WOODFORD GREEN With Essex Ladies’ men’s team finished in the top 25 at the ERRA National Six-stage Road Relay in Birmingham at the weekend.

After finishing only 17th in the Southern Championships three weeks ago the club were significantly stronger this time round and claimed 22nd place.

Matt Shone put the club in a sound position by finishing 23rd from an opening field of 82, timed at 18 minutes and one second. Shaftesbury were 20 seconds ahead, with Highgate 10 and Serpentine 40 seconds behind.

Daniel Agustus ran a decent 18.14 on leg two, but dropped four spots to 28th. He exchanged positions with the opposition time and again, but he couldn’t close the gap on Shaftesbury and Highgate.

Serpentine, however, were hot on the heels of Woodford Green as they closed to within 15 seconds.

Hywel Care got off to a confused start when a supporter, who had mixed up Tipton with Woodford, shouted to him that the leg two man had already arrived and he should get going.

He started, stopped and started again as he got conflicting signals. Once into his running, he recorded 18.33 and the clubs he passed included Shaftesbury as he worked Woodford Green into 23rd, with Serpentine now around a minute behind.

Bertie Powell turned in another good team run of 18.38, but the club fell back to 26th after four legs. Behind Powell, Highgate and Shaftesbury were within touching distance.

Gareth Lloyd did well to clock 18.55 in the worst conditions of the day as a nasty squall of wind and rain hit the race.

Shaftesbury caught him early on, but then the two clubs ran together until the last 500 metres when the former got away.

Highgate now had a 35-second lead over Woodford.

Beginning the anchor leg in 27th, Alex Cornwell charged past Gateshead, Blackheath, Lincoln Wellington and Wells AC.

As a result he took Woodford into 22nd as he ran 18.31. It was a well-controlled run from the Birmingham University fresher.