ATHLETICS: VALE Royal's senior women team finished a commendable 14th in the North of England road relays championships on Saturday at Bradford.
The young Vale Royal team of Fiona Rudkin, Beth Carter, Caroline Winder, Siobhan Tarbuck, Helen Fowles and the more experienced Jane Campion were one of only two Cheshire teams to take part in this top-class event over a hilly 16-mile course.
Vale Royal finished just ahead of Barnsley and Rotherham.
On Sunday, more than 600 teams gathered at Sutton Coalfield for the England AAA junior road relay champion-ships and Vale Royal had two top-six finishes.
Their U15s A team ran stride for stride with some of the country's top big-city clubs before Victoria Jones, Laura Lambert and Stevie Stockton finished in a brilliant fifth place, just three seconds behind Shaftesbury Barnet and just ahead of clubs like Sale Harriers, Swindon, Bedford and Leeds City.
The second team of Laurna Timms, Rachael Clews and Hanna Weedall finished 25th, two places ahead of City Of Norwich, and the third Vale Royal team of Corinne Kinvig, Louise Bosson and Sophie McCellan were 34th, a place ahead of Morpeth.
The U17s trio - Becky Ellis, Gemma Lievesley and Victoria Wall - turned in another fantastic performance, finishing in 6th place behind Shaftesbury and Barnet but ahead of clubs like Liverpool, Trafford, Tipton, Leeds and Poole.
Vale Royal's U13 girls' A team finished 55th, the B team 79th. The teams were Charlotte Matthews, Kathy Stringer, Kate Howard and Charlotte Hickson, Natasha Brownrigg and Abi Moffatt.
The U13 boys' Ben Redfern, Chris Jones and Kieran Kinvig were 59th and James Griffiths, Lee Davenport and Michael Carroll were 39th in the U15s event.
Vale Royal has for the last ten weeks been putting their U11 age-group athletes through a new scheme called Norwich Shine Awards.
The athletes have been participating in 10 sporting events designed to test their abilities in different athletic events - and each athlete received certificates for the triathlon, pentathlon and the decathlon, as well as a medal.
