Joanna Mobed was again Thames Valley Harriers' best performer at the South of England Cross Country Championships at Hillingdon Farm, Uxbridge on Saturday.

Running in the combined U20 and U17 women's cham-pionships on a muddy course, she finished 13th overall and sixth in the U17 race.

The overall winner was the international Stephanie Twell from Aldershot, who took the U20 title. The U17 winner was Beth Carter of Invicta East Kent with a time of 21.29 for the 5,000m course.

Joanna's time was 23.19 and considering that it was only her second race of the cross country season, it was a remarkable achievement.

The muddy conditions seem to suit her style of running so she is looking forward to the English National Championships which this year will be on Hampstead Heath next month.

An urgent call at 11am to Diana Kennedy to complete the Senior Women's team resulted with her arriving with her baby under her arm.

She ran very well, minus the baby, to be the third team member home in 117th position with a time of 40.06.

Lisa DaSilva was suffering with a cold but still managed to finish 27th in 35.09. Another recruited athlete for the event, Tracy Tory, Sasha's mother, had an exceptional run to finish 97th in 38.45.

Kate Nunn was the fourth scorer in 140th position (41.10). The team finished 15th out of 38 teams.

Without many of their top performers, the senior Valley men had to wait until the 148th man home for their first finisher - Manuel DaSilva clocking 1.01.39.

Gordon Irvine didn't enjoy the mud and finished 161st, in 1.02.05. Next home was Steve Norris, who hopes to do well in the masters cham-pionships next week for over 40s. His time was 1.05.28 for 243rd place.

The rest of the seniors were Phil Wetton. (275th in 1.06.42); Matt Ponting (353rd in 1.09.58); and Richard Bell (407th in 1.12.46). The team finished 25th.

The only other complete team for the club were the U13 boys. James Murdoch had his baptism against class opposition and ran strongly to finish 42nd in 12.58.

Another newcomer to this standard of opposition was Archie St Aubyn, who finished 56th in 13.07, and he will be eligible for this race again next year.

Oliver Berg still hasn't run as well as he should and his 149th place in 14.08 could have been 15 seconds faster.

Joe Cooper ran steadily to claim 205th place in 15.16. Brother Sam has knee ligament problems, but still managed 218th place in 15.39. The team finished in 16th place.

In the U17 men's race, Matt Myers also found the going tough and finished down the field in 135th position in 25.17. But he still had 45 runners behind him.

TVH's three U15 boys were also at the back of the field. Kyle Kenrick was 205th in 18.38, Nabil Toumi 248th (21.27) and Misha Wilcockson 250th (21.51).

Having a rare run for the Valley, swimmer Katherine Spooner showed her allround ability in finishing 92nd (17.16).

Sasha Tory had a bad day and learnt an important lesson about preparing for an important race, finishing just in front of Katherine in 83rd place (17.08).

Newcomer Emily Harrison had a baptism of mud in this her first race and did well to finish 193rd in 19.42 from a field of 220. U13 girls Aneta Jaskulska, (186th in 16.48) and Sophia Acqistapace, (198th in 17.24) perhaps could have had a better day.