LAUREN DEADMAN judged her tactics to perfection to win the South of England Inter Counties title and lead Essex to team gold at Biggleswade on Saturday. The Havering Mayesbrook athlete tracked leader Nicola Sykes for over two of the three laps, before st

LAUREN DEADMAN judged her tactics to perfection to win the South of England Inter Counties title and lead Essex to team gold at Biggleswade on Saturday.

The Havering Mayesbrook athlete tracked leader Nicola Sykes for over two of the three laps, before striking for home to finish nine seconds clear in 21.06. Harriet Scott was fourth overall and the second under-23 to win silver in that category.

In the under-15 girls' event, Eleanor Bounds was a fine fourth as the Essex team won bronze, while also wearing the red vest of Essex were Nick Shade (24th) and Freddy Keefe (36th) in the under-13 boys' event, Avril Loynes 37th in the under-13 girls' race, and Zoey Littlechild 30th in the under-17 women's event.

The senior men, with several of their number missing, still fielded two complete teams at the county cross country relays on a freezing snow-showered day at Hadleigh on Sunday.

Daniel Shanney, in his first senior race, led off for the A team and managed a respectable sixth place (17.28). He handed over to Grant Twist, who brought the team up to fifth with his 17.07 leg. Rob Warner then took up the challenge to bring the team up to fourth, with the fastest leg for the team of 17.06 which was strongly held by Mat Bland on the penultimate leg (17.37). Trevor Keys ran well on the final leg, but couldn't hold off the challenge from Southend and Colchester to bring the A team home in sixth place with an 18.15 anchor.