With more than one in six of the runners being Mansfield athletes the club is now recognised as one of the biggest cross country clubs in the Midlands.

Mansfield took 92 athletes to Corby for the second fixture of the North Midlands League with James Mee travelling across from Birmingham University to lead the men's team.

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Mee didn't disappoint and finished with an excellent third place, taking the honours as first U20 man home.

For much of the race he sat in second place just being caught in the latter stages of the third lap by the more experienced Rob Birchall of Notts AC.

With this behind him he went on to the Gateshead International cross country races where he finished 26th in the Junior Men.

Chris Brown was next Harrier back and showed a significant improvement on his last outing over the country to finish 23rd. Brown now needs to believe in himself and a further improvement at the next race should see him capable of a top 10 finish in the last fixture of the league at Wollaton Park in January.

Ever reliant Pete Stafford improved even further on his impressive performance in the first fixture of this league finishing 35th and counting as the first scorer in the Vets team. Danny Barkes matched the 37th place he recorded at Markeaton Park a month ago with Doug Ross just four seconds behind him in 39th.

Completing the senior team counters were Russ Betts, making an excellent return to racing, in 41st and Luke Marshall in 49th. With the senior counters – Mee, Brown, Barkes, Betts and Marshall all under 23 Mansfield's youngsters are finally beginning to challenge the veterans for supremacy.

Faz Fahy, Darren Hodgkinson and Steve Grainger continued the battle they started at Markeaton Park, Fahy gaining victory with a 61st place finish, Hodgkinson in 64th to count as the third scorer in the Vets team and Grainger 69th.

Mark Jenkins continued his return to racing with a 30 place improvement to finish in 80th with Steve Davies, fresh from racing in the New York Marathon, in 85th. John Farquharson was another athlete returning to competition finishing in 87th, and an excellent run from Terry Ashmore secured 93rd. Trevor Hiscox, in 95th, was the final Mansfield Harrier to finish in the top 100.

In the ladies' race Liz Lilley secured her second sixth place of the series closing the gap on her nearest rivals with a speedier run. Jodie Bestwick was the next Mansfield lady home showing a promising return to the country and finishing 37th.

Amanda Hardy was first veteran back for Mansfield in 40th, with Daisy Baugh four places behind her to count as the final scorer for the seniors. Claire Coombes in 57th and L. Harrison in 55th completed the line up for the Vets team.

Half way through the series the results leave the senior men in fifth place overall with the veteran men in silver medal position although just eight points ahead of Derby AC.

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