DOMINIC Easter led St Albans School to second place at the prestigious 35th Senior Knole run in Sevenoaks last weekend. Easter recorded his second successive Herts County title win in his previous outing having obliterated the field to win the county Unde

DOMINIC Easter led St Albans School to second place at the prestigious 35th Senior Knole run in Sevenoaks last weekend.

Easter recorded his second successive Herts County title win in his previous outing having obliterated the field to win the county Under 20s crown at Haileybury College. The Shaftesbury Barnet Harrier came into The Knole race in confident mood and he finished 40 seconds behind the winner from top school Manchester Grammar. Coach George Harrison said: "Once he got away, Dom accepted it. They were together for four to five miles of the six-mile race. It was very wet and quite a few dropped out. It is a very tough course The Knole, it is up and down. We are disappointed we didn't win. It was the first time Manchester have come down for a long time so they must have felt they had a strong team."

There were 49 schools competing in the event and Manchester took the title with 94 points, with St Albans School on 102.

Billy Collins felt unwell but battled on to finish in seventh place and was the second scorer for St Albans School. He crossed the line with a time of 35.31 and Harrison said: "Billy did extremely well and showed a lot of courage to finish."

Rising star Euan Mackenzie, aged 15, ran superbly to take ninth place and earned high praise from his coach. Harrison said: "It was a brilliant run from Euan, absolutely brilliant. He was one of the youngest in the race and his performance was the one that was outstanding I think."

The other scorers for St Albans School were Richard Priseman in 18th with 37.24, Robbie Miles in 26th with 37.50 and Geoffrey Ewen in 40th with 39.02.

In two weeks the athletes will be back in action at Parliament Hill Fields, London, for the South of England Cross Country Championships. Then, in late January, St Albans School will compete against Manchester Grammar again in the King Henry VIII at Coventry.