St Albans Striders had a date with a national championship as well as taking on a number of other events away from home.

The English National Cross-country Championships near Chester had the club fielding a couple of teams.

The female squad, consisting of Hollie Ryder, Louise Bentham, Natalie Richards and Mandy Attree, finished 48th out of 86 completed teams.

The men’s team consisted of Edward Anders, Thomas Croft, Nigel Aston, Steve Saver, Michael Jack and Steve Bowran.

There was a good turnout at the Wokingham Half Marathon where Chris Wrighton led the Striders home in a time of one hour 17 minutes 21 seconds, 64th from a field of almost 2,500.

He was followed by Jim King who was third in a new club age-group record of 1:17:21.

Lucy Waterlow was the first female Strider home, and 31st lady overall, in 1:25:00, followed by Freya Weddell in 1:28:01 and also inside the top 50 females.

Stefano Federici finished fourth out of more than 600 competitors at the Bourton-on-the-Water 10k in Gloucestershire, running a PB of 32:11.