AFTER their successes in the Berkshire championships, Reading Athletic Club’s young male competitors were brought down to earth by the tougher opposition in the Hampshire League at Prospect Park on Saturday.

Reading’s best results again came from the Under 17 team, who finished second, and individually from Berkshire champions Ollie Craggs (U13) and Eddie Steveni (U17), who each finished fourth.

A dull winter’s day was lit up by a brilliant U13 3km race, as Craggs battled against the three athletes who had beaten him comfortably in the previous league fixtures.

These four soon broke clear, and remarkably with 100m to go they were all still together.

However, Craggs narrowly lost out in the sprint for the line to finish fourth after another excellent run, recording 10m 14secs.

With Fraser Bradshaw unfortunately having to drop out through illness early in the race, Reading’s second scorer was Aidan Marshall, whose gutsy effort secured him 30th place in 11.44, just ahead of Edward Lewis, who completed the scoring team with a fine run for 31st, recording 11.48.

The non-scoring runners also did well, with Dylan Madden finishing 35th in 11.52, and Hal Rust-D’Eye and Adam Tivey 51st and 52nd in 12.41 and 12.44 respectively.

Reading’s team total of 65 points gave them fifth place on the day and left them in fifth on aggregate.

For the U15s in their 4km race, Mattie Raynor was Reading’s leading runner in about 15th when he was forced to pull out with a foot injury. This left Leon Bradshaw to lead the team home with a good run for 19th place in a time of 14.22, while Olly Moor was Reading’s second finisher as he ran strongly for 27th in 15.01.

The scoring team was completed by Laurie Baker, who ran with his usual determination to finish 32nd, recording 15.49, not far ahead of Aryan Gupta who ran well for 33rd place in 15.56, while Rhys Primrose’s persistence earned him 35th in 16.26.

Reading’s total of 78 points was just good enough for fourth place, although they remain in fifth place on aggregate.

In the 6km U17 race, Eddie Steveni was among the leading group in the early stages, but he was unable to hold the leaders in the hilly section of the course.

Nevertheless, he finished in a fine fourth place with a time of 17.57. Second home for Reading was Nick Wiltshire, who in an impressive return to action finished sixth in 18.14, and the scoring team was completed by the ever-improving Tom Nike in eighth position with 18.39.

Joseph Mott kept going well for 11th place in 19.08, and the much-improved Ben Rollings secured 12th place with 19.12.

Reading’s team total of 18 points again gave them only second behind the strong Aldershot squad, and they remain in second place on aggregate.

In a 2.5km U11 race outside the league competition, Samuel Lindsey-Halls had an excellent run to finish fifth in a time of 10.06.

There were fine runs, too, from Laurence Hahn (10th in 10.32), Josh Smith (13th in 10.36), Rhys Underwood (25th in 11.03) and Charlie Wills (31st in 11.37).

Charlie Allnut and Devon Staples ran well together for 36th and 37th places in 12.02 and 12.03, while Rohan Burton (44th in 12.26), Luke Knox (54th in 13.19) and Matthew Kean (55th in 13.47) also battled bravely.