Thames at the National XC Champs – Thames Hare & Hounds

A sizeable Saltire contingent made the journey up to Harewood House near Leeds for the National and it was well worth the trip for the excellent course, large and highly competitive fields and the balmy conditions. First up were the Ladies (who were unfortunately depleted by injury), Bethanie Murray ran very well for 48^th and Jess Davies for 350^th (out of 1034 finishers). In the Men’s race we had our best result in recent years with 10^th. It’s a fantastic accolade to be a top-10 National team and a great way to finish off another strong season. We were led home by Jamie Parkinson in a superb 28^th well backed up by James Hoad in 79^th, Jim Allchin 90^th, Paddy Roddy 118^th, James McMullan 122^nd and James Chettle closed the scoring team in 164^th. Further back there were good runs from Ben Reynolds in 249^th (to be confirmed but it looks like Ben was 1^st V55), James Meiklejohn 306^th, Richard Ollington 344^th, Gordon Pearce 353^rd, Andy Weir 439^th, James Bartram 453^rd and Tom Greenwood 626^th (out of 2006 finishers). Well done to all the runners who made the trip.