MUD, mud and more mud greeted the 32 athletes from Tavistock Athletic Club for the penultimate race in the Westward cross-country league at the Central Park course in Plymouth on Sunday, February 8.

The poor conditions led to a lower turnout and so there was an opportunity to score well through the six races in the different age groups.

With ten ladies competing in the senior women’s team and ladies’ vets teams, the results from Plymouth will secure the league title for the vets team.

The senior ladies team result has moved them up from fourth to third place. Jasmine Gray had the run of the race, taking third place overall. Heather Fell made a welcome return for a tough run, finishing seventh overall.

Katherine Steer made her debut for the season with a solid run, coming home in 40th. Jenny Jeeves (19th) also secured her age category title and Emma White (44th) continued her battle to take her age category title against Sam Lake who finished in 33rd.

In the Under 17 boys, Connor Duffin ran a great race over the muddy 5.8km course and picked up third place. Considering he had raced the day before representing Devon Schools it was a remarkable performance.

The senior men’s race, over a 9km course, was brutal. But Ben Neale led the team home, finishing 11th overall and securing his individual Vet 40 title. Tom Brogden worked hard to finish 24th overall and secure second place in the Vet 40 category.

Backed up by eight others, the team had a solid performance that moved them up to seventh in the league as they go into the final meeting in two weeks’ time, The vets men’s team moved up to second place with an outside chance of catching Plymouth Harriers in the final race.

Last race of the day was the mixed under 15 boys and girls over the 4.4km course.

Two TAC boys had a real battle at the head of the race with Eldon Young just pipping Luke Scott-Tucker in the finishing sprint. They were backed up by Alistair Graham in 10th and Ben Letaigne in 12th places to secure the team title before the last race.

Grace Gokhale was the only TAC girl running and she battled hard for 15th place overall.

The Westward League Cross Country League comprises six races from October to February, held at different locations across Devon and Cornwall. The common denominator, given the time of year, is that races are almost always made tougher by the weather conditions and the resultant muddy courses. It shows real commitment from the TAC athletes, particularly the junior contingent, to turn out for every race.

The popularity of this cross country league can be seen from the entry statistics – an amazing total of 823 athletes competed in at least one of the six races, with 376 of these classed as junior runners. The male/female split was very balanced too – 462 males and 361 females across the age categories.

This season’s last and deciding race takes place at Redruth on February 28.

Thereafter, as the spring and summer seasons open up, TAC athletes young and older change their focus to the upcoming fell racing, road racing and track and field events, until it all starts again in October.