LED home by Nick Wiltshire in a fine individual second place, the Under 17s were the most successful of Reading Athletic Club’s male age-group teams, finishing second in the opening Hampshire Cross Country League fixture at Bournemouth on Saturday.

The U15s finished sixth and the U13s seventh, with Oliver Craggs having a splendid debut for the U13 team with third place individually.

In the U17 6km race, team captain Wiltshire was soon near the front of the field, and ran strongly to move through to second in a time of 19min 50secs, about 20 seconds down on the winner, Marcus Shantry of Aldershot.

Joseph Mott took seventh in 20:47, while Tom Nike was Reading’s final team scorer, recording 21:54 for 20th.

Ben Rollings finished 26th in 22:43, while Aldershot won the team race with Reading second, nine points clear of Southampton.

For the weakened U15s in their 4km race, Mattie Raynor led in the early stages, before eventually having to settle for sixth in a time of 14:10. Second home for Reading was Olly Moor in 39th position, recording 15:34, and the scoring team was completed by Laurie Baker in 45th (15:52). Dominic Parsons battled well for 53rd place in 16:26 as Reading came sixth in the team competition.

The U13s in their 3km race also ran with a weakened team, but Craggs, in his first run for Reading, finished third in a time of 10:54.

George Urwin-Mann, who was Reading’s second scorer, recorded 12:48 in 48th place, and Adam Tivey (12:55) completed the scoring team in 52nd. Elliot McCarthy earned 71st in 13.52 with Reading seventh in the team race.

Meanwhile, George Godfrey came 46th in the U11 race.