While Herne Hill's men's team triumphed in their event in the Priory Cross Country Relays at Reigate, their women just missed out on the bronze medals, writes Tom Pollack.

They had to settle for fourth place in 52min 39sec behind Woking (49:45), South London Harriers (51:09) and Crawley (51:51).

Herne Hill never really recovered from a disastrous start when Nicky McGarry struggled round in 19:36 to bring then in 16th out of the 23 competing teams.

President Clare Pauzers restored some respectability to the squad as she clocked the second fastest time of the three-stage relay covering the two-and-a-half miles in 16:15 to bring them back to fifth place. Polly Rogers-Dixon (16:48) improved to fourth on the last leg.

Stamina

Sprint international Liz Williams, obviously doing some stamina training, was an interesting anchor leg runner for Walton who finished seventh in 56:33. She clocked 19:20 after Sarah Williamson (17:55) and Jo Locker (19:18) ran the opening two legs.

Supervet Jane Davies (17:28) was the fastest member of the Epsom and Ewell Harriers team that finished 11th in 57:40.

Herne Hill's B team was 13th in 59:15 while Stragglers' Lynda Chase (19:52), Chris Glew (20:57) and Dymona McNally (21:04) were 14th in 1:01:53.

Walton were seventh in the men's relay in 1:30:49. James Harvey (14:15) was fastest on the opening leg handing over in fifth place. Other times were Robin Copestick (14:55), Richard Barnes (15:02), Jon Brine (15:31), Ed Stahl (14:52) and Mike Barwell (16:14).

Epsom and Ewell were 11th in 1:35:19. Their team was Gary French (15:34), Clive Abbott (15:41), Steve Tancock (16:56), James Dean (16:09), Jeff Butler (15:51) and Will Clark (15:08).

Kingston and Polytechnic's Sean Kelly (14:45), James Ridd (15:05), Ray Allen (15:05), Mark Reed (14:46), Graeme Horstead (18:08) and Mike Elliott (18:45) came 13th in 1:36:34.

November 12, 2001 12:00