ILKLEY Harriers came to the fore at the Northern Cross Country Championships at Camp Hill Estate in Bedale on Saturday.

Tom Adams made it into the top 10 of the men’s race (out of a high-class field of nearly 600 competitors), with Jack Wood 25th.

There were strong runs too from Dan McKeown, Steve Gott, Istvan Jacso and Tim Ashelford - with the leading six runners counting towards the team standings, as Ilkley placed 11th out of 39.

In the women’s event, Rachel Carter and Sarah Pickering led home the Harriers with top-100 finishes.

There was also some good racing across the age groups from the Junior Harriers.

The U13 boys achieved an outstanding third-place team prize thanks to Alexander Wolfenden (15th), Sam Bentham (36th), Archie Budding (39th) and Dylan Shinn (49th).

And there were strong individual performances in other categories: Emily and Elizabeth Gibbons ran well in 14th (U15) and 22nd (U13) respectively and Dominic Coy was a commendable ninth place in the Junior Men.

The following day, Dave Foyston, Nick Helliwell and Mike Abrams-Cohen represented Ilkley at the Lytham St Annes 10-mile race.

And the trio combined superbly - all three finishing in the top 20 (out of 355 runners) to take second place in the team rankings - with each of them notching personal best times despite the wet and windy conditions.

Foyston led them home as he stormed to a time of one hour, one minute and 12 seconds which was good enough for 11th place overall and third in the MV40 standings.

The in-form Helliwell wasn’t far behind in 1:02:20 (16th), with Abrams-Cohen on his tail in 1:03:21 (20th).

The inclement weather was also a factor the same day at the Meltham ‘Tough’ 10k up on the hills beyond Huddersfield.

Hilda Coulsey was the Harriers’ sole representative and she achieved a course PB of 55 minutes and seven seconds to land the FV65 first prize.

On the fells, there was a large field for the Tigger Tor event in the Peak District as it was the second counter in the 50th anniversary FRA race programme.

Just under 10 miles and with 1,600 feet of climbing, it was won by Greg Hopkinson in one hour and 11 minutes in very wet and muddy conditions, with Ilkley’s Alison Weston sixth in the LV50 rankings thanks to a time of 1:47:50.

And on the Parkrun front, Ali McInnes ran out the winner at Ganavan Sands, while Catherine Gibbons was an impressive 10th overall at Skipton.

The Harriers' awards evening last Friday saw a fantastic turnout at Ben Rhydding’s Wheatley Inn, with a host of prizes handed out.

Leading the way were Jack Wood and Kate Archer, the club’s male and female runners of the year, while Mike Abrams-Cohen and Sally Armitage collected the most improved awards.