Oxfordshire's senior women's team had to settle for the silver medal as they lost their Southern Inter-Counties Championship title at a cold and muddy Banbury.

But despite that, the Oxon quartet of Jude Craft, Tracey Galbraith, Allison Hirst and Sarah Heath were in terrific form in the testing event, which came to Oxfordshire for the first time in ten years.

They finished second only to Hampshire, whose four points-scoring athletes all finished in the top 20.

Hampshire's quartet were well clear at the end, but the Oxfordshire team packed superbly to take silver, led home by Craft in 23min 54secs for eighth place overall.

It was a close-run thing, though, with Middlesex being edged out for the silver by a single point.

The overall race was won by renowned international runner Debbie Sullivan (Essex), who cruised home in 23.16.

With Proctor second in 23.21 and Caroline Hoyte (Sussex) in third place, the race was of a much higher quality than last year's at Bury St Edmunds - and so there was no disappointment for the Oxfordshire team's effort.

Hirst, who finished 14th in 24.15, said: "It was a much better race than last years, so we are delighted with silver.

"I think overall, it was probably a better performance than last year, because of the quality of the field."

Heath and Galbraith made up the scoring quartet for Oxon, Galbraith crossing the line in 24.18 and Heath in 25.17, but there were also encouraging performances from the non-scoring runners.

Iona Robertson finished 16th as a non-county scorer in 24.36, with Banbury's Gaynor Allen in 40th.

Philippa Jones (Headington) was 49th in 26.26, while clubmates Jo Choulerton finished 52nd in 26.43 and Sue Walters 54th in 26.49.

The team are now hoping for a top-ten finish in the National Inter-Counties Championship at Nottingham in February.

The county champion- ships, where the county team is selected, take place at Drayton School, Banbury on January 5.

Hirst said: "We finished ninth last year, and I would like to think we can at least equal that."

In the junior women's race White Horse Harrier Josephine Rhodes was second behind Bedford's Nicola Sykes, showing great strength in the latter stages to finish in 20.17.

Witney Roadrunner Elysia Ridley ran one of her best races ever, finishing in 20.44 for fifth place overall.

Tom Penfold (White Horse Harriers) led home a young team of three in 18th place in the under 23 men's race. James McKinnon (Abingdon) and Tim Wright (Banbury) made up the team.

Chris Gillespie (White Horse Harriers) was 12th in the under 17 boys' race, with teammate Owain Bristow in 17th, while in the under 20 women's race, Lorna King (Banbury) was 24th.

Radley's Carolyn Plateau was 30th in the under 15 girls' race, while the promising Amanda Carreras (Bicester) was 12th in the under 13 race.

Result: 1 Hampshire 38pts, 2 Oxfordshire 62, 3 Middlesex 63.