Gary Harris of Headington Roadrunners was Oxfordshire's leading runner among the senior men at the National Cross-Country Championships at Durham on Saturday.

Harris achieved a fine 111th place out of more than 1,200 finishers, just ahead of Pete Wilson, of White Horse Harriers, in 116th.

Harris also gained revenge for a couple of recent defeats over clubmate Jethro Lennox, who was 141st.

White Horse Harriers' decision to make the long trip to Durham was totally justified by the exceptional results.

Pride of place went to Tom Penfold, who ran a brave and intelligent race to finish fourth in the under 17 men's race.

The race was won convincingly by S Ablitt, from Grantham, who was second in the under 20s at the recent Inter-Counties Cham- pionships.

Penfold was involved in a tough battle for most of the race and needed a strong sprint finish to gain his brilliant fourth place.

The Harriers' second top-ten finish came an hour-and-a-half later in the under 15 girls' race, when Josephine Rhodes ran strongly to finish seventh.

Sandwiched between these two was another impressive run from Frances Briscoe in the under 20 women's race in 17th position.

The White Horse senior men's response to this in their 12,000m race was a best-ever team performance 26th club overall out of 107 teams with local rivals Headington in 55th.

As usual the team were led home by Wilson who received one of the special trophies awarded to the first 125 men to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the championships.

WHITE HORSE HARRIERS RESULTS

Under 15 girls: (4,000m) 7 J Rhodes 14.49. Under 20 women: (5,000m) 17 F Briscoe 23.19. Under 17 men: (6,000m) 4 T Penfold 21.04. Senior men: (12,000m) 116 P Wilson 41.10, 206 G Felton 42.48, 242 P McCourt 43.16, 302 D Wright 44.03, 361 J Cooke 44.49, 421 P Jgou 45.46, 829 C Jones 51.27.

HEADINGTON RESULTS

Senior men: 111 G Harris 41.07, 141 J Lennox 41.46, 384 R Thetford 45.09, 438 J Thorn 46.01, 696 H Nickau 49.24, 740 W Atkinson 50.05, 748 F Howard 50.12, 796 R Moye 50.50, 1065 P Read 56.23, 1132 J Moore 58.14.Senior women: 115 S Howard 35.16, 143 H Turley 36.22, 249 J Meredith.