Ladies secure victory.

Byline: , Linzi Ncholson

Holmfirth Harriers' Natalie White was narrowly beaten into second place at the West Yorkhire Cross Country League meeting at Nell Bank, Ilkley.

White, competing in the ladies' senior event, was pipped by three seconds by Sam Harris, of Valley Striders, who completed the steep and boggy course in 20min 51sec.

But the Holmfirth ladies had something to cheer after taking the team award ahead of host club Ilkley.

White's clubmate Helen Shirley also had a good race to finish third (21-23) and Kathy Farquar was 12th (22-29).

Claire Leaver had an excellent first lap but the mud took hold and she dropped back to finish 20th (22-58).

Junior athlete Zoe Storr was back on form and she was 33rd (24-52), just ahead of Helen Pettit in 41st (25-19).

Five of Holmfirth's senior men took part in the final race of the day which was won by Otley's Ian Fisher in 30-45.

Dave Harman, currently in the lead in his age category over the three races, was 19th and first veteran home in 33-22.

Paul Yates was 38th (34-30), Andy Shaw 46th (35-00), Andy Hauser 81st (36-58) and Richard Griffiths 107th (38-20).

With six places required for a team result, Holmfirth were not placed in the event won by Leeds City.

In the junior races, Holmfirth's Under 13 girls (Amy McGivern, Bethany Pettit and Emily Dent) repeated their fine performance of previous races to take the first team place by a wide margin.

The Under 17 girls (Ruth McGivern, Natalie Thompson and Thalia Jones) collected the third team prize.