Woodstock Harriers took on the might of 64 other club teams in the National 6-stage Relay Championships (senior men) at Sutton Park, Birmingham on Saturday, and came home with great credit.

Despite three of the squad having taken part in the Abingdon Marathon less than a week earlier, the Woodstock team put in an excellent performance and did well to beat many much larger clubs to secure 38th place overall.

Bryan Vaughan was thrown in at the deep end on leg one, and held his own to cover the 5.8km circuit in 19mins52 secs.

Richard Beaumont took up the challenge completing the second stage in 19.21 and Dave Ashton ran the fastest Woodstock leg of the first half (19.24) to bring his team back in 56th place at half-way.

Richard Shipway then ran a blinder in 18.47 to lift Woodstock to 47th, with Greg Dell taking the team to 44th, with a run of 19.52.

The last man in, Simon Lund, gave everything on the final leg, his effort of 19.06 pegging back another six places to give Woodstock 38th spot.

The competition was won by Belgrave Harriers from Windsor, Slough, Eaton & Hounslow with Cardiff AC taking third.

Headington Roadrunners women finished 15th

The team, of Allison Hirst, Kirstie Anderson, Iona Robertson and Jude Craft, finished in a time of 1.02.44 - just ahead of last year's champions Sale Harriers.

They were the fifth Southern team home overall.

**WOODSTOCK HARRIERS DETAILS

Team: 38th in 1.56.34 - 1 B Vaughan (61) 19.52, 2 R Beaumont (58) 19.33, 3 D Ashton (56) 19.24, 4 R Shipway (47) 18.47, 5 G Dell (44) 19.52, 6 S Lund (38) 19.06.