Home turf proved beneficial as Garden City Runners enjoyed a decent showing at the Herts County Cross-country Championships.

Held at Stanborough Park on Sunday, the rain of 24 hours previously had given way to spells of sunshine and conditions under-foot were a lot better than first feared, with the muddy sections outweighed by the mainly grass course.

The women’s race kicked things off with an 8k distance run and GCR Juliet Vine came home in a wonderful fourth place, clocking 33 minutes 45 seconds.

Behind her Martha Hall was 16th while Rebecca Barden, Hannah Frank and Elaine Moore all made the top-50.

The men meanwhile competed over 12.7k with James Huish the first from the home club to cross the finishing line in 24th with a time of 48:33.

Herbie Hopkins led home a gaggle of blue-shirted runners in 41st - Chris Jones, Chris Eland, Bruce Judge and Rob Casserley filling four of the next five positions

Elsewhere there was a win in the U20 boys race for Ethan Primmett of Herts Phoenix, who use Gosling Stadium as one of their training bases.