A strong turnout from Ealing Southall & Middlesex's senior teams saw them finish on a high note in the last match of the Metropolitan League cross country season at Horsenden Hill on Saturday.
In the senior women's race, U20 runners Mel Newbery and Hannah Pollak (pictured) made the early running for the club, with Ashlee McGuigan following in their wake.
However Horsenden Hill was at its boggy worst and half way through the second lap, Fiona Kennedy pulled clear of them to finish 16th. Newbery held on strongly to finish 19th and Pollock managed to hold off McGuigan, despite losing a shoe early in the second lap.
Her 30th place was the highest she's finished this season. McGuigan was 32nd.
Patricia Thomas and Gill Morgan were close early on before Thomas pulled away to finish 39th.
Morgan completed the scoring in 47th as the team finished fourth and climbed to fifth overall in the table. For good measure the team also climbed to third in the veterans table with Nikki Baker being the final scorer in that team in 66th.
Hussain Jama was prominent early on the in the senior men's race but faded in the later stages to finish 13th.
There were some outstanding runs from the U20 men. Sam Ashcroft improved yet again to finish 27th, with Luke Nicholas having by far his best run of the season to finish 33rd.
John Robertson had a rare run-out for the team and finished 39th. Andy Dodd improved yet again to finish 50th but his late run of form was not enough to stop Rob Brown winning the club cham-pionship in 58th place.
U20 runner Chris Hepworth once again narrowly eclipsed veteran Bill Gristwood as they finished 67th and 68th.
Gavin Boyter was in 102nd with Mark Delahunty in 115th. Martin Shelley improved 60 places from the last match to finish 121st and Steve Plested closed out the team in 132nd. The team finished fifth.
A solid performance from the U13 boys saw them finish second on the day.
Leading them home in sixth place was Duncan Pinder. Close behind was Fellan McGuigan in ninth. Cousins Tommy Fogarty-Cameron and Sean Hannington completed the team in 12th and 22nd.
Seb Zajaczkowski once again led the team in the U15 and U17 boys' race.
He finished seventh. Christopher Charles was unlucky to finish only 14th having been bundled over by another boy on the last corner.
Dalton McGuigan just got the better of Ben Waterman as they took the last two scoring places in 17th and 18th. The team was third.
The U13 girls finished third despite fielding just three runners. Kerry Baily was a close third with Shannon Powell fourth yet again. Kate Eastmond was the only other finisher for the club in 19th.
Only three runners from the club finished the U15 and U17 girls' race. The best of these was Ellis Redmond in 17th. She was followed in by Rebecca Johnson in 19th and newcomer Rebecca Walford in 25th.
Earlier in the week, Hannah Pollak was the club's only winner in the Middlesex Schools' cross-country championships. She finished 200m clear in the senior girls' race at Harrow School.
