ILKLEY Harriers rounded off the West Yorkshire Cross Country League in perfect style on Saturday, with Jack Wood powering to victory in the men’s race.

The Harriers star proved strongest in a hard-fought battle with Keighley and Craven’s Joe Hudson.

Relishing the muddy conditions on the 7.7km course around Cliffe Castle in Keighley, Wood held off his rival by seven seconds, stopping the clock at 25 minutes and 37 seconds.

Pudsey and Bramley runner Joe Baxter and Leeds City’s Alisdair McLeod completed a high-class top four.

There was a strong all-round performance from the Ilkley team, with Dan McKeown not far behind Wood and company in 28:28 for 26th, and Istvan Jacso 35th.

All of which meant Ilkley were fifth on the day and ended the four-race series in fifth place overall.

The club’s ladies went two better in the race itself with a top-three finish which also sealed fifth in the series’ final standings.

Pauline Munro crossed the line in ninth, just over a minute behind winner Jennifer Walsh of Leeds City.

And there were top-25 spots for Kate Archer and Sarah Pickering.

Diane Kitchen’s 66th-place saw her take the F55 prize and she also claimed second in that category overall.

Euan Brennan represented Ilkley in Telford on Sunday in one of the most competitive domestic 10K races of the year.

There were plenty of star names in a record entry list of over 1,000 - despite a clash with the European Cross Country Championships in Tilburg - and it led to some super-fast times on the two-lap course.

That was underlined as Euan, in his first senior 10K, clocked 31 minutes and 11 seconds for 60th place, with no fewer than the first 17 all going sub-30 minutes.

Also on Sunday was the Vocation Mytholmroyd Fell Race where Harriers Paul Carman and Michael Lomas were to the fore.

A testing rain-softened course, which put a premium on descending skills just as much as climbing, saw Josh Boyle of Ribble Valley land the spoils in the 9.7km event, with a time of 47 minutes and 19 seconds.

The race started with an incredibly steep climb of Midgley Moor before dropping down the other side and taking in what must have been the wettest moorland around.

It meant that the final 3km of muddy descent were a bit slippy to say the least, but Carman relished it, showing a fine ability to stay on his feet whilst going twice as fast as everyone else down the hill.

He cut through the field to bag tenth place (in 54:14) and Lomas (54:19) followed him down to finish right behind in 11th.

There was a very different surface in evidence at the Oulton Park motor racing circuit as Harrier Daryl King registered a superb sub-four hour time in what was his first-ever marathon.

Nine laps on the smooth tarmac were needed to get to the 26.2-mile distance and King finished 39th in 3:56:24.

Three loops of Lister Park is what’s required for the popular Bradford Parkrun and Dave Reynier and Oscar Street were 27th and 42nd respectively this week, while Alison Weston came home ninth (and second lady) in the Cliffe Castle Parkrun.

RESULTS:

West Yorkshire Cross Country 4, Saturday, December 8

Ladies 3rd team

(1 19:39 Jennifer Walsh, Leeds City)

9 20:52 Pauline Munro

20 22:05 Kate Archer

24 22:22 Sarah Pickering

45 24:25 Sally Malir

54 25:26 Beth Massey

65 26:39 Jane Bryant

66 26:44 Diane Kitchen

87 29:48 Petra Bijsterveld

90 31:18 Anna Picketing

97 finished

Men 5th team

1 25:37 Jack Wood

26 28:28 Dan McKeown

35 29:36 Istvan Jacso

53 30:52 Tim Ashelford

65 31:31 Stephen Coy

87 32:53 Steven Gott

88 33:02 David Westhead

110 35:02 Robert Budding

118 36:16 Mark Iley

126 37:51 Malcolm Pickering

127 37:51 Michael Duffield

150 finished

Telford 10K, Sunday, December 9

(1 29:31 Callan Moody, Serpentine RC)

60 31:11 Euan Brennan

1,242 ran

Vocation Mytholmroyd Fell Race,Sunday, December 9

(1 47:19 Josh Boyle, Ribble Valley)

10 54:14 Paul Carman

11 54:19 Michael Lomas

168 ran

Oulton Park Marathon, Sunday, December 2

(1 2:57:01 Andrew Humphries, AireCentre Pacers)

39 3:56:24 Daryl King

107 ran

Parkruns

Bradford

(1 18:24 Jack Griggs, U/A)

27 22:35 Dave Reynier

42 23:39 Oscar Street

91 27:53 Paula Reynier

239 ran

Cliffe Castle

(1 19:36 Rob Byers, U/A)

9 25:39 Alison Weston 2nd F

64 ran

Skipton

(1 18:19 Lee Athersmith, RAF AC)

20 24:10 Neil Pomfret

63 29:51 Bernie Gibbons

124 ran