Craig's triumphant return

Conditions were a little sticky underfoot but pretty good although the grass was somewhat longer than is usually expected for this time of the year.

Eager not to overstretch himself in the early stages, Craig (right) nonetheless established himself in control of the race well before the half-way mark. He cruised well clear to win in 18min 21sec for the 5km course, some 40 seconds clear of Stephen Jules from Hastings who had chased him home in the County 3,000 metre track championship back in July.

Rob Mullett from Lewes, who finished ninth in the first race at Goodwood in October, improved to seventh place in 19min 40sec but club mate Tom Grant repeated his earlier tenth placing in 20min 13sec.

Hailsham's Todd Leckie looked to be at little below his normal form and had to settle for 12th place in 20min 51sec.

The senior men's 8km race saw a brilliant run from Ben Warren from Hailsham who is still in the Under-20 age group.

After club mate Tom Sargant had led the early stages until Crawley's Paul Rodgers moved into an ever-increasing lead, Ben took over the lead of the chasing group and he looked set for a splendid second place.

The fast finishing former Lewes Tertiary runner Tim Bayley had too much pace at the finish and Ben had to settle for an excellent third place in 30min 01sec, which must be regarded as one of, if not the, best run of his career. Tom faded to fifth place in 31minutes dead.

In the senior women's 5km race it was veteran Julia Armstrong from Framfield who took on a group of teenagers and early twenty year olds.

Although Julia was unable to contain Rachael Ogden from Worthing who won the event by nearly two minutes, she gave a good account of herself against the younger element finishing fifth in 22min 30sec. Hailsham's Samantha Avarez, who had finished third at Goodwood, filled seventh place in 22min 48sec.

There were fine runs from Hailsham schoolboys Matt Southam and Scott Harris in the Under 15km race with Matt taking second place, just two seconds down on winner Richard Hoad in 16min 19sec. Scott, making his cross-country debut for this season placed sixth in 16min. 39sec.

Andrew Wilkinson recorded a splendid third place in the Under-13 boys race with 11min 31sec. for the 3.25km event.