Shrewsbury Athletic Club runners made an impressive start to their North Wales Cross Country League campaign when the Club hosted the first fixture of the Series at Walford College on Saturday.

Seeking to retain their Series crown for the fourth consecutive season, the Men's team swept to victory, led home by Matt Hall who finished in 1st place, his first cross country victory for the Club and joining a roll of honour of Club athletes who over the years have won North Wales Cross Country races, most recently Joe Brocklehurst in 2013. He was followed by James Hickinbottom in 6th place and Steve Waters in 10th place, with Hassan Mohammed 11th, Rob Fox 13th and Gabe Morris 16th completing the team scorers.

There were age category victories for James Hickinbottom in the Over 35 category and Kevin Francis in the Over 50 category.

Jo Sutton led the Women's team home in 9th place in 24/50, with Naomi Cook 26th in 26/18 and Gill Evans 87th in 31/05.

Joe Gilling finished 6th in the Under 17 Men's race in 22/51.

The nNext fixture is at Foxhills, Colwyn Bay on Saturday 20th October.

Results: Men: 1 Matt Hall 30/25, 6 James Hickinbottom 31/22(1st Veteran Over 35), 10 Steve Waters 32/12, 11 Hassan Mohammed 32/18, 13 Rob Fox 32/26(2nd Veteran Over 35), 16 Gabe Morris 32/33, 31 Kevin Francis 34/13(1st Veteran Over 50), 38 Stewart Farley 34/34, 64 Pete Hughes 36/54, 84 Haydn Jones 38/16(3rd Veteran Over 55), 101 Chris Wakeman 40/07.

Club members have also been busy on the roads. Nick Bradley made his Marathon debut in the Chester Marathon finishing 185th in 2/58/11, Richard Mckenna finished 172nd in the Cardiff Half Marathon in 1/19/24 and Carl Aveyard's preparations for the Frankfurt Marathon at the end of the month received a boost when he finished 8th in the Chester Metric Marathon(26.2Km) in 1/38/49, taking 2nd place in the Male Veteran Over 35 category.

Pic. Matt Hall (left) at Walford.