STRATFORD Athletic Club's team recently took part in the Birmingham Cross Country League at Stafford Common and achieved their best result of the season to finish fourth out of 20 teams on the day and move up to fifth in the league after the first three fixtures.

The course was undulating and very muddy with several long stretches of deep mud which was well over ankle deep.

Stuart Curtis led Stratford home in sixth place. This moved him up to fifth in the individual placings after three races.

The next Stratford athlete was Craig Evans who made a big improvement to finish 17th. Next was Richard Dobedoe in 27th followed by Paul Hawkins who also had his best position of the season in 36th.

Close behind was Brian Thornett making a welcome return to the team in 43rd place. Making up the team were John Neale (62nd), Malcolm Bowyer (69th) and Pete Walton - also making his first league appearance of the season in 79th.

The leading team placings were Wolverhampton and Bilston 62, Gloucester 128, Dudley and Stourbridge 156, Stratford 191, Stafford 242.

The following day the junior team took part in the latest round of the Spar West Midlands Young Athletes League at Sandwell Valley. Unfortunately, the team was hit by a lot of last minute withdrawals due to illness.

Those that did race all did well, none better than Lindsay Butcher in the under-11 boys, which was the opening race. Despite being among the youngest in the field and this being his first race in the league, Lindsay came 32nd in a large field of 66.

Natalie and Elliott Smith came 63rd and 53rd respectively in the under-13 girls and under-15 boys.

In the under-17 men Neil Hawkins looked to be showing signs of finding his form and came in 27th closely followed by Edward Mills in his best race of the season in 33rd.

Mills looked to have found some aggression and worked his way through the field on the last of the three laps.