Ilford’s magnificent youngsters continue to excel in the mud with the county cross-country league race in Colchester the scene of their latest success.

The star of the show was Bradley Deacon in the under-17 race where he was Ilford's only entrant.

He battled round a tough course to claim a superb second spot which will give him plenty of confidence for bigger events to come.

In the under-13 boys' race, Joseph Grange was in fine form on the day to come ninth, while Aaron Hick and Lucas Emeagi both showed their speed in the final stages to come 28th and 47th respectively.

Ryan Holeyman ran superbly in the under-15 race to finish in a splendid ninth, his best ever position in the league.

Matthew Hick has missed a lot of training, but still proved he can compete at this level with a very good 25th position, while Oliver Blainey battled round in 39th place.

Jordan Hinds has competed in all of the league races in the under-20 women's category thus far and this was her best position to date, coming 14th.

The senior women raced over 6k with Anna Crawley continuing her fine form as she led the Ilford team home in 26th spot.

Next over the line was Carlie Qirem who, returning from an injury, was pleased to place 44th, while Bree Nordin was once again the first to finish in the F60 category in 52nd overall.

Nicola Hopkinson was as consistent as ever, closing the scorers in 65th.

But the team was placed eighth on the day and will need a good result in the final match at Braintree next month to avoid slipping into Division Two.

Doris Gaga was 92nd with Frieda Keane close behind, Lovedip Dhaliwal 101st and Launa Broadley completing the Ilford squad in 104th.

The senior men saw Tom Gardner produce his best league result of the season in eighth place, while Paul Grange was second in the M40 age group for 10th overall.

Paul Holloway came home 60th and third in the M50 category and Sam Rahman had his best race of the winter in 78th.

Seb Parris was close behind in 80th, with Haydn Newland completing the scorers in 110th.

The Ilford team placed fifth in this match and remain in third place in the league table.