For the third successive year North Down finished scoring teams at both Junior and Senior level at the AAI Inter Club XC Championships, held on Sunday in Phoenix Park.. Mark Patterson in 12th led the team to 4th in the Junior Mens’ race with Jordan Stokes 23rd, Glen Willis 29th Matthew McMullan 30th and Conor O’Boyle 34th. The Senior Men were given the top “A” rating for the first time and were 9th with Francis Marsh 44th, Niall Robinson 54th, James Budde 75th, Nick Arkensparr, 92nd with back -up from Thomas Simpson and Darren McKee in 99th and 100th.
Julie Balmer was easily first woman home in the Albertville 5 Mile Road Race, held in glorious spring conditions round the Duncrue Industrial Estate and sponsored by Belfast City Council on Saturday. With a time of 30:15 min, Julie easily broke the club 5 mile record and led North Down women to another team victory. With good packing Jessica Craig was 5th, Debbie Matchett 6th, Ange Perrott 7th and the new Mrs Aicken ( Jill Dowie) 8th. Debbie won the F40 prize and Ange the F35 prize. With the younger men racing in Dublin on Sunday, the mens race was left to the Dads Army brigade again with category wins going to Gary Swenarton (M55), David Seaton (M60) and Fred Murdoch (M65).
School athletes tend to be notorious for wearing the wrong number and names get misspelt so results don"t always mathch the reality but congratulations to the club athletes who reached the finals of the Irish Schools in Cork next week. Jordan Stokes was 7th senior boy, Glen Willis 11th intermediate boy, Roger Dawson 12th junior boy and Abbey Taylor 14th junior girl.
At the NI Civil Service Cross Country at Stormont on Saturday, North Down men turned out what has to be the oldest squad ever with between them over half a millennium on the clock. Not that they had lost any of their competitive instinct as Terry Eakin led them home with team baby Tony Wall next. Brian Smith came out of yet another retirement and in the season-long battle between Pat O’Driscoll and Ken Hawtin, Ken finally got on top again. This would have been far too light-hearted for the more focussed and professional womens team who turned out a full strength squad that totally dominated their race. Roberta Dornan, Julie Balmer and Jessica Craig had positions 2 to 4 and the girls filled 6 out of the first 10 places. The kids played their part too with Abbey Taylor 1st in the U15 girls, Glen Willis 2nd in the U17 boys and the U15 and U13 boys doing well.
Michael Dyer narrowly missed taking the 800/mile double at the Southland Conference indoor champs on Friday/Saturday - held on the unbanked 220yd University of Oklahoma track. Michael first won the mile in 4:12.52pb then lined up in the 10man 800m final just 1hr15mins later - where he was narrowly beaten into 2nd place (by 0.03sec) - 1:53.55sb. Michael had to run heats the previous day (4:24.33 & 1:56.10) - followed by the final 4x400m event - making it 5 races in 24hrs! Jordan Neil was 6th in the mile in 4:16.05 - but a recent bout of bronchitus ruled him out of the 3k.
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For the third successive year North Down finished scoring teams at both Junior and Senior level at the AAI Inter Club XC Championships, held on Sunday in Phoenix Park.. 
Michael Dyer narrowly missed taking the 800/mile double at the Southland Conference indoor champs on Friday/Saturday - held on the unbanked 220yd University of Oklahoma track. Michael first won the mile in 4:12.52pb then lined up in the 10man 800m final just 1hr15mins later - where he was narrowly beaten into 2nd place (by 0.03sec) - 1:53.55sb. Michael had to run heats the previous day (4:24.33 & 1:56.10) - followed by the final 4x400m event - making it 5 races in 24hrs! Jordan Neil was 6th in the mile in 4:16.05 - but a recent bout of bronchitus ruled him out of the 3k.