READING Athletic Club’s best results on the male side in the opening Hampshire Cross Country League fixture at Winchester on Saturday were gained by the Under 15s, who finished as the second placed team, while there were individual fourth places for U15 Ben Rollings and U17 Sam Rodda.

On the hilly Farley Mount course, Rollings soon recovered from a relatively slow start in the U15 4km race, and before long was among the leading few, with his strong running taking him through to an excellent fourth place at the finish in a time of 15m 24secs.

Joseph Mott’s determined effort earned him 15th position in 16m 28secs, and Mattie Raynor’s persistence enabled him to complete the scoring team in 22nd place, recording 16m 59secs, to give Reading a total of 41 points for second place behind Aldershot and narrowly ahead of Basingstoke and Camberley.

Alfie McGlennon also ran well to finish in 30th place with a time of 17m 16secs, but both Jensen Bale and Olly Moor had the misfortune to fall at the start.

However they continued gamely, with Bale eventually finishing 40th in 17m 45secs and Moor 51st in 18m 38secs.

Earlier the inexperienced U13 team had finished ninth in their 3km race. They were led home by Jack Webb, who moved through the field to finish in 23rd with a time of 12m 15secs.

Reading’s other scorers were Elio Babb and Laurie Baker, who both progressed well to finish 52nd and 59th respectively in 13m 13secs and 13m 32secs, while Dominic Parsons, in his first race following a broken arm, was not far behind in 63rd, recording 13m 39secs.

Due to illness and injury, Reading had only two runners in the U17 5km race, but both gave a good account of themselves.

Rodda took fourth in 16m 35secs, while Harry Roe competed well to finish 17th in 18m 03secs.

Reading also had two participants in the U11 boys race, who both showed promise, with Hal Rust-D’Eye finishing about halfway down the field, just a few places ahead of Ashton Macklin.