a superb base for cross-country events because of the variety of terrain contained within its boundary and last weekend the icing on the cake was that overnight snow had produced a running surface including some challenging glutinous mud.

Event co-ordinator Neil Clayton designed three courses within the park to accommodate the different race lengths from 3K to 11K because the Championships consist of nine individual competitions.

The biggest field of 169 entered for the senior men's race which was won by Chris Cariss of Bingley who also took the team prize (six to count) with Andy Peace and Ian Holmes in sixth and seventh places.

Cariss won in the last 100 metres after a titanic tussle with former Horsforth resident, Martin Hilton.

Leeds City's Hilton set out to try to run the finish out of both Cariss and Otley AC's Ian Fisher but finally had to settle for the silver medal. Considering he has missed at least five weeks training this autumn, it was a pretty fair run.

Fisher took bronze to again secure selection for the inter-counties cross country championships in February.

Former Skyrac man Ian Mitchell (Tipton) foinished fourth bakc on home territory with Carl Thackeray fifth.

Leeds City's Greg Hull, of Yeadon, who had arrived minutes before the start, worked his way in typical fashion through to a fine 9th place, while Horsforth's Andy Beevers, in touch from early on, stuck with him and finished a place behind.

Ilkley's Tim Ashelford ran 41:00 and Phil Chappell and Ewan Welsh raced each other in 49:20 and 50:00 respectively.

The men raced over a snowy 12k route and a group of 4 broke away early on and maintained their lead to the finish. Otley runner Ian Fisher was part of this group and eventually finished third to again secure selection for the inter-counties cross country championships in February.

Other Otley finishers were: Neil Cayton (30th), Duncan Burgess (48th), Ray Hawksby (114th), Andrew Willis (120th), John Armitstead (123rd), Tom Hannah (150th) and David Hainsworth (160th).

Most Skyrac seniors were involved in managing the event but Alan Bye, Bob Pritchard and Malcolm Coles ran to represent their club.

The senior women's race drew 78 entries and was won by Anne Hoban (Wakefield) who led her club to the team prize. Local fell runners Jane Clark (Pudsey & Bramley) and Pauline Munro (Bingley) were fourth and fifth.

After another steady start Leeds City's Gill Keddie of Rawdon worked her way up to sixth place in pretty good company.

Ilkley's Sally Malir finished in 26:01 and new member Suzanne Bickerdike in 35:00 in her first ever cross-country.

Of the junior events Leeds City won the under-13 boys and under-20 men, whilst Skipton won the under-15 boys (four to count) with excellent packing as five runners filled the positions between 10th and 14th. Leeds City AC suffered from lack of size (which in the glutinous parts of the course made a difference), and from all being first-years in this age group. They were rather left in the early rush behind Bradford Grammar School's Horsforth-based Alistair Brownlee.

Alex Davy of Guiseley is a gritty little runner, and he made a lot of ground in the latter half of the race for 25th place. Robert Hall, also of Guiseley, also made up places to finish strongly in 33rd position.

In the under-20 men's race Skyrac had success with Joel Riley in third place, with Holmfirth placing three runners in the first four, and Nathan Tugwell taking 8th place.

Leeds City won the under-13 girls and Skyrac came sixth with the three Halls - Elizabeth, Rebecca and Eleanor - plus Rachel Cooper and Laura Griggs representing the host club. Only Lindsey Clark ran for Skyrac in the under-15 girls which was won by Hallamshire Harriers who were also winners of the under-17 women's event.

Ilkley Harriers

Bernie Connor organised six Ilkley Harriers teams in the Great Nidd Valley Ringway Relay, a friendly relay race around the Harrogate Ringway footpath on Sunday, organised by Nidd Valley Road Runners.

Ilkley's Cheetahs team were fouth in 2h18:07. They were third at one stage but were overtaken by Otley's Ian Fisher on the last leg. The race was won by Ripon, with Harrogate second and Otley third.

The Cheetahs, with rough times where known, were: Emma Barclay 14, Billy Kerr 25:45, Jason Hemsley 33, Stefan Macina, and Nick Pearce.

The Panthers were 9th in 2h31:54 - Karen Page 16, Ewan Welsh 30, Mike Rhodes 36, Phil Chappell 31:40 (PB) and Clive Smith.

The Jaguars were 15th in 2h42:33 - Jane Cullingworth 21, Paul Wood 28, Geoff Howard 40, James Lind and Peter Cooke.

The Lions were 21st in 2h52:31 - Bernie Baldwin 22, Bernie Connor 33, Rob Reynolds-Jones 43, Matthew Lonergan and Keith Wood.

The Tigers were 22nd in 2h52:48 - Jill Cooke 17, Richard Gray 33, Rob Pawson 46, John Woodward and Dave Ibbotson.

The all-female Leopards were 31st in 3h07:10 - Shirley Wood 18:39, Amanda Parnaby 38, Victoria Wright 45, Linda Wright and Jo Foster 47:05.

Earlier in the week, Dave Woodhead's Auld Lang Syne fell race was the last race of 2002, and the last race in the Harriers Running League 2002. A dozen Harriers turned out for this muddy six miles with 900ft of climb.

Bingley's Ian Holmes won in 35:26. Ilkley's Mark Iley was 36th in 44:03; Nick Pearce 49th in 44:40; Mike Baldwin 73rd in 46:45; Emma Barclay 120th and 6th lady in 49:40; Ian Marshall 144th in 50:52; Norman Bush 145th in 50:55; Sally Malir 150th in 51:03; Dennis Ackroyd 160th in 51:41; Bob Whiteman 169th in 52:29; Morgan Williams 222nd in 55:20; and Rachael Gooch 267th in 58:34. Second-claim Harrier Kirstin Bailey was 138th in 50:41; and Sally's husband Richard Malir was 180th in 53:20.

Ilkley Harriers is a friendly running club, training from Ilkley Lawn Tennis and Squash Club every Tuesday at 7pm. Check out www.ilkleyharriers.co.uk for more information.

Otley Athletic Club

Six Otley Athletic Club members competed in the last race of 2002 - the Auld Lang Syne Fell Race from Haworth. The race of six miles with 900 feet of climbing took place in very cold weather with wet underfoot conditions.

The first Otley finisher was Andrew Robertshaw who finished fourth in 39:04. David Fox completed the course in 54:35 followed by Colin Best (54:43), Nick Hodgkinson (54:46), David Cattanach (63:49) and Bridget Barr who ran 69:58 in her first fell race.