Reading, Berkshire's dirty old town hosts round 3 of the Hampshire XC League

With races on consecutive weekends, the inbetween days have seen athletes keen to recover and clean off their spikes ready for racing up the hills, around the fields and through a forest. Conditions contrasted sharply with a fast course and a smattering of mud. Leading the charge were Phil Berntsen and Calum Upton, pushing each other to the finish, taking very respectable 19th and 21st places respectively. The ever-improving Adrian Fautly came through strongly in 25th. The trio of Dan Cunnington, George Belfield and Lloyd Dickson, who stopped to have a stretch (boys don't cry in this squad) made up the rest of the men's team who finished 5th.
nRich Bidgood, Pete Sansome and Rob Carter made up the vets team finishing 7th on the day but joint 6th in the league. With Guy Hoskins, Franklyn Young (2nd M60), Neil Brown and Stephen Lowy also navigating the course successfully there is strength in depth at the club. With a couple of weeks break now until the Southerns at the end of January it's a chance to consolidate and build towards the latter part of the season.