Georgia Ball has performed with consistency right through the winter season and once again underlined her potential with a terrific effort to finish 24th in the intermediate girls race in a field of 341 finishers. Hester Talbot was next home in 210th place with Holly Haywood 243rd, Ellie Jones 270th and Gemma Selwood 325th. Expectations were high for the Wellington quartet in the intermediate boy’s race but a pile up soon after the start, on a narrow section of the course, resulted in Nathan Page losing many places in the resulting melee and Ian Maplethorpe having a shoe torn off. Page did very well to get back into the race and making a lot of ground up in the closing stages finished a highly creditable 53rd. Maplethorpe kept going strongly with just one spike to finish 122nd, just unable to catch team mate Chris Woodger who also did well to finish 115th. Stuart Campbell returned to racing after a six week lay-off due to injury and, in the circumstances, was entirely satisfied to emerge unscathed in 206th position.

Matt Bee was the sole Wellington athlete in the junior boy’s team and a good effort saw him across the line in 132nd place. And the same position was occupied by Shane Robinson in a top quality senior boy’s race with Max Ware some way further back in 245th spot. There was never much between Megan Ball and Laura Donnelly in the junior girl’s race with the former finishing just on top in 218th position, eight places ahead of her team mate. 800m runner Rochelle Harrison has worked hard on her endurance this winter but found the frantic pace of the senior girls race very tough. She kept going in determined fashion and went through the finish in 176th place - not at all disgraced.

For most of Wellington’s endurance squad the cross country season will reach its finale next Saturday when the Inter-Counties championships take place at Wollaton Park in Nottingham. There will be a significant Wellington presence in nearly all of the Lincolnshire teams although the top club performance is likely to come from Blue Haywood who on this occasion will be wearing a Nottinghamshire vest.