THE girls under-15s team from Bromsgrove and Redditch AC were the club's standout performers at the Midland Cross Country Championships.

A host of B&R members young and old travelled to Wollaton Park in Nottingham.

The under-15s quartet finished in fourth place overall and were lead home by Ellen Bowen, who was the clubs highest individual placed athlete on the day finishing in ninth place overall.

She was closely tracked by Amy Mijovic-Cauldwell in 16th, Alice Battery 21st and Megan Nicod in 26th who helped to secure the excellent team finish.

The senior women’s’ team also produced an excellent performance finishing sixth out of the 30 teams lead home by Sally Hogan (33rd), Katy Anderson (40th), Laura Keyte (42nd) and Tamara Ball (56th) closing out the team scoring.

They were supported by strong runs from Mel Hepke (104th) and Charlotte Ball (164th).

The largest race of the day saw a slightly under-strength senior men’s team saw them take on a field in excess of 450 runners over 12 kilometre.

The squad competed well, finishing 12th out of 36 clubs with B&R’s top runner - Joe Smith covering the 12km in 40 mins for 40th place. Mark Appleton (78th), Simon Lanckham (127th), Andy Freeman (147th), Kevin Lanckham (156th) and Dean Hartshorne (200th) completed the team scoring. Ian Keyte (248th), Stephen Brooks (263rd), Daryll Thomas (292nd) and Paul Battey (312th) provided good support.

The club also had promising individual performances in the U17 men’s race being lead home by Conor Smith in 25th place followed by Bryn Turner (50th) and Ben O’Connor (57th). In the U15 Boys race Gareth Richardson (26th) and Alexander Johnson (67th) competed strongly.

The clubs athletes are heading into a very busy period of the cross country calendar. Over the next six weeks runners will pitch themselves against the best in the country in competitions such as the UK Inter Counties Championships, English National Championships and for the younger athletes The English Schools.