READING Athletic Club’s Under 15 boys team bounced back from their National Cross Country Championships disappointment with an excellent second place at Prospect Park on Saturday, finishing third on aggregate in the Hampshire Cross Country League.

The Under 13 team had to settle for fifth place, both on the day and overall, while Chey Blatchford-Kemp finished fourth as Reading’s only representative in the U17 race.

On a bright and breezy day, with the course soft after earlier rain, the U15s had their best turnout of the season for their 4km race in this final league fixture.

After a steady start the improving Joseph Mott ran strongly to move through to fifth place in a time of 13m 41secs, closely followed by Ben Rollings, who ran well on his return from illness to finish sixth in 13:44.

Reading’s third scorer was Leon Bradshaw, who ran an excellently judged race for 12th place in 14:11, and the team’s total of 23 points gave them a clear second place behind Aldershot, and third on aggregate behind the winners and Southampton.

Next to finish for Reading were Tom Rickards with 19th place in a time of 14:42, and Mattie Raynor, who slipped back a little after a strong start and finished 24th in 14:57.

Not far behind came the dependable pair of Olly Moor (27th in 15:29) and Alfie McGlennon (29th in 15:48), with Tom Crook persisting well for 36th in 17:26 and Gabriel Evans persevering for 37th in 19:31.

In the individual aggregate classification Ben Rollings finished fourth and Joseph Mott seventh, a reflection of their stalwart efforts this season.

The U13 team had hoped to repeat their good third place in the previous league fixture at Havant, but with a stronger field on this occasion they had to settle for fifth, which also gave them fifth on aggregate.

Reuben Henry-Daire was never quite able to get among the leaders of the 3km race, but competed strongly to finish ninth in 10:48, and next home for Reading was the ever-reliable Laurie Baker in 20th place with 11:23.

The scoring team was completed by young Fraser Bradshaw, whose impressive debut run gave him 34th, recording 11:43, but the total of 63 points was good enough only for fifth. Among the non-scorers, Dominic Parsons found the going tough, but kept going well for 50th in 12:33, while another debutant, Lucas Tallon, did well to finish 52nd in 12:38, and only just ahead of good efforts from Harry Moor (53rd in 12:39) and Adam Tivey (54th in 12:41).

After the U17s’ excellent efforts in the National, on this occasion Reading had only one representative in their 6km race.

Nevertheless, Blatchford-Kemp ran well again to finish fourth in a time of 17:55.