CANON Slade had great success at the recent North West regional finals of the English Schools cross country.

Last week, some of the countries top cross-country juniors battled it out in difficult conditions in Bolton.

Competing in the junior girls, junior boys and inter-girls competitions, the reward for both the girls’ teams was qualification for the national final in Bedford at the start of December.

In appalling weather conditions, all runners did extremely well to complete the course which got continually worse as each age group ran on it.

The course, using the playing fields and parts of the wooded area in the school grounds, was a real test for the runners.

It was good to know that many teachers who came with their school and parents thought the course was a good one and would test the runners and the weather was all part of the cross country event.

The junior girls ran particularly well and finished in first place.

The team of Penny Townsend, Emily Russell, Ameila Bratt and Anna Potter, all finished in the top seven places with Penny Townsend finishing first.

The stiffest competition was going to come from local rivals Loreto Grammar School, Manchester, as the two teams know each other well from previous races over the season and it was always going to be close as to who came in first and which school would qualify for the English Schools finals.

As it happened, Canon Slade finished 31 points ahead of their rivals and can now look forward with confidence to the final in Bedford on December 5.

With further training between now and the final, hopes are high for a good run against the other finalists all of whom will be out to become ESAA cross country champions for 2015.

There were two other Canon Slade runners, Ella Pendlebury and Anna Lilley who completed the course but, with the first four home to count, victory had already been secured and the final beckoning.

The inter girls also had a great result about half an hour after the junior girls had heard they had qualified for the final.

The team of Georgia Tansy, Maya Erzan-Essien, Madeleine Erzan-Essien and Alice Tonge, had a much harder task of running the course as there had been two races before them and the ground conditions continued to deteriorate.

However, with Georgia coming home in fourth place and Maya in 11th and Madeleine in 14th, Alice Tonge in 15th place gave the team the superb result of coming third overall and so they too qualify for the final in Bedford.

If you look at the results, first place had 36 points, second place 37 and Canon Slade in third place had 44 points.

On another day the team might have finished higher but the main thing was they qualified, along with the junior girls for the final in Bedford.

Francesca Fordham and Anna Walton also ran for the team, but, like the juniors, the first four home were to count in the overall total but even so, Francesca and Anna deserve praise for completing a very demanding course.

The junior boys also equipped themselves well and came seventh overall but sadly did not qualify for the final.

The team of Robert Seddon (12th place), Toby Middleton (25th place), Joseph Cooper (37th place) and Lewis Cameron (41st place), ran with energy and enthusiasm and the other two members of the team were James Lamb (50th) and Ryan Wood (53rd).

A spokesman for the school said: "Well done to all of them for coping with the conditions.

"This is the first time the school has had two teams in the national schools cross country finals and Head of PE Carol Brooking, was naturally delighted with the result and so the juniors and inter girls cross country teams follow the inter and senior girls swimming teams in getting to the national finals this year."