THE cross country season has started for the members of St Helens Sutton AC with a small group travelling to Manchester's Heaton Park for two of the season's opening matches.

In the North West Women's league match, holidays and sickness meant that the club only managed to turn out a team in the under-13 years section. Sarah McLoughlin led the team home in 17th place with Kim Bridge 22nd and Lorna Forrester 27th providing close support. The under-15 years race saw Chloe Wilson and Melissa McLoughlin giving each other a good race as they finished 29th and 31st.

In the senior event, Louise Casey and Julia Eccleston finished 33rd and 59th.

Some of the club's boys took the opportunity to have guest runs in the Manchester and District League match held at the same venue.

In the under-13 years race, Mike Ehlen was once again the club's leading runner as he finished 14th with Anthony Marsh and Steve Clague taking 19th and 24th spots. Dave Forrester made a most promising start to the season finishing third in the under-15 years event with Tom Rigby 18th.

The National Road Relay Championships held at the usual midland venue at Sutton Coldfield saw the club turning out a team in the senior event for the first time for a few years and, although not at full strength they could be pleased with the result.

Laura Davenport set the standard for the rest of the team to try to emulate as she ran the fine time of 17mins 11secs but this was only good enough for 58th place in a field drawn from the whole country.

Chris Dempsey ran well to record a time of 20min 31secs but the team slipped back to 70th spot. A typical fighting run from Julia Eccleston of 20min 24secs saw her claw back 12 places and debutant Toni Garnett ran an encouraging 20min 43secs for the club to finish 66th, the third Merseyside team to finish.